It’s Time: The Professional Competencies and Hiring

It’s that time of year. The time of year when logging 10, 000 steps on your fitness tracker is achieved before lunch. The time of year when your day is scheduled in 30 minute increments and you are nowhere near your office. The time of year where everywhere you turn you are presented with the opportunity to interact with talented and invested professionals, including those who are eagerly anticipating graduation and those who are more seasoned. We all know what time of year I am talking about—the annual student affairs hiring season. Whether or not you are heading to Indianapolis to participate in TPE, this is the time of year when we begin thinking about the ways to recruit a diverse candidate pool in order to hire those who will contribute to the mission, initiatives, and growth of our areas while developing as professionals through our supervision, coaching, and mentoring. This time of year also provides us the opportunity to think about how our hiring process is informed by and reflective of the ACPA/NASPA Professional Competencies for Student Affairs Educators.

In the description of the intended audience for the revised competencies released last July, the team of authors stated that the competency areas “lay out essential knowledge, skills, and dispositions expected of all student affairs educators, regardless of functional area or specialization within the field. Whereas effective student affairs practice requires proficiency in many areas…the competency areas presented here are intended to define student affairs work and lay out directions for the future development of student affairs both individually and as a profession.” What strikes me most in their statement is the expressed intent of the development of the individual as well as the profession as a whole. The statement also prompts several questions for consideration in our hiring processes.

Do job descriptions and/or hiring processes reflect the opportunities for development professionally in the competencies available to potential hires at our institution? Often job descriptions list the expectations of a position along with the requirements necessary to achieve the position while not necessarily outlining the commitment the institution has to the future growth of the candidate. For many, these opportunities may be discussed during the interview process. However, given that the hiring process should also be a time for the candidate to interview the institution, it's important to think about when, where and how these opportunities are communicated.

As the candidate's future supervisor (or department director, divisional Vice President, etc.) have you assessed your own development related to the competencies? The revised competencies delineate outcomes and levels of development as foundational, intermediate, and advanced; yet they are not designed as a checklist. They are designed as '"indicators mapping development in and around each of the competency areas." As a result, years of experience in the field or in a particular functional area does not equate to mastery of the advanced competencies. Rather, the competencies allow each of us to gauge our own development and determine continued areas for growth regardless of position or experience. This self-awareness is critical when hiring new staff members. In order to share the ways in which our institutions can support new hires, we must also recognize the varying levels of competency we possess and acknowledge where we can continue to grow and learn both with and from our new staff members.

For which competencies (and outcome level) does your department or institution have the resources and knowledge to support growth in staff members and for which competencies do you need to explore other methods or options for fostering the development of staff members? At a time in higher education where resources are stretched and the demands of our work continue to change, we are constantly asked to evaluate how and where we will use our resources, both human and fiscal, most efficiently. The competencies can provide a starting point for determining where the options for the professional development of staff members may intersect with the priorities and resources of your institution. The competencies can guide the development of staff orientation programs, supervisory expectations, performance assessments, and divisional professional development teams, as well as individualized professional development planning.

Finally, in a time where new hires, staffing structures, and programs often require assessment planning and outcome mapping, can the professional competencies assist in providing rationale, structure, and accountability for your staff and potential new hires? While each institution may vary on expectations of how assessment and evaluation occur in order to secure resources or approval, the breadth and depth of the revised competencies may provide an opportunity to support requests and justify the measures of accountability needed.  

Whether you ask yourself these questions or others about the foundations of your hiring, the professional competencies are a valuable resource. If there are different questions that you are asking or other ways that you are incorporating the competencies into your hiring practices, the NASPA Professional Standards Division would love to learn about them! Until then, members of my team and I will see you walking the paths of TPE in Indianapolis.

Lisa Brown Cornelius
Professional Standards Division Region IV-E Representative
Director of Residence Life
John Carroll University