Neringa T's Blog: Part C - Implementation

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My goal for the Wicked Problem Project was to implement an effective training plan that will help MSU department administrators to learn to use the INSZoom foreign employee tracking system. One part of my project implementation was to survey all MSU department administrators. The purpose of the survey was to help me find out the preferred methods of learning of surveyed department administrators and to see how many departments are actually interested in learning the system.

I prepared INSZoom survey and emailed it to 129 department administrators. Department administrators had 3 days to respond to the survey. About 26 department administrators responded to the survey the first day. I sent out a reminder email the day the survey was due and total 55 department administrators responded to the INSZoom training survey.

I was very pleased with the survey results:

From the description of the INSZoom department interface, 76% of departments said they would be interested in learning to use the system.
45% of the department administrators thought that this system will make their job easier when preparing H-1B petitions and/or tracking H-1B employees.
33% said they would prefer video/audio or screen cast training, another 33% said they would prefer group training and 18% percent would prefer just a handout.
53% of the department administrators are actually planning to use the INSZoom interface and 40% are probably going to use the interface. Those 40% are probably employing no international employees or just one international employee and feel there is no need to use the system.

Based on the survey results, my supervisor and I decided to first prepare A Log In Request Form to all department administrators with explanation on how to obtain a log in ID and password from OISS to log in into the INSZoom system.

Since not all MSU departments are employing foreign employees, not everyone will need to use the system. A mass email will be sent this week to all department administrators requesting to fill out “Department INSZoom Authorization Form” and mail or fax it to back to OISS to request log in information. We will also have this form posted on our website.

Surprises: The planning process turned out to be more detailed than I expected. There are so many details and people involved in the planning process.

I have never thought about how departments were going to request log in information, therefore the first form I had to create was “Department INSZoom Authorization Form”. In this form I also included a paragraph about confidentiality since department will be accessing foreign employees confidential information.

Unexpected Bumps on the Road: I have to get an approval from my supervisor on everything I am doing on this project (sending mass emails, have all the forms checked before posting them on OISS website). Since my supervisor was absent the first two weeks of April, it slowed down my implementation process. I was not able to get approvals for having form proof read and I was not able to email “Access Request Form” to our department administrators. This will be done this week.

Delights: I was very delighted with the survey results. I expected about 30 responses and I was very excited when I received 55. I have about 50% of all training slides created.

I think I am making a very great progress of preparing a training manual which will be posted on OISS website and it will be emailed to all department administrators who request the log in information.
The in-person training will be scheduled for later in the fall semester. The training will be a part of our annual H-1B visa training workshop.