I Wanna Work There!

On Episode 17, we heard from Kin Sejpal about the international employee experience. This episode continues that conversation with Dayana Kibilds, host of Enrollify’s “Talking Tactics.”

Here are our takeaways:

1. We will walk a mile in international employees’ shoes by hearing about the complicated U.S. immigration system.
2. Our guest will talk about the personal impact of navigating immigration.
3. We will gain insights about how colleges and universities can invest in a better talent experience for international faculty and staff.

Guest Name: Dayana Kibilds, Host of “Talking Tactics” and Strategy Director at Ologie

Guest Social: LinkedIn

Guest Bio: Day is strategy director at Ologie, an employee-owned marketing and branding agency built for education. For over a decade, Day has been leading innovative, digital marketing work with universities worldwide, pushing institutions to use their communications as tools for equity and access. She is an international keynote speaker on enrollment marketing, email strategy, productivity, and stakeholder partnerships. Day is the host of Enrollify's Talking Tactics podcast, and is co-authoring a book about email to be released in 2024.
As a lifelong immigrant who has lived in six different countries, Day is happy to call Canada home. She lives with her son, Romeo, and her husband, Bruno.

Check out Day's Podcast "Talking Tactics"

In this Bonus announcement, join Mallory, Chief Strategist of Enrollify, as she introduces the newly relaunched Enrollify.org. This episode highlights the fresh features and content now available on the site, emphasizing Enrollify’s commitment to revolutionizing higher education. Learn about the variety of resources—from podcasts to ourses to webinars—that can help professionals make impactful changes in their careers and institutions.

It’s the episode that you’ve been asking for–an employer branding campaign from a university. On this episode of “I Wanna Work There!” we’ll learn about efforts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to increase their job applications and re-engage their faculty and staff. 

Our guests break down three things:

1. How UMass crafted their employer value proposition,
2. What they learned about their prospective and current employees in building their campaign, and
3. Thoughts on how institutions can resourcefully begin their employer branding efforts.

Guest Names: 
Hank Pinkowski, Director of Human Resources Marketing and Communications at University of Massachusetts Amherst
Matt Nesler, Executive Account Director at Ologie

Guest Social Handles: 
LinkedIn (Hank) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hank-p-89758864/    
LinkedIn (Matt) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-nesler-bbb60817/

Guest Bios: 
Hank Pinkowski - Hank brings over 25 years of creative expertise to his role as director of HR marketing and communications at UMass Amherst. Leveraging his experience in leading B2B and B2C marketing initiatives across various industries, he works collaboratively with the HR department to develop and amplify the UMass Amherst employer brand. His focus is on attracting top talent and fostering employee retention through strategic marketing and communication efforts.

Matt Nesler - Matt partners with his clients daily to help meet their immediate needs and longer-term objectives. Internally, he works with Ologists in both our brand studio and our integrated marketing studio to ensure his clients’ success. His clients have included Xavier University (Ohio), Ithaca College, Virginia Tech, Rutgers University, and Rochester Institute of Technology. 

Student affairs is, without a doubt, one of the most critical areas of any educational institution. Because of that, “I Wanna Work There!” decided to take a good look at the talent experience in this critical area. This episode takes a look at highs and lows of student affairs employees, what it takes to keep them motivated and several other factors that can greatly impact any institution’s employer brand.

What will you take away from episode 24?

1. You’ll get a realistic view of the talent experience in student affairs and the importance of transparency about the work.
2. You will learn about how employee morale in student affairs impacts student morale.
3. You will also get ideas about growing the culture of student affairs and how institutions can enhance the student affairs experience for the professionals.

Guest Name: Roland Bullard Jr.

