mpace2015: the power of partnerships and data in driving student placement
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THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS & DATA IN
DRIVING STUDENT PLACEMENT
MPACE Annual Conference
Anaheim, CA
December 9, 20151
Your Presenters
Katie ConnorExecutive Director
Leeds Career Development Office
Katie.Connor@colorado.eduAchiever-Learner-Arranger-Communication-Activator
Lauren RussoMarketing & Career Analytics Specialist
Leeds Career Development Office
Lauren.Russo@colorado.eduAnalytical-Individualization-Strategic-Achiever-Discipline
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Agenda
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Introduction
Approach: Leveraging Partnerships & Data
The Results: Insights & Opportunities
Summary & Questions
Partnerships with faculty, programs, and
courses
Approach to data collection
Leveraging new technology
Placement and engagement outcomes
Insights into drivers of results
Opportunities for ongoing growth and improvement
Overview of the Leeds School of Business
Background and Context
What we learned – Challenges & tips
Questions
Discussion and brainstorming
among all U.S. undergraduate
business programs, US News &
World Report (2014)
#34
4Areas of Emphasis 7
Certificate Programs
400 M.S., MBA, and
PhD.
Candidates
3,000 Undergraduates
1,600 undergraduates and MBAs are engaged in mentoring witho
ve
r
1,000 professional and alumni mentorso
ve
r
among all public university MBA
programs, Bloomberg (2015) # 35
6 Centers of Excellence
6Cities traveled to
for career treks 10Countries visited
on global
initiatives
750 Business Minors
Leeds At-a-Glance
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Mission: To prepare Leeds students for career success by providing professional
skills, real-world experience, and employer and alumni connections throughout their
education – paving the path from college to career.
Undergraduate Career Development
MentoringEmployer
EngagementCareer
Readiness
Internships & Experiential
Learning
Core Curriculum
Support
Leeds Career Development Office
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Where We Started: 32% response rate to Senior Outcomes survey
138 of 603 graduates reporting placement opportunities
Low Student Satisfaction, as reported by Business Week (#114) and
EBI surveys
75% don’t know who their Career Advisor is
69% need help utilizing the online job board, Career Buffs (CSO)
2013 Goals: Recognition – Increase student awareness and engagement in
Career Development; better understand student interests/needs
Responsiveness – Improve data collection and utilization
Results – Improve student placement and internship success
2014 Goals: School-wide 90% Placement Challenge
100% Response Rate goal
Background & Context
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What do we have? What do we need?
Good relationships with Faculty and
key Academic Centers
Undergraduate Programs with
“teeth”
Existing Professional Development
Course
New location and partnership with
Academic Advising
Future commitment to Salesforce
Combined resources of mentoring &
career development
Strong Team
Access to key populations
Interim process for tracking and
reporting
Additional requirements/incentives
for engagement and reporting
Broader cooperation and
participation than ever before
“Painless” approach for
collaboration
Ability to leverage technology and
new communication channels
Focus efforts where they will
“count”
Getting Started: Gap Analysis
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Recognition Responsiveness Results
Early Engagement
• 1st & 2nd-year Faculty
• RAP
• 1st-Year Advising
Seniors
• Capstone Faculty
• Academic Centers
• Office of Diversity
Non-Users
• Marketing students
• Diverse students
• Out-of-state students
Senior Focus
• Capstone Classes
• Academic Centers
• Undergraduate
Programs
• Senior Advising
• Technology Services
• Alumni Relations
• Capstone Faculty
• Academic Centers
• Alumni Relations/
Advancement
• Mentors
• Board Members
Identifying Strategic Partners
Partnerships Data
Market Research Class – Benchmarking
data, engagement
Capstone Classes – reach 650+ seniors
1st & 2nd-year Courses – Use core
curriculum for early awareness
Academic Centers & Programs – serve
400+ seniors
Academic Advisors – Meet with all 1st-
years & seniors
Advancement / Alumni – Events &
Connections
Mentors & Mentoring Programs - over
1,500 students
Technology Services & Communication –
Salesforce adoption, school-wide
messaging
Senior Survey launched Nov. 2013
– rolling process
Needs Assessment “pre-survey”
added to target info and
intervention
Google Doc & Paper to collect
updates from faculty and staff
Student Progress reports to faculty
and others
Data Collection at senior events
LinkedIn to fill gaps
1st phase of Salesforce, January
2014
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Two-Pronged Approach
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Goals: Better understand student perspective
Engage target population – less engaged, lower placed (51% average)
Approach: “Client” for semester-long class project, spring 2014 and 2015
Benchmarking study
Student & employer focus groups
Quantitative survey and results
Insights: Students want earlier engagement
Students prefer requirements
Preferred methods of communication – email from single person
Student skills gaps – technology, sales, analytics
Want access to more out-of-state opportunities
Partnerships: Market Research Class
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Goals: Access to seniors
Connect with stragglers
Improve data collection
Approach: Tailored to each faculty member
In-class workshops
Career readiness “requirements”
Survey response requirements
Faculty engagement in referrals/reporting
Insights: Requirements work!
