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This resource outlines what design thinking is, how it works, a step by step guide to what it looks like in action, and how it can benefit reimagining of student employment with helpful links to additional resources.

Design thinking, a human-centered approach to problem-solving, can help program designers understand the unique challenges and opportunities faced by student employees.  By empathizing with students, defining the problem, ideating potential solutions, prototyping ideas, and testing them with students and student employee supervisors, program designers can create a program that is innovative, effective, and sustainable. The following resource details a number of idea generation activities that can be leveraged as part of the design thinking process.

Performance appraisals for student employees working on a college campus are crucial for a number of reasons. They provide a structured way to provide feedback, helping students understand their strengths and areas for improvement. This feedback is essential for their personal and professional growth. Secondly, performance appraisals allow supervisors to set clear expectations and goals, which can improve the student's focus and motivation. Northern Arizona University (NAU) has implemented a structured performance appraisal process, centered around the evaluation of the NACE Career Competencies to ensure that students receive the necessary feedback and support to enhance their skills. NAU understands performance appraisals play a vital role in managing student employee performance, promoting their development, and ensuring their engagement and success on campus.

We all know student employees play a crucial role in the functioning of a college campus, often serving in various capacities such as library assistants, research aides, or student ambassadors. Their contributions often go beyond their job descriptions; they enhance the campus experience for all students, faculty, and visitors. Recognizing their efforts and the efforts of those staff that supervise them, is vital to the ongoing success of student employment. Northern Arizona University has leveraged their yearly student employee and supervisor of the year awards to ensure acknowledgement of this hard work and dedication to their campus. Their campus has seen many benefits from this campus-wide recognition effort -  it fosters a sense of belonging and loyalty among student employees and their supervisors, encouraging them to remain engaged with their work and the campus community. NAU understands recognizing student employees sets a positive example for others, highlighting the value of their contributions and encouraging a culture of appreciation and respect.  NAU has shared a variety of resources that can inform the build out of your own campus awards, help you think through structure and how to successfully facilitate this effort.

Virginia Commonwealth University is committed to incorporating reflection into all experiential learning including student employment.  Supervisors regularly discuss REAL opportunities (relevant, experiential and applied learning).  This resource was adapted to specifically support supervisors to facilitate reflection throughout the student employment experience.  This example resource serves as a guide that can be adapted and leveraged at any institution. 

For many college campuses, incorporating the student employment posting and application process into their current career management system allows for a more accessible and streamlined process for their students. Additionally, it comes with the added benefit of engaging students into this vital career platform much earlier in their college journey. The following presentation was created by the University of Illinois Chicago and was facilitated as an information session for their students. It serves as a great example of the kind of information, process and details you may want to share with your students in order to get prepared to find and apply for on-campus student employment roles.

This resource gives working learners an overview on what professional development is and ideas on what to do during their professional development time. This is not an extensive list, but a good place for working learners to start with.

This resource instructs Working Learners on the proper format and use of storytelling for including their position in their resume. It also gives Working Learners tips and tricks for building out their resume.

This resource gives an overview for working learners on professional standards in the workplace and why they are important.

This resource gives supervisors ideas on how they can publicly display the work that their working learners are doing and why it is important to highlight their work.

This resource is a curated list of LinkedIn Learnings for supervisors. These suggested trainings have been curated to encourage and create continuous professional development.ASU currently provides LinkedIn Learning access for all working learners and professional staff.

The document offers a checklist of items that can be included in your working learners first couple of days to ensure a smooth transition to their new position.

This resource gives different ways to welcome your working learner as they start into their new role.

The following resource was provided by the University at Buffalo and is intended to provide examples of different communication that may be valuable to create. Creating standardized language and communication that is utilized throughout the student employment hiring process and ensures a consistent experience for all students. Use these examples to get started and think about others that may be helpful for your team or institution to create.

This resource is intended to inspire action and provide insight for working learners who may be unsure about how to gain experience related to each of the career competencies.