Why This Stage Matters

To truly understand your student employment ecosystem, you need to gather artifacts that provide tangible insight into how policies and practices shape the student work experience. Reviewing the systems, forms, and documents that guide hiring, supervision, and development reveals how student employment operates both in theory and in practice.

This stage helps you uncover where gaps, inconsistencies, or misalignments exist between your institution’s intentions and the actual student experience. These materials—job descriptions, evaluation tools, and training resources—often hold the clues to systemic strengths and weaknesses.

What to Look For and Keep in Mind

• Job Descriptions: How are student positions defined and organized? Are job levels and pay scales consistent? What is or isn’t included in job descriptions?
• Evaluation Tools: What criteria are used to assess student employees? Are supervisors evaluating only performance, or also growth and learning? Is feedback tied to development opportunities?
• Training and Onboarding Materials: How are new student employees welcomed and prepared? What expectations are set around learning, professionalism, and belonging? Are supervisors given tools or training to support student learning on the job?
• Policy and HR Documentation: How are student employees classified in the HR system? Are there standard processes for supervision, termination, or pay adjustments? Do policies recognize student employees as both learners and workers?
• Other Artifacts: Campus employment websites or portals, work-study guidelines, supervisor handbooks, and recognition or award criteria for student workers.

By collecting and analyzing these artifacts, you build a clear, evidence-based picture of how your student employment system truly functions—revealing opportunities for equity, alignment, and meaningful improvement.