Solutions for Staffing Shortages

Carla Arsaga -

By Sherri Savasta

Halloween will be here soon! Tricks and treats and all kinds of frightening scenes transpire during this holiday. This fright fest can be fun but will be over soon. Financial aid staffing shortages accelerated with the COVID-19 pandemic and have never slowed down. Recent years have seen this exacerbated with the 2024-2025 FAFSA launch, among many other factors.

Tricks and Scary Stories From the Not-So-Distant Past and Now

In March and May of 2022, NASFAA conducted surveys and published its findings on financial aid staffing issues related to the pandemic. The link is provided for you here; however, it is a brief 69 pages and if you are short staffed, you likely are not able to squeeze it into your schedule.

But just a few highlights from their Executive Summary on page three will have you nodding your head in agreement.

NASFAA said in its survey summary:

  • Reduced capacity: Half of respondents to the original survey reported operating at a 75% staffing capacity for both award years 2019-2020 and 2020-21. Another 56% of respondents reported in the follow-up survey that they were operating at a reduced staffing capacity and thus did not have time to complete the original survey.
  • Significant turnover rates: Most offices reported having difficulty filling up to 5-6 positions for both award years 2019-20 and 2020-21.
  • Administrative capability concerns: Forty percent of institutions indicated they did not feel they had the resources to maintain administrative capability standards. Nearly 80% voiced concern about their ability to be administratively capable in the future. More than half (56%) were concerned about their ability to adequately serve students with current staffing levels.
  • Difficulty hiring: An overwhelming majority (86%) reported not receiving enough qualified applications, and the large majority of those (67%) felt it was squarely an issue of salary restrictions that made the job uncompetitive.
    From NASFAA’s 2022 survey Financial Aid Offices Face Intensifying Staffing Challenges Amid Pandemic

Fast forward to an article in Inside Higher Ed in May of this year.

The Director of Financial Aid at Bellevue College in Washington state is not experiencing any relief. An excerpt follows:

“Taylor used to have more help. She said she has lost two staffers since 2022, and has four job openings posted that have stayed unfilled since the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Sadly, she is not alone. This is a far-reaching commonality among institutions of all sizes.

Couple the trends outlined above and the stressful 2024-2025 award year rollout and it’s no wonder aid administrators would like to add more staff to their office to join their team.

Treats and Hope for the Future

Global’s Consulting staff has been assisting Title IV institutions since 1996. Global is experienced in all aid delivery scenarios for small to large institutions and performs requested financial aid processing tasks, remotely working within the institution’s own systems once access is enabled. Global also has experience in a variety of Student Information Systems. Check our services below to see if you find any solutions you could use in your financial aid office.

  • Training is typically limited to the orientation of Global consultants to institution-specific workflows
  • We can assist with long- or short- term engagements, which includes peak processing needs or temporary staffing shortages

Numerous other projects can include:

  • Award year reconstructions required because of an audit or program review finding
  • Budgeting assistance for upcoming term(s)
  • Compliance file reviews to provide the institution with an objective review of current operations
  • Return to Title IV processing
    · Current population (ongoing)
    · R2T4 reconstruction because of an audit or program review finding
  • Staffing assessments can be conducted by reviewing institutional documents and interviewing applicable financial aid office staff members to provide an institution with an objective assessment and provide recommendations to facilitate an actionable plan for future enhancements to your financial aid office. This could also include review of any other departments whose work impacts Title IV student funding, such as the Bursar/Business Office and Registrar. Documents requested by Global would include:
    · Financial aid office organization chart
    · Job descriptions for all positions listed on the organization chart
    · Interviews with applicable staff
    · Student population data
    · Financial Aid workflow chart outlining the activities of the office
  • Review of an institution’s current financial aid Policies and Procedures and recommendations as to missing and inaccurate Policies and Procedures for the 2024-2025 award year. This includes suggested updates for best-practice solutions for Title IV processing areas for the 2024-2025 award year.

Global processes aid daily for institutions and offers many other Consulting solutions, handling many of the individual pieces of the process for institutions in need. If your institution needs assistance, please reach out, and Global will be glad to discuss our solutions with you.

Halloween will come and go, but financial aid is ongoing. Let us know if Global can treat you to a solution for any current needs your institution may have.

Sherri Savasta is Global’s Director of Consulting. She has been with Global since 2006, bringing in-depth experience to financial aid processing solutions.