Guest Social Handles: LinkedIn

Guest Bio: Dr. Roland N. Bullard Jr. is a higher education consultant and student advocate. Most recently, he served as vice president for student success at Dillard University where he oversaw co-curricular programs including career and professional development, student engagement and leadership, university housing, campus police, and student support services. He also serves as an adjunct faculty member at the University of New Orleans.
A community advocate, Roland also serves on the board of the City of New Orleans’ Children’s Youth and Planning Board and Jefferson Parish Schools’ Parents Council. He completed the Bryan Bell Metropolitan Leadership Forum In 2019, and he is a member of New Orleans’ alumni chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Inc.
Roland earned his Ph.D. in higher education from Indiana University, his M.Ed. from the University of South Carolina in student personnel services, and his B.A. in communication from Florida Atlantic University. He is married to Rachel Sloan, a K-12 administrator in Jefferson Parish Schools; and they have two boys Roland, III and Raylind. 

Television shows and movies have a tendency to make faculty life look glamorous. Ask any faculty member, however, and they will fill you in on the challenges of juggling teaching, research, publishing, grant writing, pursuing tenure, etc. Let’s not even talk about those who become department chairs with no people management experience or training. Many feel valued as some of the most important fixtures in higher education but others don’t feel quite so supported. Former tenured professor and current academic leadership coach Jennifer Askey joined “I Wanna Work There!” to fill us in on the life of faculty.

What can you take away from episode 23?

1. We will get an idea of what a sense of fulfillment and success look like for faculty.
2. Jennifer will educate us on what faculty want from their employers.
3. We will learn about a free virtual event to help faculty reach their untapped potential while helping them advocate for employee satisfaction on their respective campuses.

Guest Name: Jennifer Askey

Guest Social Handles: 
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferaskeycoach/  
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jennifer_askey/

Guest Bio: Jennifer Askey, Ph.D. is an individual and group academic coach with over 25 years of experience in higher education in the U.S. and Canada. After relocating from the United States to Canada, she transitioned out of humanities teaching and research into coaching and leadership development for higher education professionals. Jennifer’s mission is to help leaders and groups in colleges and universities achieve clarity around the impact they want to have and develop the habits they need to develop to reach their goals.
Jennifer enjoys leveraging assessments (e.g., DISC, Emotional Intelligence, Belbin Team Roles, Resilience @ Work etc.) for individual and team clients to boost their self-awareness around key workplace behaviors and motivators. Her work with clients is grounded in the client’s values system and their self-awareness. A core of Jennifer’s coaching philosophy is to help clients establish patterns of noticing and recognition around self-sabotaging behaviors and to choose more resonant and empowering options. Mindfulness and emotional intelligence form the foundation for much of her coaching work, as does an intersectional feminist lens on work-life issues.
Jennifer holds a Ph.D. in Germanic languages and literatures from Washington University in St. Louis, she was associate professor of German at Kansas State University, and has taught literature in German and English at universities in the U.S. and Canada. Jennifer continues to develop her own repertoire of skills and reads and speaks widely on emotional intelligence, faculty resilience, and mindfulness. She is a Certified Positive Intelligence Coach and a Certified Professional Co-active Coach, both frameworks that help clients work with their strengths and their values to create the career they deserve

It can be a lonely world in the workplace for those who have invisible or hidden disabilities, that is conditions that are mostly neurological in nature such as:  ADHD, autism, epilepsy, anxiety disorders, mental illnesses, fibromyalgia, migraines, diabetes, sleep disorders, asthma, allergies, Asperger Syndrome, Crohn’s Disease, other forms of chronic pain, etc. The Fast Company commentary “Why employers need to change how they onboard neurodivergent workers” introduces us to an autistic college professor whose introduction to her then-new employer left much to be desired because a condition such as hers was not taken into consideration when planning an off-campus orientation. That professor, Ludmila Praslova, visited “I Wanna Work There!” to discuss her experiences and the world that she would like to see for neurodivergent employees.

Here are your takeaways for episode 22:

1. You will walk a mile in Ludmila’s shoes, learning what it is like to be forced to fit into an employment structure that does not consider neurodiversity.
2. You will learn how to engage with neurodivergent colleagues.
3. You will find out how colleges and universities can work to ensure that neurodivergent employees enjoy a satisfactory work experience.

