As the oldest continuous site of higher education in Florida, Florida State University (FSU) has a lot to be proud of. Welcoming over 44,000 students from 130 countries every year, FSU’s career center supports them all. As one of the first institutions in the state to implement a “formative experience” requirement for all of its students, the career center is an integral component of campus life. Coupled with a state requirement that all students at a public Florida State school register with their career center, FSU has a lot on their hands.
To help manage it all, FSU has been supported by Symplicity’s CSM system from career fairs to understanding their student outcomes with reporting, and more. Since 2020, FSU has been a steadfast partner to ensuring students and employers connect to a successful post-graduation experience. FSU relies on Symplicity for its reporting capabilities, customization, and the employer relations with unmatched support from Symplicity.
Florida State University's career center benefits significantly from the reporting module in CSM, using the custom reporting to evaluate FSU’s student engagement. "I can attest that once you figure CSM out, you can definitely drill down and get any data points that you want from any of the forms, from any of the events, from any of the jobs, from any of the employers, from anything that's being entered in the system,” said Kyle Roark, Senior Assistant Director. “The ability to get exactly the data that you want is key.” The data within CSM enables FSU to make data-driven decisions on which employers to reach out to, assess how many students they engage with, and understand the big picture of a student’s journey at FSU. By comparing student engagement data with post-graduation surveys, FSU can evaluate the success of career center services.
“I can attest that once you figure CSM out, you can definitely drill down and get any data points that you want from any of the forms, from any of the events, from any of the jobs, from any of the employers, from anything that's being entered in the system.The ability to get exactly the data that you want is key."
Kyle Roark,
Senior Assistant Director, Florida State University
The ability to generate customized reports for different stakeholders, such as deans, allows FSU to showcase the impact of their programs and services on student success. This tailored reporting not only informs stakeholders but also aids in assessing the effectiveness of career center initiatives. “It's important for us to be able to make a case for resources,” said Leslie Mille, Interim Director. “With CSM, we can provide more resources to students that will help them achieve those post-graduation outcomes which is really important to us. We use the reports from CSM to inform our annual report showing how we engage with students and employers throughout the year for various Deans and programs across FSU… That's why the reporting is essential to us.”
With Symplicity CSM's reporting features, FSU can track student progress, assess program effectiveness, and ultimately support students in achieving successful post-graduation outcomes, without any barriers. “In our prior system, there were reports that we just couldn't get. We needed very specific information in order to be able to do our annual reports to our deans. Now, we don’t have that problem; we can generate any report we want,” said Mille
“At FSU, we love to customize things,” said Mille. “When looking for a system we want it to be very special for our students, our faculty, our employers. The other system couldn't give us that… CSM allows us to really look at each of the modules and what population is going to be interacting with it to tailor our language and experience for a variety of our student populations. It’s essential for us.” FSU's career center offers and CSM customization tools have been customized and branded as NoleNetwork.
"I like to be able to customize a form such that how a student answers something earlier in the form really changes how they progress in the form," said Roark. This customization enables FSU to capture specific data points and flags in student records, facilitating more detailed and personalized reporting processes.
Another essential feature that FSU leverages within Symplicity CSM is the job widget, which enhances accessibility to job opportunities for students across different colleges on campus. By embedding job widgets on various college websites, FSU ensures that students can easily access relevant job listings specific to their majors or areas of study. This approach not only simplifies the job search process for students but also demonstrates FSU's commitment to providing tailored career services based on individual academic paths. "We have worked with several colleges to add a widget embedded into their website so their students can see jobs specific to their major," Roark told Symplicity.
FSU maximizes the customization features of Symplicity CSM to streamline reporting processes and enhance student experiences. By customizing student records with relevant flags and data points, FSU can generate comprehensive reports tailored to specific needs. This level of customization not only supports efficient reporting but contributes to a more personalized approach in delivering career services to students. The strategic utilization of customization tools within Symplicity CSM underscores FSU's commitment to optimizing its career center operations and providing students with targeted support for their professional development.
Additionally, customized for their institution, FSU has branded CSM’s Pathways module to “Build Your Foundation.” This module plays a crucial role in ensuring compliance with State of Florida requirements for student registration with the career center. By utilizing this module, students can efficiently log in, complete necessary affirmations, and remove holds on their student accounts. Roark, who oversees this initiative at FSU, appreciates how this system integration allows for seamless student interactions and tracking, enabling targeted outreach based on specific badges or events attended. Additionally, he values the ease of identifying and messaging specific student populations within the system, tailoring messages with personalized information from student records or event attendance.
FSU switched back to Symplicity in large part because of the control they have of their own system. The customization within CSM, plus its data management is a large part of why FSU switched from their old system to Symplicity. I'm glad we switched, because I have colleagues in other schools that use [our old system], and I feel like we have a lot more control in our own system, comparatively, of what other schools have in other systems," said Heather Lazar, Senior Assistant Director of Employer Relations.
“I would say the most significant way it's made my life easier compared to the old system, is that customer service, that is a very big part of our employer relations team and how we interact with our employers,” said Lazar. FSU prides itself on quickly responding to employer inquiries and helping employers connect with students as much as possible.
With CSM, FSU has full control of its employer relationships from setting up accounts within the system, job postings, to even resetting an employer account password. “Compared to our previous system, I had my hands tied. I wasn’t able to fully control which employers were in our system and provide that customer support to them.” With everything in one platform, employers have a one stop shop to connect with not only FSU’s career center, but its students.
Throughout FSU’s collaboration with Symplicity, the exceptional client support they have received has been a standout feature. According to Roark, "Symplicity's customer service is something that I really value from the system. That we have a rep that we meet with regularly who does a great job of walking us through questions that we have, explaining new features. And anytime that we do have something that we need to submit for a ticket, I always get a quick response." This support empowers the career center team at FSU to effectively assist students and employers, alleviating any backend stress.
Lazar emphasized the significance of this partnership by stating, “The key is that partnership. Symplicity is working with us find the best way to help all of our different populations as much as possible. And I think that key is that partnership that allows me to give the best customer service, that allows me to customize things because Symplicity sees us as a valued partner.”
The collaborative relationship between FSU and Symplicity has resulted in the career center team engaging with their client manager to troubleshoot new modules aligned with FSU’s objectives. Roark expressed appreciation for these interactions, saying, “I love those opportunities to chat with our client manager asking ‘Hey, we're thinking about doing this, how would you do it?’ or ‘What could we do differently?’ These conversations are really helpful in helping us identify what we can be doing better and bounce ideas off with someone familiar with our system.”
Mille highlighted the unique value of Symplicity's customer service and partnership approach, “I've been with the career center ten and a half years. It is the customer service and the partnership aspects of Symplicity that have differentiated it from others because we know we can reach a person who understands your product, who understands our school, and we aren’t just a checkbox. That's really important to our staff in helping them do their jobs and make things frictionless for our students and our employers.”
To learn more about how CSM can enhance your career center, schedule a demo today or email us at info@symplicity.com.“I've been with the career center ten and a half years. It is the customer service and the partnership aspects of Symplicity that have differentiated it from others because we know we can reach a person who understands your product, who understands our school, and we aren’t just a checkbox. That's really important to our staff in helping them do their jobs and make things frictionless for our students and our employers."
Leslie Millie,
Interim Director, Florida State University