In an effort to place student employees in positions more suitable for their skills and qualifications, the Office of Student Employment has made changes to some of its procedures. “We’re looking to help them (students) build a foundation for their resumes and future careers,” Rachel Babin, assistant director of Financial Aid, said. “We’re trying to match the job with what the student can bring to that office and help get the best possible worker for each department.”

For standard student employment jobs, such as receptionists, the Office of Student Employment revised its database so departments can request qualities of potential employees, such as communication-oriented, artistic-oriented and computer-educated.

Babin said the database will then sort students by those attributes. She said departments would also be able to request majors, classification, GPA and ACT scores.

“If there is a clerical job open, we may search for computer skills,” Babin said. “If there is an opening for a receptionist, we will look for people skills.”

The Office of Student Employment will send E-mails to the first 30 students, based on when applications were submitted, that meet the requested criteria to determine each student’s interest in the position. The E-mail message will include a link to an online form for the student to complete. Babin said the form is “quick and easy” to complete.

Babin said students can indicate on the form whether they are interested in the position, not interested but still seeking student employment or not interested in student employment. Students will be allowed two days to fill out the form.

In the past, departments would receive names of students who had applied for student employment but were no longer interested, according to Babin. She referred to the new process as a “pre-screening” for the departments.

“We want to find the students that are interested in working in the jobs we have available,” Babin said. “The E-mail system will really help with that. Now we’ll have students who want to work at the position we have open at that time.”

Babin said nothing has changed with the application process.

Regarding jobs requiring specific skills, such as lifeguards, Babin said the Office of Student Employment will post available jobs at the Student Employment Web page after being informed by departments of availabilities.

An E-mail will be sent to all students when a new posting has been added and the posting will be removed once the position has been filled.

In the past, Babin said the Office of Student Employment was not able to advertise University-wide for skills-specific jobs.

“The big thing we really want to get out is for students to check their Nicholls E-mail accounts,” she said.