Every continuing education and lifelong learning program is unique, although 80 percent of what each program does is the same – develop and offer courses, market, manage operations. Some programs also sell contracts. Uniqueness is dictated by where the program is located, the institution or organization the program is part of, the market segments being served, the resources available, and other factors particular to the program.
Ideal Staffing Structure Features
Every program operates with a staffing structure determined by the requirements of the program or product/service they provide. Their mission and goals, markets served, and mix of delivery methods are all part of the factors that impact staffing. However, even if the requirements of programs are different, there are five key features of successful continuing education and lifelong learning program staffing structures that are consistent.
#1. The leader of the continuing education or lifelong learning program spends 50 percent of his or her time generating new opportunities, thus planning three to five years out. Twenty-five percent of his or her time is devoted to making sure all staff, including him or herself, is trained in the latest best practices, aware of current trends in the marketplace, and understands the benchmarks for success. Another twenty-five percent of his or her time is spent managing the overall program and ensuring the numbers and plans are on track.
#2. The day-to-day functions and tasks of the program are centralized and carried out by an operations team, managed by an operations leader who is focused on centralizing day-to-day tasks to increase efficiency and relieve revenue generators of the responsibilities for functional duties. Responsibilities include registration, customer service, logistics, software management, data loading, reporting, document storage, and any other functions or tasks most efficiently handled by a team that supports the efficient performance of the overall program.
#3. Revenue generators – course programmers and contract salespeople are responsible for creating the programs and services that are the bread and butter of the organization. A strong operations team allows them to focus their time on creating income. By centralizing functions and tasks, the revenue generators have time to research and select new course programming, sell contracts, work with marketing to build effective promotion campaigns, and ensure that participants in open enrollment courses and contract sales clients are being listened to and served.
#4. Although everyone is on the marketing team and responsible for building the continuing education or lifelong learning program’s brand, the management of marketing functions, tasks, and promotion campaigns should be centralized under one person or team. The marketing person or team would be the liaison with the institution or organization’s marketing department but would have the responsibility for “think” marketing as well as ensuring promotion tasks are on track and generating the best return-on-investment. “Think” marketing is a term that describes the role of marketing in understanding the needs and preferences of the markets served and developing communication strategies that will resonate with these marketing.
#5. If the continuing education or lifelong learning program sells contract training, then normally the two revenue generation areas – course programming and contract sales – operate separately. They may use the same curriculum and/or instructors and be supported by the operations team, but course programming is sold using direct and digital marketing tools, while salespeople building relationships sell contracts. Also, course programming is normally slotted into a term or some time period, while contracts need to be serviced as received.
Ideal Staffing Structure Transition
Since the late 1990s, continuing education and lifelong learning programs have been adjusting their staffing structures so they support the ideal staffing structure features outlined above. The change takes time and again not every program looks the same, but the following principles are being pursued:
- The continuing education or lifelong learning program leader must be a visionary, not a manager.
- Operations should be centralized.
- Let revenue generators generate revenue
- Centralize marketing so the communication and messages being sent are on schedule and consistent.
- Separate contract sales from course programming.
As LERN works with North American continuing education and lifelong learning programs, over 60 percent have implemented at least three of the above principles. No program is perfect, but the programs that have had the greatest success implementing the ideal staffing structure features are the ones in the top 25 percent of continuing education and lifelong learning programs.
Ideal Staffing Structure Percentages
As continuing education and lifelong learning programs successfully implement the ideal staffing structure features, they are now fine-tuning their efforts and a question asked by many is – What percentage of staff should be allocated to each area?
In reviewing and analyzing the winning continuing education and lifelong learning programs the staffing structure percentages break down as follows:
- Leadership (Leader and administrative support): 10%
- Operations: 40%
- Course Programming: 20-30%
- Contract Training: 10-20%
- Marketing 10%
So a staff of 10 would include the following:
- Leadership – 1
- Operations – 4
- Course Programming – 2-3
- Contract Training – 1-2
- Marketing – 1
While a staff of 20 would include the following:
- Leadership – 2
- Operations – 8
- Course Programming – 4-6
- Contract Training – 2-4
- Marketing – 2
If your continuing education or lifelong learning program does not sell contract training then the breakdowns would be as follows:
Staff of 10:
- Leadership – 1
- Operations – 5
- Course Programming – 4
- Marketing – 1
Staff of 20:
- Leadership – 2
- Operations – 10
- Course Programming – 8
- Marketing – 2
Operations shifts to 50 percent because a continuing education or lifelong learning program focused only on course programming normally requires more operations support.
Conclusion
Each continuing education and lifelong learning program is unique, but staffing structures normally include leadership, operations, course programming, contract training (unless you do not sell contracts), and marketing. Your situation may cause your staffing structure breakdown to look different, but the five mantras ought to be at the heart of the design of your staffing structure.