Knowing how to maximize university faculty can be difficult. It’s easy to understand why universities might be interested in improving outcomes for their faculty. If done right, your faculty are more likely to stay with the university, invest more in their students, and be more involved on campus. These benefits aren’t just for your university faculty. Improvements in how your faculty relate to their work greatly impact your students. Studies routinely show that students see better outcomes working with happy and engaged faculty. There clearly are huge benefits for your university when your faculty are happy, invested, and committed to their jobs.
But how do you actually improve outcomes for your university faculty? We put together some thoughts on how universities can maximize their faculty.
Keep Them Engaged
Engagement can be a difficult term to define. We all know that engaged workers are good; the research repeatedly corroborates that fact. Imagine when you worked for an employer who kept you engaged. (Or maybe you still work for this employer; if so, good for you!) You probably were a lot more intrigued by your work and a lot more creative.
- Over 80% Of Workers are More Engaged When Communication is Clear
- Engaged Workers Lead to Increased Profitability
- Disengaged Employees Actually Cost Employers
The problem, however, is that engagement can be difficult to define. What might be hyper-engaged for one employer may be lackluster for another. This is certainly an issue. However, we do have some idea of what engagement looks like for most workers.
Give Them Time Back
Time and time again, university faculty members are learning what their most precious resource is…. And it’s time! This makes sense. No one enjoys feeling like they’re spread too thin, and that’s especially true for faculty members. Research consistently demonstrates that giving faculty members more time lets them think outside the box, get more strategic, and problem-solve. Again, not a huge surprise. People tend to be able to think ahead when they’re not trying merely to keep up with their work.
Help Them Identify Problems
The age of “punch-in and punch-out work” is gone for many of us. It never existed for faculty members, regardless. To be successful, faculty members aim to have a real impact on their students and drive student outcomes. That’s a hard task!
Some quick stats on student engagement.
- Over 90% of Teachers Say Student Engagement is a Key Stat in Predicting Outcomes
- Disengaged Students Are More Likely to Produce Subpar Work
- Disengaged Students Are More Likely to Be Absent
While the research suggests that a good professor can be a life changer for students, many students simply aren’t getting this level of care. The reason why is pretty simple; faculty members are dealing with more and more responsibilities, larger and larger class sizes, and more dynamic learning environments. It’s no wonder that faculty members are struggling to identify what students are at risk and are incapable of getting out in front of these at-risk students. They just don’t have the time and mechanisms to identify at-risk students and handle all of their administrative duties simultaneously.
Turn to Instructional Connections
At Instructional Connections, we understand that a university faculty member’s time is precious. Institutions of higher learning need to effectively maximize their university faculty to drive results and empower their students, but often, these institutions just don’t have the resources and time to do so. To help alleviate this problem, turn to Instructional Connections.
Our virtual teaching assistant model gives your faculty qualified, expert Instructional Connections academic coaches to help assist with their day-to-day needs. Depending on the course, the faculty member, and the institution, our academic coaches are able to assist with a number of different tasks.
Teaching is one of the most important and impactful vocations in our society; ensure that your faculty members are equipped to do it well with the help of an academic coach!
