Supporting and Mentoring New Team Members
The background of my role:
During my time at the University of East London (UEL), I was primarily leading on all course enquiries, team administration, conducting eligibility tests, enrolment sessions, student engagement and submission, signposting learners, monitoring attendance and maintaining the register, processing results, pastoral care and curating new processes. Generally, many of these tasks, in particular student support, required substantial time to focus and complete. I also had a duty of care, as an administrator, to employ discretion and negotiation with colleagues and learners, to meet the learners’, team and institutional needs. Every academic year, between September and July, I engaged with and supported over 250 learners that come from a disadvantaged background. I was also supporting learners was care experienced or estranged, have a disability or learning difficulty and long-term illness and required specific support. In addition, I engaged with internal and external stakeholders to ensure learners can access key services to boost their experience and learning journey at UEL. It was pivotal to support their transition to higher education through mentoring and leadership. Research states that learners are more likely to progress if they feel secure, supported and have a sense of belonging (Cameron and Green, 2015) to the community.
As I developed and became more proficient (Dreyfus, 2004) within my role, I was leading on senior level administrative tasks. This also meant I would step away from student support and focus on programme enhancement, working more closely with managers and head of departments to review programme quality and review processes. Upon reflection, it became evident I was unable to engage with and support over 250 learners each year and meet their need individually. In order to find a solution, I had to analyse, respond and review the process to achieve an effective outcome.
Evidently, it was appropriate to appoint two temporary members of staff; Retention and Progression Officer, to support the growth of academic staff and to work closely with learners and myself, and an Administrative Support Officer to support admin growth and work closely with me. I mentored them both to develop skilled individuals and ensured they feel confident and competent in their roles and working with the team. Thus, wider reading that I came across while studying for my MA course, suggested a mentoring approach with individuals and students, is notably measured to have a positive impact and is a common model to drive positive change (Dondero, 1997 as cited Beltman and Schaeben, 2012; Rawlings, 2002 as cited in Knippelmeyer (2007). The impact of this approach enhances student engagement, retention and progression, processes and also team dynamics.
What did I do and the impact of the strategy?:
I initiated a number of steps to evaluate the impact of my leadership and the strategy;
Set up 1:1 support and catch-up sessions (weekly)
Higher education institutions frequently go through a turbulent phase (Beabout, 2012) which can often make staff feel anxious and undergo a phase of mixed emotions. My role was to eliminate the fear therefore I created 1:1 support and catch-up sessions separately to ensure both members of staff felt safe, secure (Cameron and Green, 2015) and welcomed to the team. I offered leadership, coaching and mentoring to support and develop staff to be as powerful in their role and also to help students progress. These sessions are confidential and a safe space for staff to express any concerns with students and to clarify information and processes. For example, I would provide them with information about upcoming relevant training to make their role more effective with students and work practice. The impact of this approach has proven successful as they have been able to support learners, sign post them appropriately and meet their needs.
Delegate tasks
I adopted the four-step delegation process; plan, conduct, monitor and assess results, to delegate particular tasks or projects. For example, since pre-entry courses at UEL had expanded, I delegated a new short course to the administrative support officer to lead on with monitoring attendance and mailboxes, collating specific data, conducting eligibility tests, and sending out email communication to learners. I was aware to be cautious when delegating and know what not to delegate to staff such as core responsibilities and delicate or confidential matters. I had also delegated pastoral care, class support and engagement, and data collection of completion and progressing to the Retention and Progression officer.
Appropriate communication channels
To meet the needs of learners, it is essential to have effective communication channels such as email, telephone and online via Microsoft Teams with staff, to ensure there is clarity with information when dealing with students. Communication is vital and key to maintain within a large organisation when implementing change. Learners should be provided with an abundant range of communication before, during and after a course. For example, to maintain this within my role at UEL, I curated an effective strategy and created different Microsoft Teams chat groups for each PEP course, and I included the temporary staff. Within each MS Teams groups, I uploaded imperative files or documents that staff can use or make use of to enhance student experience and learning. I also made it clear that staff can use this ‘space’ to outline specific student related issues or concerns with the administration aspect such as change of mode of study. So far, staff had been very positive with this strategy and had adopted this approach for the first year. I received feedback from colleagues to say, “Thank you, this is a great way to stay connected and be kept informed of any changes”.
Moreover, by employing a mentoring approach with staff, further reading, Wuetherick et al., (2017) does say this approach ameliorates the nature of students’ transition to university and retention to keep them through to degree completion.
Next steps:
Moving forward, I believe a mentoring approach is paramount to adopt as it gives the opportunity to be directing, delegating, coaching and supporting temporary or new staff in any team. In addition, further reading I came across from my MA, Rawlings (2002) as cited in Knippelmeyer (2007) states mentoring is measured to have a positive influence on individuals, to enhance their self-learning or self-confidence with the view to empower personal support.