Supporting expert users at North Carolina A&T State University
North Carolina A&T State University has been a PeopleAdmin customer for over a decade, first joining our community in 2006. The team currently uses Position Management and Applicant Tracking System, and are making use of the analytics dashboards to get more out of each module. Dr. Veronica Sills, NC A&T’s Interim Chief Human Resources officer, has a lot of experience with PeopleAdmin from a previous role at UNC Greensboro, so she was excited to bring that experience and knowledge to NC A&T.
Certified Administrator Training
“In 2020, I went through PeopleAdmin’s Certified Administrator Training, which gave me a deep dive into the system and the functionality,” said Veronica. “That’s when it clicked for me how much organizations under-utilize this product.”
Coming to A&T, Veronica said that she brought a deep understanding of the capacity of PeopleAdmin’s platform. She recognized an opportunity immediately, realizing that A&T’s human resources team had a lot of room to be more effective. “That was the catalyst for re-examining our workflows and processes,” Veronica noted.
Platform overhaul
Right now, North Carolina A&T is deep in the process cleaning up their workflows and forms in both ATS and Position Management. Veronica’s goal is a major overhaul of the way they use the platform, incorporating recruitment marketing elements as well as better compensation visibility and metrics for the HR team. She also hopes to continue making the platform more user-friendly for applicants and for staff by ensuring all workflows and processes are intuitive.
“We’re breaking this project up into bite-sized pieces so the transition happens slowly and efficient so that users aren’t overwhelmed,” said Veronica. “We upgraded to Premium Support because my former HR team at UNC Greenboro had that support level, and I watched how much of a difference in made in getting things done more effectively and systematically.”
Premium Support
One of Veronica’s favorite things about the project they’re undertaking right now is the dedicated customer service that comes with Premium Support. A&T’s dedicated customer support manager, Kelly, keeps the team organized, on track, and focused on strategy.
“We sent our CSM a comprehensive wish list of what we would do with our platform if we could wave a magic wand,” said Veronica. “Kelly helped us go through every point and showed us strategically how to tackle the challenge. She knew what we should do first and helped us understand how to make all the change happen comprehensively and in a good amount of time.”
A dedicated CSM helps the A&T team get real-time feedback, and they’re happy they get to continue communicating with one person so they don’t have to continually retell their story. “We’re not just any campus,” Veronica noted. “We’re an 1890 land grant institution with a rich history, located in a major city, and a high focus on research . We have a lot of unique aspects of our university, and it’s amazing having someone who understands what that means for us to stay competitive in our recruitment efforts.”
With the support and knowledge Kelly has given them, Veronica’s team is able to take a 10,000 foot view of what needs to change and how. They’ve taken the time to speak to campus partners about what they need, and the HR office can share quickly whether or not they can make that happen.
Veronica has already started to see a difference. “We’ve changed how our hiring proposals are started, easing that process for everyone involved,” she said. “We’re reducing the number of questions asked on every form, making things less cumbersome for applicants and campus partners.” She noted that there has already been feedback from users on the new hiring proposal process. They appreciate that autonomy that the improved process offers, the ease of a centralized system, and the relieved burden that comes with fewer back and forth emails.
More expertise for everyone
Veronica would recommend Certified Administrator Training to almost any PeopleAdmin user, but especially to anyone managing a platform. “I plan on having some of my team members take the training,” Veronica said. “It’s a comprehensive, hands-on deep dive into using the system and understanding the different facets. It empowers users to be more self-sufficient, shortens the learning curve, and shows you all the little quirks and tricks that are so useful when trying to use the system more efficiently.”
At her previous university, Veronica saw a marked improvement in users navigating the system with ease after completing the Certified Admin Training, and she hopes to recreate that at A&T.
Veronica is also putting her Certified Admin Training to good use, too. Another recent improvement was making it so users receive notifications when an action they initiated is moving forward and completed. “This was a simple but critical change,” said Veronica. “People need to know what’s happening with their actions and where things are in the process. It was a small tweak to make, and it’s been great to be self-sufficient with things like that—we can create immediate impact for our users instead of waiting for an external team to make a change.”
Don’t be afraid to dive in
Veronica’s team knew that this project was a big one, but they’re glad they got started. “We have an exhaustive wish list that seems to constantly evolve, but I appreciate that there is a clear pathway to evolution and I’m already seeing the benefits to our campus,” said Veronica.
She also noted that she believes a deep understanding of the platform is vital for any team taking advantage of all PeopleAdmin has to offer.
“Whether it’s PeopleAdmin or another platform, the most important things is for users to explore the product,” Veronica said. “Understanding the capacity of your platform is the only way to know if you’re underutilizing it. Your team should get value out of all that a platform offers, find chances to grow, and embrace the benefits.”
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