Need to provide regular placement status updates
Need to track student participation and reporting
Competition across divisions is good
Partnerships: Capstone Classes
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Goals: Early awareness and engagement
Career and self-assessment
Foundation for future
Approach: Expand existing programs in sophomore core Management
curriculum – Career Leader, Career Panels
Add Career Labs to 1st-year World of Business course
Career participation in required academic advising sessions
Career Workshops in Leeds RAP
Add Industry Exploration Fair in March – class requirement
Insights: Managing too many classroom visits is a challenge
Students find assessments useful, but don’t do it on their own
Course integration is effective; but had some kinks
Students are positive about integrated approach
Partnerships: 1st & 2nd Year Engagement
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Goals: Reach low-placing populations
Engage and understand non-users
Build brand reputation with top students
Approach: Increase career content in academic Centers – Real Estate, Social
Responsibility, Entrepreneurship
Develop customized programming for specific groups – Diverse
Scholars, Leeds Scholars, Mentoring, Leeds Ambassadors
Outreach and partnership with Student Organizations
Insights: Helped build support and familiarity with office
Allowed us to leverage relationships in high-touch programs
Developed good connections for data collection
Stopped competing and started collaborating!
Partnerships: Target Population
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Goals: Increase job opportunities for current seniors
Increase student connections with alumni and mentors
Increase out-of-state opportunities
Increase opportunities in “hot” industries – sports, entertainment, fashion,
outdoor industry
Approach: Engage Leeds Board as swat team for jobs and internships
Engage mentors more intentionally in placement efforts
Add Career Treks for non-finance majors in key industries
Board breakfasts for “yet-to-be-placed” students
Outreach to faculty and others for jobs/connections
Add career component to alumni events
Insights: Need to focus Board efforts – breakfasts were very successful
Trek companies need an alumni champion for traction with placement
Faculty need to be “trained” to think about career connections
Mentors are a great resource with more capacity
Partnerships: Connections & Opportunities
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Goals: 100% Response Rate
90% Placement Rate
Gain a better understanding of senior career interests and placement
Approach: Communication via digital screens
Google doc/Excel tracking to identify status of each students
Share information with Leeds staff and faculty easily to allow for
continuous updates
Insights: Leverage multiple sources of data (advisors, professors, LinkedIn)
99% response rate is attainable
Invest time/support to collecting data will provide results
Knowledge of top hiring employers
Identify factors that increase the likelihood of getting a job
Color coding helps!
Data Collection: Outcomes Reporting
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Data Collection: Placement Example
Report Includes: Breakdown by industry, functional area, geographic region, GPA, etc.
