Open the Gates for Staff Retention: Strategies to Motivate, Develop, and Recognize Student Staff

Agon Abazi has nearly 5 years of experience in Campus Recreation at Cal Poly Pomona serving in the Intramural and Sport Clubs departments. In this time, Agon has taken on duties such as recruiting and training beginner and experienced employees, designing individualized and elaborate trainings, presented at NIRSA conferences and events, and spearheaded new opportunities to increase student participation. Agon has been involved since the inception of many of the strategies mentioned in the presentation and his experience provides great insight into the topic at hand.

Working as an employee in intramural sports, as an official, supervisor, graduate assistant, and now coordinator, I’ve have experienced and understand the value of student retention and the effects on the program. The better motivated and valued the staff feels, greatly influences and impacts the program from my personal experiences of implementing new and impactful ways to engage student staff at various universities and institutions. These strategies come from reading books, researching, and understanding the factors that employees, specifically student employees value and appreciate the most to have them operating at their highest performance levels.

Kaycee has worked in Intramural Sports, since beginning as a student 12 years ago. Kaycee has been committed to creating a positive work environment that encourages staff development and re-evaluating processes and finding areas of improvement. In the past few years, Kaycee has presented at several NIRSA Region VI and Annual Conferences. Some of these presentations included: "Creative Strategies to Increase Female Participation in Intramural Sports," "Emerging Leaders-- How to Provide Personal and Professional Growth Opportunities for Student Development," and "Cultivating an Intramural Sports Environment that Encourages Female Officials to Thrive."