developing teams & CUlture
Your people are your best resource. So getting (and keeping) the a really good Marketing and Admissions team in place at your school is vital. One that works symbiotically, to ensure all parts of the customer journey are leveraged.
I love helping schools to reorganise their teams, as well as recruit and train Marketing and Admissions staff – as I know just how much of a difference this will make to your recruitment, retention, and to parent satisfaction.
“She truly has a very good rapport with clients, listens to them and develops a close partnership to ensure that as your marketing team and strategy evolve, the solutions in place are the best ones for you at that particular moment in time.”
“Louise has supported St. Mary’s Colchester on a number of occasions, most recently in the development of a whole school marketing strategy, and the recruitment and appointment of a new Head of Marketing, Admissions and Communications. With a vast amount of experience gained from working with numerous schools, Louise is quick to assess the requirements of the individual setting, tailoring her response to the specific needs of the school, rather than a one size fits all approach.
She brings with her boundless energy and enthusiasm – as well as an endless supply of chocolate goodies! We have very much valued and appreciated her contribution to our School’s development.”
So, how can I help?
I can work with Heads, SLTs and Governors to review your current Marketing and Admissions (often via an Audit) which can highlight how your current organisational structure could, perhaps, be better organised, as well as identifying any changes to your personnel (e.g. what support would be needed to make them more effective in their roles).
I can undertake the whole recruitment process – designing a job spec, creating and placing job adverts, through to selections, pre-interviews, and interviewing. Or I can just help out with any of these parts as a stand-alone project: just the job ad or job spec, or just helping to outline the interview questions and tasks. Or perhaps, so they get a good start (and boy are schools a bit of a culture shock for marketing people from outside of the field of education) I can just help with an induction programme. This really is often not done as well as it should be - but you want your new recruit to understand the world of schools, to ‘get up to speed’ with your school as quickly as possible, and to become effective - a great induction will help all of these things (as well as ensure they are happy and stay…)
The next challenge is CPD - to keep your staff motivated, on-track and abreast of best practice. Working in marketing or admissions in schools can be a lonely task; sometimes you’re a team of 'one' or have other responsibilities to cover too. So it can be incredibly useful to have an external resource to talk to, sound ideas off and be prompted to improve and change. I regularly mentor Registrars and Marketing staff – through usually a termly (or annual) meeting combined with remote backup to tap into whenever you need!