Shows what percent of student go to work for corporate partners (27%)
Salary averages and breakdown
Top hiring companies, top companies giving out offers, and top companies
for internships
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Goals: Gain career interests data for all class levels
Collect internship experience data from all juniors and seniors
Consolidate communication strategy to be more individualized
Approach: Build out extensive tracking needs in Salesforce.com
Allow students to indicate interest in specific companies
Leverage self-reported and system data about students
Communicate to students in targeted approach (D2L, Email, In building)
Insights: Ability to identify students without internship experience
Identify satisfaction factors
Qualitative feedback to drive marketing and communication campaigns
Leverage students wants to encourage employer engagement from ‘hot’
companies
Data Collection: Beyond Seniors
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Goals: Engage faculty and staff/programs in data gathering and data sharing
Approach: Provide a low technology option to provide updates
Share updates with faculty and staff monthly
Identify a person internally to act as ‘point-person’ for data collection
Insights: Students respond to those they have a personal relationship
Increased awareness of services by Leeds faculty
Many faculty and staff members were not knowledgeable about career
services and programs offered at Leeds
Create healthy competition among academic divisions and groups
Data Collection: Encouraging Broad Engagement
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Goals: Use and leverage existing technology
Gain a better understanding on current technology
Research additional technological tools
Approach: Build out integration of Qualtrics
Identify tracking needs and metrics
Incorporate metrics into job descriptions to hold people accountable
Create a system of feedback mechanisms
Insights: Allows scalability and ability to track individual students
Rely on data metrics, not anecdotes
Know number of companies engaged with campus easily
Understand attendance numbers at career events
Invest time in training staff/faculty
Data Collection: Leveraging Technology
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2013 + Changes = 2015 Results
Limited Data for only
32% of seniors,191
students
Poor Results,
average of 55%
placement
No Infrastructure for
data collection or
analysis
No Feedback, rely on
limited and anecdotal
comments to form
opinions about
students’ interests
and needs
Office Reorganization
Market Research class
project to gather input
Salesforce.com
Implementation
Development of new
tools for Data Collection
Partnerships with
Faculty, engagement in
the classroom at all
levels
Automated feedback
mechanisms
Communication &
engagement strategy
driven by student needs
and interests
94% Undergraduate
Placement
99%+ Knowledge Rate,
responses from 604
seniors
94% of those placed
worked with Career
Development
41% increase in career
advising appointments
Engaged 80% of Leeds
students (2,578 total)
with Career
Development
170 New Companies
engaged with Leeds
Career interest data for
over 1,200 students
Applying Data to Achieve Results
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2015 Goal
# o
f S
tudents
Total # of Undergraduate Student Responses and Placement
Known # Students Positively Placed # Students for which Placement Data is Available Total # of Graduating Srs.
Knowledge
Rate
Placement
Rate
Internship
Rate
Increase in
Placement
Results: Seniors Response & Outcomes
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Instruction to over 600 seniors via Capstone Classes
100%+ increase in Career Advising appointments since 2013
84% of 2015 Seniors worked with CD
Of those students reporting placement, 94% worked with CD
800 students in World of Business completed 1+ Career Labs; 3,000 prof. assignments
69% increase in Career Fair attendance
Over 300 students participated in local and regional Career Treks
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Total Career Advising Appointments (by calendar year)
Fresh/Soph Students Upperclass Students
Results: Increased Engagement
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AY14
Totals
AY15
YTD
%
Change
from
AY14
Ju
l-1
4
Au
g-1
4
Se
p-1
4
Oc
t-1
4
No
v-1
4
Dec
-14
Ja
n-1
5
Fe
b-1
5
Ma
r-1
5
Ap
r-1
5
Ma
y-1
5
Ju
n-1
5
Trek and Site Visit 162 263 ▲ 62% 0 0 41 22 15 10 42 38 95 0 0 0
Advising Appointments 1608 2503 ▲ 56% 17 140 427 318 172 124 357 320 229 338 42 19
Events Touchpoints N/A 3797 N/A 0 643 570 677 77 0 702 455 323 347 3 0
Info Sessions N/A 294 N/A 0 0 109 67 34 0 10 30 0 44 0 0
Mentoring N/A 922 N/A 0 643 56 121 0 0 0 37 0 65 0 0
Interviewing On-Campus N/A 410 N/A 0 0 80 196 0 0 24 47 28 32 3 0
Career Fairs N/A 757 N/A 0 0 183 0 0 0 384 0 190 0 0 0
Networking Events N/A 407 N/A 0 0 142 75 0 0 128 0 0 62 0 0
Other Event N/A 1007 N/A 0 0 0 218 43 0 156 341 105 144 0 0
World of Business N/A 2958 N/A 0
All Career Development N/A 8878 N/A 17 783 1038 1017 264 134 1101 813 647 685 45 19
Unique Advising Students 1094 1390 ▲ 27%
% of Population Served 2578 (of 3273) 79%
Results: Student Engagement Report Card
Student input on opportunities: Expanded survey to students in all 4-years
