Higher educational recruitment is getting more and more competitive. It seems like every quarter you hear about a non-profit college being purchased and drenched with cash in the hopes of building online enrollments for the purpose of going public. Each new entity enters the field with huge arsenals of advertising and enrollment staffing dollars in an effort to bolster enrollments. At the same time, the large for-profits continue to expand and spend more money too. Meanwhile, the number of college seeking students grows at a rate considerably slower than the proliferation rate of online college recruiters. Non-profit schools are losing marketshare at an alarming rate. It seems like every quarter there is a new report of a college on the ropes due to reductions in enrollment and the commensurate loss of tuition revenues. What to do?

At this point, you are probably expecting me to say spend more on advertising. It makes sense given I own 50% of EDUI. However, that is not the advice I am giving at this time. Spending more money without properly working the candidate students towards their enrollment into your institution will yield very inefficient returns on your investment. What I am suggesting is that you look at the quality of your admissions staff. Most colleges hire former employees of some of the big brand schools with the expectation that the enrollments will magically appear. This has not been my experience with our sister company Barker Educational Services Team (BEST). Actually, former advisors from many of the larger institutions have been the least productive and they are rife with bad habits.

So who should you hire?
It has been my observation that education and professional experience matters little in determining who to add to your enrollment team. At BEST, some of the best folks we have hired had no enrollment experience and in some cases had not completed a degree or advanced degree. What does matter is attitude, likeability, and the sincere desire to help candidates achieve their educational goals. We follow the same rules for recruitment that colleges and universities do, which means that BEST advisors only receive a salary. There are no bonuses or any other incentives to drive for greater production, yet BEST advisors, on average, perform at significantly higher levels than their peers at other colleges and universities across the country. This is quite impressive, given the relatively low national brand recognition that BEST client schools enjoy at this juncture.

How do you know what to look for and how do you find talented people?
At my company, some of the best additions to the team have been employee referrals, so I encourage you to create a reward system for your employees who bring in additional team members. During the candidate’s interview (here is where I may raise the ire of HR professionals), I believe in going off the prepared agenda and asking open-ended questions about a variety of topics in an effort to see how much the candidate enjoys talking. Online enrollments typically occur in a call center. If you have ever spent a day dialing and talking to strangers, you know that the key to success isn’t to sell the candidate right off the bat, but to develop a relationship and keep the person talking as long as possible. In online recruitment, the advisor with the best relationship with a candidate usually secures the enrollment. More important than being an expert on all things educational is the ability to get a potential student to open up and relax. So, during the interview, see if the candidate is a people person. If you don’t feel a connection with the person after spending a half hour with them, they aren’t going to succeed as an enrollment advisor.

As I mentioned earlier, attitude is key too. Most people can act like they have a good attitude, but there are ways to probe into a candidate’s past to find out about their attitude over time. Ask them about a loss they experienced and how they dealt with that loss. One candidate mentioned losing a state football championship. When I asked how he dealt with the loss, he said he simply shrugged it off and practiced harder because he knew he had the opportunity to win the following year. That is a winning attitude.

Each hire is an opportunity to grow your enrollments. I strongly believe that the number one determinant for your institution’s success is the quality of your enrollment team. If you were to ask me if I would prefer to have 10 people who enroll 30 students a month or 6 people who enrolled 30 students a month, I would take the smaller number. Fewer and more productive employees cost less and are actually a stimulant for future production levels. People like to win, and once an advisor gets into the habit of higher enrollment levels, it becomes repetitive for the long run. Low performers are usually the employees you waste the most time on. Complaining, out sick, spreading their toxicity in an attempt to lower your team’s morale, these are behaviors that low producers bring to the party. Why? Because they have the time. The most successful advisors like a busier workday and higher student enrollment expectations, and simply do not have time for negativity.

Finally, it has been my observation that people from the service industries do well as enrollment advisors. They enjoy helping people and working in structured hours with the benefits you provide them are looked at as windfalls. As a former bartender, I was elated to find out that the school where I formally worked actually paid me while I was on vacation! Coincidentally, one of our top producers at BEST used to work as a cocktail server. In that role, she learned how to quickly and meaningfully engage people in conversation, and has now transferred those skills to her role as an admissions advisor. This individual develops strong relationships with students, and enjoys high retention rates because she sincerely cares about their success. These are winning traits, and the key to a successful enrollment department.