Supervision
Supporting career & self-development
Effective supervision of student employees provides a safe space for reflecting on performance and offers tools and problem-solving that aid in success in the workplace. Supporting the wellbeing of student employees and their professional development is a best practice at LSU. A supervisor can offer a variety of resources and techniques to help student employees establish a growth mindset for their career and self-development.
Tracking Time
Supervisors are responsible for ensuring students adhere to scheduled hours and are logging their time for payment.
- Communicate to employees the steps they need to take each day/week to log hours.
- Student employees are not allowed to work more than 20 hours per week during the fall
and spring semesters or during the summer semester when enrolled in the summer session.
In the event that a department and student wish to exceed this limit, the supervisor may submit an appeal with justification for the student to work up to 25 hours per week. Additional considerations apply to international students. - Student Employees must be paid for all time worked.
- Payroll Fraud is any act of purposeful deceit against the payroll system. Any instance of not recording hours worked accurately is considered payroll fraud.
- If you become concerned that a student may be committing payroll fraud, report suspicions of payroll fraud or deceit to LSU System Internal Audit immediately.
- You should await Internal Audit’s guidance before proceeding with any handling of the situation.
Before the evaluation
- Have a set schedule for conducting performance evaluations and let the employees know to expect them upon hire.
- Secure a quiet location, where other student employees cannot hear the evaluation.
- Schedule evaluations in advance so that the employee knows when it is happening. Usually, 1-2 weeks' notice is recommended.
- Have a formal evaluation document and plan to allow the student to review it in advance. Download the example evaluation template.
- If the student employee is working in a customer service-related role like answering phones or greeting at your front desk, you may also want to provide them with something like this sample Customer Service Focused Self-Assessment.
During the evaluation
- Review the student employee’s job description and any office policies during this time. A quick review of office policies during each evaluation is good to keep office policies top of mind.
- Review the formal evaluation document with the student as well as any Customer Service
Focused Self-Assessment provided.
Include the opportunity to set goals. - Allow the employee an opportunity to ask questions or discuss any concerns or issues.
- If there is a performance concern, it should be directly addressed in the performance evaluation. Provide the employee with information on how they can improve and the plan for tracking improvement.
- Avoid comparing student employees to each other or professional staff members.
- The student employee and the evaluator should sign the evaluation. A copy of the evaluation should be given to the employee and the original should be kept with the department in a secure location.
Concerned about a student employee’s performance?
- Address it privately in an appropriate setting.
- Establish a plan for how improvement will be measured. A formal document/plan should be written down and signed by the student and supervisor.
- Document specific instances. You may use the HRM Coaching Session Form to document your session.
- Check-in regularly with the employee to track their improvement.
Student Employee Professional Development Program
The purpose of the Student Employee Professional Development Program is to create valuable modules, resources, and conversation topics for Student Employment Partners (SEPs) to provide their student workers throughout the academic year. Students will learn how to prepare for the transition from college to career.
Student employees can work through these modules as part of their assigned duties.
- Direct your student employees to enroll in the free, not-for-credit online course
by following the steps below:
- Use your LSU credentials to log into Moodle.
- From the home page, scroll to the bottom and enter “Olinde Career Center On-Campus Student Employee Professional Development Series” in the search box.
- On the next screen, click the enroll option.
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