Collected data from over 1,200 students in fall 2015
80% of seniors are satisfied with the Career Development office
Increased out-of-state jobs by 39%; DirectEmployers
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Energy
Communications
Food and Beverage
Clothing/Fashion
Accounting
Consumer Products
Technology
Real Estate
Consulting
Entertainment/Leisure
Media/Marketing
Financial Services
Results: Better Communication & Satisfaction
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Sent to targeted
population:
Sophomore and
Juniors
Looking for a
spring 2016
internship
Interested in
Digital Marketing
Area of Emphasis
in Marketing
Communication Example
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FY 14
FY15
YTD
%
Change Ju
l-1
4
Au
g-1
4
Se
p-1
4
Oc
t-1
4
No
v-1
4
Dec
-14
Ja
n-1
5
Fe
b-1
5
Ma
r-1
5
Ap
r-1
5
Ma
y-1
5
Ju
n-1
5
# of Companies posting on
Career Buffs 1961 2225 ▲ 13% 280 403 328 357 301 283 411 370 453 501 402 337
# of Business Internships Posted 2522 2938 ▲ 16% 166 374 213 270 194 201 296 253 314 279 216 162
# of Business Jobs Posted 3128 4047 ▲ 29% 270 439 304 300 263 230 358 316 383 440 378 366
# of In-State Internships Posted 2092 2381 ▲ 14% 141 301 157 229 150 162 221 181 273 250 184 132
# of Out of State Internships
Posted 430 557 ▲ 30% 25 73 56 41 44 39 75 72 41 29 32 30
# of In-State Jobs Posted 2166 2668 ▲ 23% 189 256 192 224 184 139 205 207 265 308 251 248
# of Out of State Jobs Posted 962 1379 ▲ 43% 81 183 112 76 79 91 153 109 118 132 127 118
Results: Increased Career Opportunities
Response Rate: 900+ person-hours devoted to collecting, collating, and reporting data for
seniors before Salesforce; need technology for efficiency at scale
Partnerships with Capstones, Centers, Programs. and Academic
Advising supported data gathering
Used LinkedIn to inform outreach and follow-up with graduates
Placement: Three Key Factors drive positive Placement: (overall 94%)
1 or more Internships
Participation in the PMP
Mock Interview with a Career Advisor
Starting Salary: Area of Emphasis – Highest for Info Management, Finance, Accounting
Industry – Highest for Energy, Consulting, Financial Services
GPA - $1K increase in salary for every .1 increase in GPA
Student Satisfaction: Personalized approach and connections matter
Outcomes matter – placements & internships
Results: Drivers of Key Metrics
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AY ‘14 AY ‘15 AY ‘16
Strategic
Initiatives
• Increase Engagement
• Increase Response Rate
• Improve Outcomes
• 90% Placement
• 100% Response Rate
• Better Opportunities
• Increase Internship
Participation
• Change Perceptions
• Sustain Success
Partnerships • Existing courses
• Market research class
• Capstone faculty
• Centers & Programs
• Technology services
• 1st-Year course integration
• Capstone requirements
• Board & mentors
• Academic advisors
• Junior class visits
• Sophomore course integration
• Communication team
Data • Initiated Career Interests
Survey
• Senior data collection
• Companies & industries of
interest
• Career interests for all years
• School-wide input
• Appointment & event
attendance
• Student satisfaction
• Internship progress
• Personal Business Plan for 1st
& 2nd-years
• Career needs/gaps
Technology • Google docs
• Qualtrics
• Excel
• Transition to SF
• Career Fair “app” for students
• Dedicated FourWinds
screens
• Salesforce build-out and
broad usage
• Event tracking in SF
• Qualtrics/SF integration
• Leeds “neighborhood” on
CSO
• DirectEmployers for jobs
• Communication via SF – Mail
Chimp & Soapbox Mailer
Opportunities for Continuous Improvement
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Course
Integration
• World of Business: critical for 1st-year connections
• Integrated Semester: 800 Sophomores, Spring 2016
• Personal Business Plans: living document & data source
Connect Data to Strategy
• Continuous feedback
• Personalized service
• Increase responsiveness
• Improve efficiency
• Increase stakeholder satisfaction
Alignment with
Employer Needs
• Input to curriculum
• Input to academic advising
• Partnership with new Communication course
• Employer engagement score & feedback
Future Areas of Focus
Multi-Purpose Document: Allows students to reflect on
progress, conduct a gap analysis,
and set goals for the following year
Allows us to collect data on
student needs, interests,
knowledge gaps, etc. (stored in
Salesforce)
Input to Career Strategy – ER,
student programming, and
progress on key career milestones
All Together: Personal Business Plan
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Partnerships Find faculty champions to work with
Use data and comparisons to get buy-in
Make it easy to collaborate!
Get your team out there and get them known
Leverage relationships – yours and others
Data Collection Get team comfortable with data
Help others get involved
Leverage existing technology
Look for simple solutions
Technology Simple things make a Big difference
Need a “power-user” or dedicated champion
Start with the end in mind
Integration is never easy!
Be patient….
Other Tips!
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View the 2015 Leeds Career Development
Undergraduate Placement and Engagement
Statistics infographic on the Leeds website
here
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