Guest Name: Ludmila Praslova

Guest Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ludmila-praslova/  

Guest Bio: Ludmila N. Praslova, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, is the author of “The Canary Code: A Guide to Neurodiversity, Dignity, and Intersectional Belonging at Work'' (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, April 2024) and the member of the Thinkers50 Radar 2024 cohort of global management thinkers most likely to impact workplaces. She is a professor of graduate industrial-organizational psychology and an accreditation liaison officer at Vanguard University of Southern California. With over 25 years of experience in developing talent-rich organizations, Ludmila is a global inclusive talent strategy expert with deep knowledge of global diversity and neurodiversity. Her current consulting is focused on creating organizational systems for inclusion and wellbeing and providing neuroinclusion training and support to organizations such as Amazon, Bank of America, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ludmila is also the editor of “Evidence-Based Organizational Practices for Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity” (Cambridge Scholars, 2023) and the special issue of the Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, “Disability inclusion in the workplace: From ‘accommodation’ to inclusive organizational design.” Ludmila regularly writes for Fast Company, Harvard Business Review and Psychology Today, and she is the first person to have published in Harvard Business Review from an autistic perspective.

The conversation about social media and employer branding continues with a look at social intelligence. Like potential students, higher ed job seekers are investigating campuses while current employees are using social media to promote their work, discuss what’s happening at their institutions, and more. There are also those online users who are voicing their opinions about campuses where they used to work. However, too many administrations are unaware of how this online activity impacts their employer brands. Liz Gross visited “I Wanna Work There!” to chat about social intelligence, and she gave tips that any college or university can use for great employer branding.

Here are your takeaways for episode 21:

1. You’ll learn what social intelligence is and how it is used in higher ed.
2. You will hear about what faculty and staff are talking about on social media.
3. Finally, you get an idea of how higher ed job seekers, especially Generation Z and marginalized , are using social media and other online platforms to investigate the quality of the employee experience on campuses.

Guest Name: Liz Gross

Guest Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizgross/

Guest Bio: Liz Gross is the founder and CEO of Campus Sonar, which partners with higher education focused leadership teams to guide research-led transformation grounded in social intelligence. She is an award-winning speaker, author, and strategist with 20 years’ experience in higher ed and strategic social listening programs. LIz received a Ph.D. in Leadership for the advancement of learning and service in higher education at Cardinal Stritch University, a master’s degree in educational policy and leadership from Marquette University, and a bachelor’s degree in interpersonal communication from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

On episode 13, Emmalee Amthor, touched on her use of social media as part of her employer branding strategy at Saginaw Valley State University. This episode furthers the social media conversation by taking a look at how to leverage social media to attract the faculty and staff that you want to your institution.

Here are your takeaways for episode 20:

1. You will learn what considerations need to be made before including social media in your talent attraction strategy.
2. You will also get an idea of how to choose the platforms that are best for your strategy.
3. You will also learn what it means for an institution to be authentic in using social media to attract talent. 

Guest Name: Jenny Li Fowler

Guest Bio: Jenny Li Fowler is the director of social media strategy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the host of the Enrollify podcast “Confessions of a Higher Ed Social Media Manager.” She served as editor-in-chief of State Farm's Auto Learning Center as well as social media manager and web editor for the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Jenny is a recurring correspondent for Hubspot's INBOUND and a recognized voice across the social media marketing space. She is the author of Organic Social Media, How to Build Flourishing Online Communities. Jenny is Korean American and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Guest Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennylifowler/

Today’s college or university president is expected to be highly influential and effective in their leadership. These higher ed CEOs are expected to positively impact every aspect of their institutions, regardless of size. The employee experience, however, can often be one of the least prioritized areas. How did one of the most respected and recognized presidents in the country work with his faculty and staff? Walter Kimbrough visited “I Wanna Work There!” to talk about how he worked to create a positive talent experience during his presidencies.

