As we begin to emerge form the pandemic, staffing reviews of marketing and admissions teams have been one of the most popular requests I have received.
The brief is usually quite generic but in almost all cases one of the following phrases will be used. “The head of admissions is telling me that they don’t have enough people to do the job – but enquiries have gone down”; “There are lots of staff in the department, I can’t understand why we need more”. Rarely, do I hear “The team are doing a tremendous job and we want to be absolutely sure that the job descriptions of the staff are fit for purpose and fair in terms of workload and remuneration”.
Probing questions
The first few hours of a review involve a Q&A, with me asking a lot of probing questions; coffee and biscuits certainly help. The answers to these questions provide me with an in depth understanding of the specific challenges faced by a school and the allocation of tasks and responsibilities within a department. The answers vary from school to school. Some teams are facing a relentless and overwhelming number of enquiries, whilst some are striving against all odds to generate enough enquiries for their school to stay afloat.
In total, I think I have explored the staffing structures of at least 45 independent schools of all shapes and sizes so, as you can imagine, the admissions and marketing departments I have met have faced very different challenges. Given that the recruitment targets of one of the schools can equal the total number of pupils in another, you can perhaps begin to see why there is no “one size fits all” template for the structure of a department.
Following the initial Q&A with the schools I visit, I need, firstly, to determine which marketing and admissions “bridge” I am dealing with and, secondly, to ensure that the prospective families crossing the bridge do not “all into the abyss”. Let me explain.
The bridges
Tower Bridge, London The first example is Tower Bridge. Everyone thinks they know where it is but few have actually crossed over it. Some have made the effort to visit, only to find that the road has been raised (to allow someone else – a boat – to pass by) and it is therefore impossible to cross. This bridge has stood in the same place for many, many years and very little about its form and function has changed since it was first built. The owners of the bridge have never thought to ask themselves or their customers if there is anything they could be doing better. They had no idea how many people cross their bridge or if those who did enjoyed the experience. They make enough money to enable them to keep doing the same things year after year so there’s surely no need to questions what they do.
Kokoda Trail Bridge, Papua New Guinea And then there is the cane bridge on the Kokoda trail. We have no idea what might be in the river beneath but we certainly don’t want to fall. The bridge is held together with vine leaves, but our guide cheerfully sprints across eagerly to greet us and encourage us to cross. He confidently reassures us that we will be fine and his friends cheer us as we tentatively take the first steps across the bridge. We reach the other side relieved and in one piece – it was a memorable experience, the people were wonderful and we will tell our friends about it but we are not sure we would want to do it again.
Lucky Knot, Changsha, China This bridge comprises several intertwined paths – all leading to the same destination, all part of the same bridge. Which path is the one for our family? Should we split up and take a path each or should we travel together? How do we decide and will each experience be different? Will one path be better than another?
Storseisundet, Norway From our starting point this bridge disappears in mid air – it seems to end before it reaches the destination. We have made a few enquiries about the destination but we can’t find anything out, we only seem to get information about the first part of the bridge. There is a void of information making us nervous about crossing this bridge.
Millau Viaduct, Southern France This penultimate bridge has won design awards. It is magnificent, people travel miles just to see the bridge but they don’t necessarily want to cross it. Everything about it looks expensive and the toll fee reflects the fact that the construction bill was indeed enormous. Is it over engineered for its function? Do people opt for an alternative bridge because they perceive the toll fee to be too high? This is a road bridge so you can only cross it if you have a car. But with rising petrol prices more people are using bicycles.
PaperBridge, Grisedale Valley, Cumbria This final small red bridge is arguably what we should all aspire to build. It is site-specific – built for that exact spot by artist, Steve Messan to become an integral part of the landscape. It is self-supporting and straddles the stream beautifully. The start and end points are clear and the construction is ingenious. It is built from paper manufactured in the area and plentiful rain makes the fibres in the paper swell which in turn makes the bridge stronger!
If you think that your admissions and marketing department resembles any of these bridges, then may I suggest you spend some time reviewing what you do, how you do it and who does what.
Reviewing the structure of your admissions and marketing department is a vital process. It will maximise efficiency, reduce duplication of effort, improve the customer journey, and lead to better staff morale in the department. But be cautious. Throughout the process be mindful of the importance of maintaining all the touch points crucial to good customer service.
Once you have defined your ideal structure based upon the activity required to meet your strategic aims, be mindful of the individual skills of your team members. The job should, first and foremost, be defined by the business activity – a solid business structure shouldn’t be built around personality. However, if you have a valued, respected and experienced team member who meets the criteria for a role in all areas except one, see if that one particular task could sensibly be attached to another role.
Deliver excellence
Above all, exceptional customer service is key when aspiring to deliver excellence throughout your admissions process. In the same way that you review your academic provision to ensure that it delivers the very best educational experience to your pupils, ask yourself if there is something more that can be done to make the admissions experience the best it can be for your prospective families.
If you are responsible for carrying out a review of the structure of your admissions and marketing department, take great care to ensure that the review is delivered in a timely and sensitive manner and implement any changes with clarity.
And finally, lets go back to job descriptions. When I read the job descriptions of admissions team members, phrases like “Must have a good eye for detail”, “Must have strong IT skills”, “Must be able to work under pressure” are always plentiful. But often the skills that I identify in a team when I talk to them – and which make the members so truly impressive – do not appear on any of their job descriptions. Patience, attentiveness, strong emotional intelligence, creativity, resourcefulness, persuasion skills, the ability to use positive language to describe a potentially negative situation, acting skills, the ability to handle surprises, tenacity, empathy; I rarely read about these qualities. I think you get the message.
More often than not, the admissions and marketing functions of the schools I visit display all the requisite skills to deliver excellence in student recruitment. Sometimes the “bridges” I encounter need a bit of straight forward strengthening in just a few areas where they have had constant wear and tear over the years. But once this work is completed these bridges will not only be fit for purpose and but, I am certain, will almost always exceed the expectations of all who cross them.
This article first appeared in the latest winter edition of Independent School Management Plus magazine, out now.