Human Capital Assessment Tool

This tool will help leaders to reflect on how current human capital practices are leveraged to support systemic and scalable student success reforms.

The items in the following assessment tool reflect strong practices observed through Aspen’s research and direct engagements with excellent community colleges, which we define as those achieving high and improving levels of student success (1) both while in college and after graduation (2) overall and for students of color and low-income students. The assessment tool is organized in several domains of practice emerging from Aspen’s research and prompts users to rate their institution’s adoption of each item within each domain. Once complete, a summary of scores will allow colleges to identify strengths and weaknesses in specific practices aligned to each item and also to observe which domains most need improvement.

In this assessment tool, the term “student success” has the following meaning:

  • Success in college: Students (1) learn and (2) complete credentials.
  • Success after college: Students (1) get good jobs and/or (2) transfer and attain a bachelor’s degree.
  • Equitable outcomes and access: For Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, and low-income students, the college ensures high absolute rates and minimizes gaps in (1) learning and completion outcomes for students in college, (2) transfer and workforce outcomes for students after college, and (3) enrollment of different demographic groups relative to the college’s service area.

Directions: Assess the extent to which your college engages each of the following practices, according to the scoring rubric.

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Domain 1

Vision and Strategy
College leaders have adopted a human capital strategy that is clearly and centrally tied to the college’s goals and priority reforms for advancing high and equitable levels of student success.
Human capital is elevated to the level of strategy, reflected in all major reform initiatives, staffed at the cabinet level, and treated by the president as essential to mission fulfillment.
Annual priorities for improving human capital are set at the cabinet level and aligned with student success goals.
As part of the human capital strategy, the president and senior leadership team set goals for themselves to advance and model the culture they aim to build.
The president shares human capital strategies with the board, proposes annual goals and budgets that advance human capital strategy, and incorporates human capital goals in the president’s annual review.
When budget challenges lead to the need to reduce staff, college leaders make strategic choices about where to reduce staff based on the impact those cuts will have on student outcomes.
College leadership annually reviews staffing levels throughout the college and considers and makes changes that advance student success goals and strategic priorities.

Domain 2

Recruitment, Hiring, and Onboarding Practices
College leaders are implementing a recruitment strategy aligned to student success priorities, have adopted specific goals for recruitment across the college and for each major division, and routinely monitor progress toward those goals.
The president and senior team set expectations for strong, diverse candidate pools for every position, provide financial support for aligned recruitment strategies, and have strong and equitable policies and procedures for recruitment that aim to advance student success goals and priorities.
Position descriptions across the college prioritize the skills and characteristics of faculty, staff, and administrators that are most needed to fulfill the college’s priorities for advancing student success (in addition to the specific skills needed for the job).
The college requires the use of hiring tools, practices, and processes (e.g., interview questions, assessment rubrics, hiring committee composition) that prioritize employee skills and characteristics the college has identified as necessary to advance student success (in addition to the specific skills needed for the job).
Onboarding experiences for every employee include orientation and professional development that impart the institution’s values and strategic priorities for advancing student success.
Onboarding promotes a sense of belonging and connection to mission for each new hire, including the development of relationships in their department, with supervisors, and with other departments.

Domain 3

Professional Development Practices
College leaders have adopted a limited set of professional development priorities for faculty, staff, and administrators aligned to student success goals and informed by student outcomes data.
Every employee has a professional development and training plan that ensures ongoing, sustained learning experiences aligned to student success goals, differentiated based on their roles and tenure at the institution.
The college provides mandatory professional development and training aligned to student success goals through multiple formats to ensure that both full- and part-time employees engage in developing their capacity to contribute to improving student success.
The college adopts a significant, centralized professional development budget each year aligned to student success strategies, and requires that professional development dollars in division budgets are also aligned to collegewide student success goals and strategies.
College leaders understand where all professional development resources are spent and take steps to increase the alignment of those expenditures and staff hours to the colleges’ student success goals.

Domain 4

Retention, Promotion, and Tenure Practices
The president, senior leadership team, and leaders in every unit monitor and reward faculty and staff who engage in mission-aligned student success work.
The college transparently rewards adoption of practices designed to improve student outcomes and that in fact improve student outcomes.
The college incorporates into promotion and tenure processes professional development requirements aligned to student success goals and strategies.
Salary increases and pay scales align to performance-based measures, including student outcomes and progress toward student success goals and prioritized reform strategies.
Tenure and promotion practices are rooted in efforts to advance student success and require faculty and staff to refine their practices based on an understanding of outcomes rooted in data and other student-centered information.

Human Capital Assessment Inquiry Guide

Human Capital Assessment Inquiry Questions

Based on your Aspen human capital assessment tool results, where is your college strongest and weakest?

  1. In establishing a vision for human capital that is owned at the senior team level and has clear priorities for faculty, staff, and leaders? In what particular questions/domains?
  2. In recruitment, hiring, and onboarding processes aligned to priorities for human capital at the faculty, staff, and leadership levels?  In what particular questions/domains?
  3. In professional development practices that promote the skills and practices aligned with prioritized reforms and a culture of continuous improvement? In what particular questions/domains?
  4. In retention, promotion, and tenure practices that reward efforts to improve student outcomes and enact priority reforms? In what particular questions/domains?
     

How effective is the college’s current approach to human capital?

  1. What are the most effective ways your human capital practices have advanced improvements and equity in student outcomes? Consider the full cycle, from recruitment through incentives. What evidence do you have? How well aligned is your answer with the Aspen assessment results?
  2. In what ways are your human capital practices not aligned to your efforts to achieve higher and more equitable student outcomes?  How are your practices working against your reform priorities? Where are you not doing enough? What evidence do you have? How well aligned are your answers with your Aspen assessment results?
     

What do the assessment results and your answers to the questions above reveal about how effectively the president and other senior leaders employ human capital as a strategy for reform?

  1. Is a documented human capital strategy being intentionally advanced and is progress being monitored?
  2. Is a cabinet-level leader responsible for implementing a human capital strategy and implementing related priorities?
  3. In what domains specifically would it be most important for the president and senior team to improve (recruiting, onboarding, hiring, professional development, incentives/promotion)?
  4. Is adequate attention being paid to human capital at the presidential and senior team levels?
     

If multiple people took the assessment, are there any areas of disagreement? 

  1. In which areas?
  2. Why might this be?  Could the disagreement reflect fundamental differences in what people believe constitutes effective human capital practices?
  3. In what areas of disagreement does it matter that everyone is on the same page? 
     

Next Steps

  1. What 1-5 most important things have you uncovered about your approach to human capital from your assessment tool? How do those things relate to advancing priority student success reforms?
  2. Among the areas of strength, what do you want to keep doing and perhaps enhance?
  3. Among the areas of weakness, what few changes would make the biggest positive difference?
  4. What challenges do you have (or anticipate) in further implementing a strong human capital strategy, and how might you address them?  As much as possible, identify specific audiences (e.g., faculty of a specific department, academic deans, financial aid advisors, the president) and define specific challenges associated with each.
  5. What immediate next steps will you take to ensure action on these lessons learned?