Here are the takeaways for this episode:

1. We will hear about the importance of establishing a culture from the president’s seat.
2. We will learn what it means to communicate honestly with faculty and staff.
3. Walter will share his advice for aspiring presidents to help foster a productive campus work culture. 

Guest Name: Walter Kimbrough

Guest Social: 
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/walterkimbrough/
X (Twitter) - https://twitter.com/HipHopPrez

Guest Bio: Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough is the president in residence for the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions and the former president of Dillard University and Philander Smith College (now Philander Smith University). Under his leadership, Dillard’s endowment grew 115% and alumni giving increased from 4% to 23%. Dillard also recorded its largest alumni gift, its largest single private donation, a $5 million gift from MacKenzie Scott, and a $5 million gift from Kirkland & Ellis for the university’s Center for Racial Justice. Dillard was also noted as one of the nation’s top producers of Black physics graduates, and the university’s pre-law program averaged over a 90% law school acceptance rate.

Prior to Dillard, Walter enjoyed a fulfilling career in student affairs, serving at Emory University, Georgia State University, Old Dominion University, and finally Albany State University in 2000 where he became the vice president for student affairs at the age of 32. At the age of 37, he became the twelfth president of Philander Smith College (now Philander Smith University) where he was given the moniker “Hip Hop Prez” for his skillful use of hip hop culture and music to educate students as well as his effective use of social media for public conversation. His use of social media has been noted in articles by The Chronicle of Higher Education and in Dan Zaiontz’s book “#FollowTheLeader: Lessons in Social Media Success from #HigherEd CEOs.” BachelorsDegree.org named him one of 25 college presidents you should follow on Twitter, Education Dive regarded Walter as one of their “10 college presidents on Twitter who are doing it right,” and Josie Ahlquist included him on her list of “25 Higher Education Presidents to Follow on Twitter.” He also captured national attention in 2021 when journalist Malcolm Gladwell interviewed him and featured Dillard on his highly regarded “Revisionist History” podcast.

Walter’s leadership has earned him numerous honors including:  the coveted Ebony Magazine Power 100 list, The Grio 100: History Makers in the Making, one of TheBestSchools.org’s “20 Most Interesting College Presidents,” one of the HBCU Campaign Fund’s “10 Most Dominant HBCU Leaders of 2018,” and one of College Cliffs’ “50 Top U.S. College and University Presidents” in 2020. In 2021, Walter received a Distinguished Alumni Award from his alma mater, Georgia State.

With a background in student affairs, Walter has been recognized for his research and writings on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and African American men in college; and he is regarded as a national expert on historically Black, Latin and Asian fraternities and sororities. He is the author of the book “Black Greek 101: The Culture, Customs and Challenges of Black Fraternities and Sororities” and has served as an expert witness in a number of hazing cases. 

A proud native of Atlanta, Walter earned his Ph.D. in higher education from Georgia State University, his master’s from Miami University in Ohio, and his bachelor’s from the University of Georgia. He and his wife, Adria Nobles Kimbrough, an attorney, are the proud parents of two children, Lydia Nicole, and Benjamin Barack.

In this special bonus episode of I Wanna Work There, Enrollify host Eddie Francis chats with Jaime Hunt about her LinkedIn post calling attention to the low salary range of a marketing and communications position with very demanding, and maybe even unrealistic, expectations. And it triggered quite the reaction from other LinkedIn users. Eddie and Jaime, with their candid charm, dissect the job listing, the implications of such positions on the industry and professionals navigating their careers, and how all of it impacts institutions’ employer brands.

Key Takeaways:

• The Challenge of Being a "Marketing Unicorn": Discussion on the unrealistic expectations set for positions requiring a broad set of skills ranging from PR to event management.
• Salary Expectations vs. Reality: A critical look at how low salary offerings contrast sharply with the high demands of certain roles in higher education marketing.
• Unpacking Job Descriptions: Analysis of how job descriptions may mislead or intimidate potential applicants by demanding an extensive array of skills and competencies.

Guest Name: Jaime Hunt, host of Confessions of a Higher Ed CMO