Southwestern Company Campus Relations
Do you remember, those of you old enough to remember, that there were a number of corporations that had offices and professionals who had something called “college relations” or “university relations” in their title? Yes, that seems like eons and several recessions ago. Then there was a period of downsizing and that title seemed to go away and it was replaced by “staffing,” “sourcing,” “recruiting,” and other such titles. Yes, that may have saved some paltry dollars, but I believe that by losing that title has had lasting and detrimental effects on our profession. It was only about putting butts in seats.
When I was given the opportunity to create the Campus Relations program at the Southwestern Company, I wanted to make sure that the word “relations” was included in both the title and function of the position, because IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONS! It’s all about creating relationships within the company so that we know who is doing what and what’s coming down the river for the future. It’s obviously all about creating relationships with the students that the Southwestern Company recruiters are interviewing, training, mentoring and motivating. But, it’s also all about nurturing the relationships with those in the career centers on the campuses where we are recruiting. I have stressed over and over and over that our recruiters need to establish, nurture and continue to enhance the relationships with our stakeholders on all of our campuses. And, if it’s been too long (your definition, not mine) since you’ve heard from your Southwestern rep, please let me know.
Here’s one of my most memorable introductions to campus relations. One fall when I was still the Career Services Director at Montana State University I was visited by a company rep. I didn’t know the young man when he walked into my office, but he sat down (without an invitation) in his cut-off jeans, and announced that he was my Southwestern rep for the year. And no, it wasn’t Mr. Schlepp! That visit obviously made a lasting impression on me and it’s one that I don’t want inflicted in any career center on any campus in the world. That’s why I’ve used that example in countless sessions with our recruiters as the wrong way to create a positive impression.
Our recruiting method is unique in the hiring world in that none of the campus recruiters actually report to me (although one Southwestern manager when asked who he reports to in the company tells them that he reports to Dr. Brigham because even though he doesn’t officially report to me, he takes his cues regarding campus relations from me) . I am there to influence them in how they should interact with various campus officials and show them best practices in developing and maintaining those relationships. I, in turn, try and communicate with all of our campuses to find out how things are going and what we might be doing better.
I had one recruiter in the Midwest tell me years ago that he was afraid of career services directors. He’d been told that career services folks didn’t like us (Southwestern recruiters) and so his goal was to stay away from their offices and recruit “under the radar.” Well, “under the radar” never works because it’s a very small world and campuses, even large ones, are very well connected and recruiters don’t get away with that for long. After he learned to positively interact with his career services directors and meet up with them at regional and/or state ACE conferences he said to me one day, “Those career directors aren’t such bad people and they can even be fun.” Well, duh!! So after he learned to develop those relationships and even become friends with some, his relationships obviously improved on his campuses. Not only did that happen, but he had greater successes on his campus in terms of the number of students recruited.
Sharing those relationship best practices is important. Please share with me one or two of the best practices that you’ve witnessed or done yourself in creating and sustaining those campus relationships. I’ll then report those in a future blog. On the other hand, if you think this message on the importance of relationships is outdated and we should be doing something else let me hear your opinions, too.
