Transitioning: Training and Developing the New Wave of Student Managers
“We were all up here until 1 a.m. and we had all of the names up on the board — going back and forth on the direction to take. Eventually, we finally had our list, and I felt so good about it. That moment was one of the most exciting moments for me to be a part of in this experience.”
Erin Villareal, a senior management member of Vital Vittles, the Georgetown University SRB at which I worked, recalled this night as one that stood out among many others. I remember it all too well, and it was excruciating. For the past week, our entire time had been spent reviewing applications, determining interview slots, and deciding who would ultimately be hired to the store. It was an extremely draining, exhausting, stressful, and rewarding experience.
“I know it sounds cliché to say this, but I felt like I was a part of the process that gets to actually shape the direction of the next three to four years of the store,” Erin explained. “Our influence can go beyond that of our own time here at Georgetown and leave a profound impact with the next round of employees.”
One of the most important duties as a manager is the hiring process and personnel development. Developing quality managers and future leaders of the company is paramount due to how quickly your leadership role ends.
It is crucial to hire individuals with qualities that fit the goals and practices of the company. To put it another way, a typical term length is for one full year. It takes most new hires about a month, if not longer, to transition into the role. About a month and a half of the term is spent off campus for breaks, and the last month of the term is typically spent selecting incoming replacement staff and transitioning the new leader into the role.
It comes down to about eight full months of work, and that could be less if the company doesn’t operate during the summer. Classes and other commitments severely cut into the time needed — and wanted — to complete every single project you desire, and thus certain tasks fall by the wayside.
Due to the unique limited time available to leaders, one of the biggest impacts managers could have on the organization is to hire future leaders into the company. The first-semester freshmen hired may work for the company for three and a half more years and take up some form of future leadership role. Managers hire the next batch of freshmen, one of whom will be a future CEO of the company. The employees hired, promoted, motivated, and groomed can carry your own legacy of influence well after your short term is over and you have graduated. Every single employee has the chance to fundamentally improve the store, and care should be given to take advantage of that opportunity as best as possible.
However, it is incredibly difficult to hire great employees and develop them effectively. The challenges begin at the application stage of the process. As a hiring manager, you have to critically think about how to recruit the best possible applicants from as broad a pool as possible. This is a time-consuming and tedious process, but it tremendously helps the organization if it taps into every corner of campus. Promoting and circulating the application pool among friends within the company and limited campus resources results in a skewed company-employee base, which may not be representative of the true diverse nature of the entire campus.
All in all, hiring and developing talent is one of the most rewarding and challenging tasks a student manager experiences. Catherine Schult, a previous student manager at The Hoot located at Rice University, put it best when she said the following: “One of the best parts is that it’s incredibly rewarding to watch other people grow. Being able to experience other members on the upper management and general employees’ development is amazing because you get to a point where all employees become another family to each other outside their normal friend groups.”
Student managers have a tremendous opportunity to shape the direction of the business with several initiatives they fold out. However, hiring and developing the next talent for the company can result in profound change that has multiple years of impact.
