Kelsey Bannon, University of Southern Maine

Christen Eaton, University of Southern Maine

“Professional development is the ongoing process of improving one’s skills and knowledge to better perform in their existing role or to attain the skills needed to perform at a high level in a new role” (Meyer, 2023). Professional development—if done with intention—can have many positive impacts on an advising team and the institution as a whole. Investing in advisors through meaningful development can lead to higher job satisfaction and decreased turnover. In fact, in a recent Gallup survey, when asked for the ‘primary reason for leaving your job’, American workers selected ‘advancement, development, or career opportunities’ 12% of the time – the second highest selected reason behind ‘Pay’ (Gallup, 2023). Professional development can lead to greater self-awareness, encourage confidence, and leadership. It also provides advisors with opportunities to learn new strategies and techniques based on NACADA's Core Competencies, which serve "as the foundational elements for effective advisor training programs and advising practice” (NACADA, 2017).

Professional development should not be confused with onboarding or job training. Onboarding is the process of welcoming new employees to the department or organization and orienting them to their new role. This typically occurs in the first 2–4 weeks of employment. Meaningful professional development for academic advisors differs from training in that it dives deeper into student development theories and advising techniques. For example, if an advising team would like to learn about mental health support on campus, a training might be a 1-hour session with members of campus health services to learn more about their department and how they support students. Professional development might supplement that with a webinar/workshop on suicide prevention training or trauma-informed advising practices and a refresher on mandatory reporting responsibilities. This provides an opportunity for deeper learning and collaboration with one another on best practices in the advising field.

Because of the benefits of professional development, advisors at the University of Southern Maine have created a committee to continuously coordinate opportunities to develop the necessary knowledge and skills to support the success of our students, as well as continuing to build community amongst our advising team.

Advising/Committee Structure

Our advising team is spread across USM’s three campuses located in Portland, Gorham, and Lewiston and consists of a director, a senior associate director, 17 advisors, and three administrative staff members. “Designing these [professional development] programs is not an individual activity; it is vital for a training and professional development team (i.e., a design team) to identify targeted learning goals over multiple modalities and structures” (Higgins et al., 2024). At USM, we created the Advising Professional Development Committee, a committee chaired by the senior associate director that includes four advisors. Annually, as a committee we conduct a needs assessment of the full advising team. Based on the assessment results, our committee will discuss and plan professional development activities for the upcoming academic year that are aligned with our university and advising missions.

In some years, our Advising Professional Development Committee has had nearly $10,000 allotted for professional development allowing us to attend regional conferences, webinars, workshops, and purchase materials that align with our needs assessment and goals. But, there are other years when our funding is more limited to less than $1,000 for the entire team. No matter what funding you have available, meaningful professional development is possible for your team.

Professional Development Approach

Although there are many ways to approach professional development, at USM, our experience, observations, research, and assessment of our team has led us to believe that offering opportunities in a structured, consistent way is important. This consistency embeds professional development into a department’s culture and builds trust within a team because they can rely on opportunities for growth. Our department has built this consistency through structuring our professional development in a way that is engaging for staff and manageable for the committee to continually plan. This includes ongoing initiatives on self-care and diversity, equity, and inclusion; a themed professional development series throughout each fall and spring semester; a winter book group; and a summer retreat.

Ongoing Initiatives

Each fall and spring semesters the Advising Professional Development Committee has two ongoing initiatives to support advisor development: Diversity, Equity, and Anti-Racism (DEAR) Fridays and Mindful Fridays. On average, every other week on a Friday throughout each fall and spring semester, we have an opportunity to continue this valuable work to create a greater cultural awareness and competence related to diversity and equity and to promote inclusive decision-making practices in all aspects of our work. Each discussion is focused on resources connected with campus initiatives and current events. Through mutually created ground rules, the facilitators provide a safe space to discuss these important topics. The facilitators are members of our USM advising team with a background and passion for this work. Our goal, through this series, is to align our practice with our institution’s Office of Equity, Inclusion, and Community Impact (EICI) to foster an inclusive, equitable, and accessible learning and working atmosphere by creating a welcoming and inclusive environment where all can thrive academically, professionally, and personally (University of Southern Maine, 2024).

Mindful Fridays are offered on alternate Fridays through the fall and spring semesters. The focus is on preventing advisor burnout and supporting mental health. Topics over the past year included mindfulness, positive thinking, meditation, presence and awareness, clearing the mind, resilience, and caring for future you. This is an optional initiative but highly attended by advisors.

Themed Series

Using our yearly assessment of our team, the Advising Professional Development Committee creates two to three experiences each fall and spring semester that connect with one another respectively. For example, Fall 2022’s theme was advising approaches, and participants engaged with webinars and workshops on nudge theory, motivational interviewing, and non-violent communication. The committee scheduled time for group reflection following the experience to discuss what participants learned and how we as USM advisors might adapt our practices to better support students.

Winter Book Groups

Each winter, the Advising Professional Development Committee facilitates collaboration with other student-facing offices on campus to engage in discussions surrounding a particular book, podcast, or documentary. This is a wonderful opportunity for development as well as fostering positive relationships with other departments advisors work closely with. To prepare, in the preceding fall, the committee surveys for book/podcast/documentary suggestions and then votes to solidify the top few options. Participants then establish small groups based on our personal goals and preferences and meet a few times throughout the winter.

Summer Retreat

After a long academic year and a summer onboarding newly matriculated students, August is the perfect time for rejuvenation and team building. This is just as essential to the overall success of the department as learning about student development theories or practicing advising techniques. Team building exercises have been linked to increasing motivation, productivity, creativity, and communication within the team (Deiratani, 2021). It is also an excellent way for administrators to prioritize appreciation of their staff. For example, one summer, all USM advisors participated in a guided tour of our city and had lunch together at a local art museum. Another summer, we booked a space at the student center on campus and spent the day participating in different activities, including rock painting, ping pong, and touring the residence halls. These events have fluctuated based on our professional development budget, but meaningful and effective rejuvenation retreats can be done with or without funding. 

Conclusion

The commitment to ongoing professional development has proven to be a transformative force within the advising team at USM. Recognizing the importance of intentional growth, the team has established a structured and consistent approach that not only aligns with the institution's goals, but also fosters a culture of trust and continuous improvement. “Training and professional development initiatives hold synergistic power. They can form connections between ongoing learning processes that meet the needs of students and the ever-changing demands of higher education” (Higgins et al., 2024).

References

Deiratani, A. (2023, May 10). 12 reasons team building is important for your company. TeamBonding. https://www.teambonding.com/6-reasons-for-team-building/

Gallup, Inc. (2023, July 20). Employee Retention & Attraction. Gallup, Amazon. Global Indicator: Employee Retention & Attraction - Gallup

Higgins, E., Gorgas Goulding, H., & Peabody, M. A. (2024). Advisor training and professional development. In Academic Advising Administration (2nd ed., pp. 282–294). Routledge.

Meyer, T. (2023, October 19). What is professional development? Business News Daily. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10092-encourage-professional-development.html

NACADA: The Global Community for Academic Advising. (2017). NACADA academic advising core competencies model. https://www.nacada.ksu.edu/Resources/Pillars/CoreCompetencies.aspx

University of Southern Maine. (2024.). Equity, inclusion, and community impact. https://usm.maine.edu/equity-inclusion-community-impact/