4 Proven Ways to Reduce the Pain of Staff Turnover in 2024

Turnover is rampant in financial aid offices across the country, and there may be no end in sight. Changing regulations, a heavier than normal workload, or simply a better paying opportunity elsewhere is causing people to either “burnout” or go to where the grass appears to be greener. (Yes, your team is likely being solicited regularly by competing institutions). It is unfortunately just a fact today.

To help alleviate the pain of turnover, consider an exploration call with FA Solutions, as we have become a Virtual Extension of Financial Aid Offices across the United States, having successfully supported around four hundred institutions. Gone are the days where the only option is to outsource all of financial aid and welcome the time that Colleges can select partial of full outsourcing of specific tasks, duties, or even positions, either during an interim period, or long term. You CAN still maintain control, but with a better peace of mind, and workload balance.

Our services include:

1. Interim Staffing: Many schools, large and small, both public and private, experience consistent vacancies or absences in their financial aid department.

• We can fill one or multiple positions for your small, large, or online school in the short- or long-term.
• Complete continuity of coverage – FA Solutions trains and assigns 2-3 people to each position or task, even the smallest (for the price of one). This means that if one person is out, you still have coverage.
• All outsourced staff are qualified with an average of 8-10 years financial aid experience.

2. Third Party Processing: Most third-party processors don’t provide full-service support to schools, but we do. We are not just a dependable and responsive financial aid servicing “vendor,” we become a dedicated partner, as an extension of the College.

• Participate in regular meetings, and engaging in real time collaboration throughout the day, preventing the need to submit a ticket for most student resolutions.
• Co-sourced staffing model with customized support in key areas. You always have more than one point of contact that is trained to support your school.
• Committed and experienced staff to work alongside your team remotely.

3. Inbound and Outbound Student Contact Support | Student Experience Center (SEC): TIt is extremely challenging to “wear all of the hats” in the Financial Aid Office, and that is where the Student Experience Center at FA Solutions comes in. It is almost impossible to manage all the processing and verification workload and juggling in person student meetings. Trying to answer all phone calls and respond timely to emails becomes unlikely, and this leads to frustration for the staff, the students, and leadership when they hear of complaints in receiving aid timely, or a delay in getting replies to student inquiries. FA Solutions Supports students and staff by handling inquiries via phone/email correspondence, timely and accurately, allowing College staff to manage the other pressing obligations.

• Friendly and experienced financial aid counselors
• Complete financial aid process walkthrough for students.
• We proactively collaborate with your recruiters
• Reach out to students to notify of missing documents or other issues with aid delivery.
• SEC prevents repeat inquiries, disgruntled students.
• Allows your school to stay focused on processing aid.

4. Mentorship and Consulting: With turnover in Financial Aid Leadership, and an extremely competitive labor environment, you may be finding it impossible to recruit and retain a Financial Aid Director with significant experience, and that’s where FA Solutions can help. You may find it easier or more likely to be able to promote from within or hire an experienced Financial Aid Professional with the POTENTIAL to be groomed into a seasoned Financial Aid Director, but who does not have that level of experience yet. For a reasonable monthly fee FA Solutions will provide access to their team of financial aid directors and compliance personnel, day to day guidance and mentorship support. This type of support brings comfort to the newer Director, so they know they are “not alone” on this pretty complicated journey. Without the proper support and mentorship, many face the embarrassing situation of becoming overwhelmed, and the painful cycle of staff turnover, begins again. There ARE solutions to this.

Our team can support individual tasks as well, such as: R2T4, Title IV reconciliation, Professional Judgements, Packaging and awarding, Document verification, auditing files, including, Quality assurance (quarterly and annually).

With our qualified support, institutions have significantly reduced employee turnover, received funds promptly and improved the overall student experience.

If having a financial aid staffing or processing solution with actual redundancy of coverage is important to you, please contact FA Solutions today!