Increasing the retention of key stakeholders.

Project Exploration (PE) is a non-profit organization in Chicago that provides a STEM after school program for children in underserved communities.

The organization was experiencing very low rentention of Facilitators (teachers in the after school program) and was unable to discover the reasons behind frustrations of Facilitators. For my Capstone project, I conducted research to help stakeholders understand gaps and challenges that were contributing to the problem.

January 2019 - Jun 2019

DISCOVERING THE PROBLEM

Conducted 15 stakeholder interviews to uncover gaps and challenges in the retention process at PE. I interviewed the following stakeholders:

Facilitators - teachers in the program
Program Managers - manage Facilitators
Human Resources - recruit Facilitators
Operations Managers - plan Facilitator roles + expectations

1

Facilitators do not feel prepared before acquiring their roles.

2

Training and on-boarding is rushed and not applicable to the role.

3

Facilitators do not feel heard about their challenges and have "little to no support from the organization.

4

There is a lack of structure and growth which leads to Facilitators exiting the role earlier than estimated.

I further synthesized interview insights and established three central themes that were contributing to low Facilitator retention.

Lack of communication between stakeholders

Unstandardized training and onboarding

Limited initiatives from the organization to enhance Facilitator experience

THE FACILITATOR JOURNEY

To communicate Facilitator frustrations to other stakeholders; I generated a journey map that illustrates the emotions of Facilitators from the time they become aware of PE to the time they decide to exit the organization.

A PARTICIPATORY DESIGN APPROACH

I decided to use a participatory design approach to aid and promote a conversation between stakeholders. I conducted a co-creation workshop to not only advocate for Facilitators' frustrations, but also acknowledge other stakeholder needs.

Through this activity; stakeholders generated recommendations that would help elevate the Facilitator journey:

Enable uniform channels of communication.

Introduce standardized training/on-boarding materials - a repository that gives Facilitators access to useful resources that help them succeed in their roles.

Regular team meetings to create a safe space for conversation and enhance company culture to encourage Facilitator longevity.

TESTING + IMPLEMENTING RECOMMENDATIONS

Slack to Enable Channels of Communication

A key frustration communicated by Facilitators was that they were unable to openly communicate about classroom activities and challenges with the admin staff. A Slack channel encouraged stakeholders to have informal conversations about classroom related details such as tasks, deadlines, and other learnings. This temporary solution has allowed stakeholders to not only share more, but also learn from other people's experiences. It has also resulted in lesser handholding (by the admin staff) since Facilitators are having conversations amongst themselves to solve challenges they might be facing in their respective classrooms.

A Repository with Useful Resources

During the co-creation workshop, Facilitators communicated that they wanted access to useful information that would help them succeed in their roles. This would be particularly helpful for Facilitators who do not have a background in education/teaching. To implement this recommendation, I prototyped and tested a "Resources" page as an addition to the existing website.

The "Resources" page would essentially give access to useful and relevant information such as:

Project Outlines Help: a monthly deliverable for Facilitators
Classroom demos: to get a feel for teaching and student engagement
Articles, videos, e-books: materials that will give information on factors like student behavior, classroom etiquette, and teaching methods.

*Currently working on implementing this section on the website.*

RETROSPECTIVE + FUTURE WORK

The positive feedback and conversations have proven that the implementation of recommendations will help Facilitators feel more prepared and comfortable to enter their roles. Enabling channels of communication has provided a safe space and has encouraged stakeholders to openly converse about lowlights and highlights.

For next steps, test the impact of the "Resources" page on the website and analyze how it affects training and on-boarding processes for Facilitators. Lastly, conduct further research on how these research recommendations have impacted business metrics.