3 Tips for Your Newly Remote Enrollment Office

Capture employees have been working remotely and across time zones for most of the company’s existence. It’s not always easy or seamless, but along the way, we have developed some formal (and not so formal) processes that help us get along and optimize productivity. Several of our client universities now find themselves with remote enrollment offices with little or no warning. In fact, may of the Capture workers who have been based in our Louisville headquarters have also had to learn some of this.

Here are 3 pointers for our newly knighted remote work forces:

JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE WORKING DOESN’T MEAN OTHERS ARE (or want to be)

Email is great … and often we expect that it might take a bit for a response to come back, especially when it is after normal office hours. But texting and phone calls are slightly more intrusive. Make sure that you are aware of when you might be operating outside of normal work hours when it comes to communications. Emergencies are one thing but calling someone who needs some time “away from the office” at 8 p.m. is not good practice.

TAKE STEPS TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

I have been working remotely for five years and sometimes I forget to take care of myself. Let’s just say, it’s really easy to stay in your PJs all day. Self-care is especially important during this season of uncertainty; we all need a little extra self-care! Whether it’s a personal exercise routine, getting “dressed” for work, or just putting on the right workday boundaries, make sure that your job isn’t taking over your entire life. As a former colleague used to tell me: “Enrollment work is important, but it is not brain surgery.”

BE SOCIAL

It’s really easy to spend the whole day pumping out emails, writing documents, updating database records, texting or sending Slack messages. But don’t forget to insert a little humanity into the process. Yes, I mean using the phone or making a video call every now and again. We need human interaction. We need to see faces, feel emotions and laugh. Admissions people are super social, so make sure you are feeding the need to have human connections.

Hang in there. We’ll get through this together.

By Jamie Gleason, Director of Undergraduate Initiatives, Capture Higher Ed