TEAM BUILDING
DREXEL UNIVERSITY
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TEAM BUILDING
To bring in the processes Jones saw as essential to Drexel ’ s strategy , adding headcount to the small existing team was a critical priority . Fortunately , Jones had both the support of Drexel and the ability to hire the majority of her now fully-staffed department while retaining existing talent . “ The seat here at Drexel had been empty for about a year and several open positions on the team were deliberately left until my position was filled ,” she says . “ We ’ re 17 strong right now but of that 17 only four have been here longer than 11 months . It ’ s a really young team , and of the folks we interviewed , hired and brought in , none came from higher education ; not by design , just by the pool of candidates and their skillset and what they brought to the table . Having them come in fresh to higher education has actually been a gift because it ’ s all changing so fast , they get to be on the ground floor as we create this .”
Jones introduced what she describes as a ‘ think-tank environment ’. “ It ’ s working very well ,” she enthuses . “ I ’ m already getting a lot of positive feedback which I am extremely happy with . The last thing you want , especially when you ’ re trying to build a new team , is to have somebody coming in thinking they know exactly how to do it . Higher education culture
FEBRUARY 2019