Staff Management
We’d like to thank Laura Jo Rieske for sharing her experiences with our community.
Hi, eRezLife Community!
My name is Laura Jo Rieske and I am the Assistant Director of Residential Life for Selection and Development at Virginia Commonwealth University. I began using eRezLife software a little over two years ago when I first transitioned into my role for hiring a staff of Resident Assistants (using the Staff Application service) and managing forms for weekly logs and programming (using the Residence Management service). When I had the vision to integrate the staff application and forms functions to utilize eRezLife as a personnel management platform, the client support staff were eager to help me create an avenue to make that vision a reality.
Residential Life and Housing at Virginia Commonwealth University
Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a public, urban research university in Richmond, Virginia. With over 6,200 on-campus residents, the department of Residential Life and Housing employs upwards of 600 student staff for the following positions: Resident Assistant, Conference Assistant, Desk Assistant, Facilities Assistant, Mail Services Assistant, Marketing Assistant, Office Assistant, and Programming Assistant. Because many students apply for and serve in multiple roles within the department, there was a clear need to develop a streamlined system for supervisors to manage staff selection, performance evaluations, and progressive discipline.
Philosophy of Staff Management
Residential Life and Housing at VCU believes that student staff are more than employees; they are leaders who represent the values and mission of the department. There are minimum academic and behavioral requirements students must meet in order to serve in these leadership roles. To ensure consistency in enforcing job requirements and to minimize the hierarchical ranking of student staff positions, staff evaluations and disciplinary action are tracked through eRezLife. Running the process through eRezLife helps hold student staff accountable to the criteria listed in their contracts through annual performance evaluations. Similarly, staff supervisors are held accountable because they are provided with a guide that outlines how behaviors are categorized in the progressive discipline model. eRezLife has helped to make this process transparent to all stakeholders, and therefore more effective.
How To
eRezLife set up the electronic staff management process through the Residence Management service.
For annual evaluation forms, staff complete a self-evaluation, supervisors add their perspective, and both parties meet before the form is submitted and attached to their user profile. When staff reapply for another term in their position, I am easily able to run reports on whether they met expectations, have their supervisor’s support for reapplication, etc.
For progressive discipline, we use a combination of templates and forms to ensure all parties are aware of the concerns and have the right information. Notifications are triggered at appropriate times to inform student staff and administrators of the disciplinary action. Reports are easily accessible at any point in the year.
We couldn’t do our work without our student staff, so it is important that we continue to find ways to best manage them in their leadership roles. eRezLife has helped make that management process more sustainable, transparent, and consistently upheld.
Want More Information?
Virginia Commonwealth University is in its second year of implementing staff management through eRezLife. If you’re interested in hearing more about their process, please be in touch and we’d be happy to connect you!
