Associate Director, Advising

Position Summary

The Associate Director, Advising supports the Director Operations, Advising in directing the daily operations of the Student Advising teams. Leads a team of Academic and Finance Advisors/Academic and Finance Counselors and other supporting team members to help students to succeed in their academic programs and persist in their programs until graduation. Provides strong leadership and support to team members through consistent one on ones, coaching, professional development through individualized plans, and interpretation of policies, procedures, and regulatory guidance. Is also accountable for outcomes and improvement of key metrics and service level expectations related to student success.

Essential Functions:

• Create a strategic vision, in collaboration with senior leadership, for annual goals and outcome-based projects.
• Compliance oversight through Quality Assurance Activities and aligned coaching/feedback engagements.
• Collaborate interdepartmentally across the University to ensure transparency, partnership, and holistic representation of all perspectives in decisions and implemented initiatives within department.
• Develop and conduct training programs to improve team members’ technical and soft skills.
• Provide mentorship, professional development, and coaching to each of their team members through individualized development plans, performance management, and ongoing 1:1’s.
• Responsible for strategic planning to develop and implement short- and long-term strategies focused on improved student retention and student experience.
• Ensure that team retention targets are achieved in alignment with the University’s retention goals.
• Provide leadership and operational guidance to ensure effective team member support of students as they progress in their courses/program.
• Analyze team data and metrics to determine and facilitate change, to meet organizational expectations and goals.
• Use business intelligence analytics to ensure the team is maintaining expected service-level agreements.
• Evaluate reporting to ensure contact expectations are met for student outreach via phone/email/text and follows up as needed.
• Lead special projects as assigned to support continuous improvement initiatives and collaborate with other university stakeholders across the organization as needed.
• Evaluate internal audits and provides coaching as needed to ensure compliance with regulatory and accreditation guidelines.
• Identify, hire, and retain top talent.
• Create and maintain a culture of excellence and inclusivity through team activities, initiatives, and open communication.
• Track and monitor schedules and attendance of team members.
• Administrate payroll and timecard reporting for team members.
• Oversee the entire department in the absence of the Director.
• Lead team meetings and participates in Student Services Leadership Team meetings.
• Uphold the University standard of conduct and all other policies and procedures.
• Identify opportunities and recommend changes to improve the University.
• Participate in training, continuous education, and leadership development activities to improve skill set.
• Plan, organize, oversee, and direct the daily operations of a team of team members.
• Continuously improve team member communications through quality assurance activities and coaching techniques on live and recorded calls.
• Partner with academic leaders and Deans to evaluate key performance indicators within their school and identify areas for improvement.
• Oversee outstanding balance recovery and strategy for their team and ensures appropriate outreach for resolution of outstanding balances.
• Ensure team members are documenting communications within the appropriate technology systems.
• Accountable for outcomes and improvements of team KPIs and service level expectations related to student success and organizational strategic metrics inclusive of retention, student pace, outstanding balances, and student experience.
• Participate in ongoing department projects, or other special projects, as needed.
• Reasonable and consistent attendance to fulfill requirements of the position.
• Other duties as assigned.

Supervisory Responsibilities:  

Supervisor duties to include:

• Direct oversight of at least one (1) team lead and at least ten (10) front line team members.
• Hire, train, and develop Academic and Finance Advisors, Academic and Finance Counselors, and Team Leads.
• Implement and lead individualized development plans for all team members.
• Direct oversight for all performance management actions inclusive of direct coaching, p