Picture this: I’m the Director of International Recruitment at Southern New Hampshire University during the peak of the pandemic chaos. One of the major moves we make is reducing our tuition fees, a significant development, especially for potential international students. Naturally, the responsibility falls on me to disseminate this crucial information to our extensive network of recruitment agents spanning the globe.
Seems straightforward, doesn’t it? Well, not quite. With over a hundred agents, each managing their own cadre of counselors, coordinating everyone’s efforts is akin to navigating a labyrinth. Despite my best efforts—sending newsletters, emails, and the like—there’s no guarantee they’re even being read, let alone passed on to ground-level, student-facing counselors.
So, I take a proactive approach and begin scheduling a flurry of Zoom calls. The catch? Many of these sessions require me to get up before dawn to accommodate agents in different time zones. Trust me, maintaining enthusiasm at 4 a.m. while delivering the same message repeatedly is no easy feat. And then – with so many cameras off or webinar-style presentations, I’m even sure how many student-facing counselors were in attendance.
With these exhaustive efforts, I’m left pondering a critical question: if communicating something as significant and exciting as a tuition reduction proves this challenging, how can we ensure that routine updates, like new programs or application procedures, are effectively conveyed?
It prompted a deep reflection on my part. How can we streamline communication between universities and their recruitment partners? Without a solid framework or tool in place, important information risks being lost in the shuffle, hindering prospective students’ access to crucial opportunities.
Effective communication with agents and other partners isn’t just a nicety—it’s an imperative. If we’re committed to providing students with the opportunities they deserve, we must prioritize clarity and transparency in our interactions with recruitment partners. Otherwise, we’re simply spinning our wheels, and progress remains elusive for all parties involved.
Enter recruitED, a new platform from Gen Next Education that I helped develop in an effort to address some of these issues. This innovative platform revolutionizes the way institutions train and maintain a strong recruitment agency partnership ecosystem, with a focus on improving communication, transparency, and results.
Through recruitED’s Community feature, institutions and agencies are provided with virtual hubs where they can connect, collaborate, and share insights. By fostering a sense of community and openness, recruitED facilitates the exchange of ideas and best practices, paving the way for more meaningful collaborations.
Even more crucially, recruitED’s Academy offers a suite of tools and resources designed to empower institutions in their training and communication efforts with their agencies. With the opportunity to host both live and asynchronous sessions and training to tracking progress and assessments, the Academy equips institutions with the tools they need to foster transparency and alignment with their recruitment partners. Most importantly, all student-facing counselors from an institution’s approved agencies will be invited to create a profile on the platform so their participation and progress can be tracked and assessed.
By drawing from my experiences and insights gained during my tenure at SNHU, we’ve created recruitED as a solution tailored to the specific needs of universities seeking to optimize their recruitment efforts on a global scale through an effective agent ecosystem. recruitED serves as a testament to the power of technology in facilitating meaningful connections and driving positive change in the realm of international education. By leveraging the latest advancements in digital communication, recruitED breaks down barriers and bridges the gap between institutions and agencies, paving the way for a brighter, more transparent future for all stakeholders involved.
I try to imagine myself back in my former role at SNHU, excited to announce our tuition reduction, but this time with the power of recruitED at my fingertips. With recruitED, I could revise our training materials within minutes, disseminate the news across our extensive network of agents, and meticulously monitor their counselors’ engagement and comprehension in real-time. Introducing interactive elements like quizzes or assessments would ensure not just passive reception but active understanding of the updates. Moreover, I could orchestrate a single live session, extending invitations to my entire ecosystem of agents and counselors, simplifying coordination and fostering immediate interaction to address any questions or concerns.
