Stu Halsall is the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, the Kennedy Mountain Campus, Wellness & Recreation of the University of Denver.
The University of Denver is passionate about offering its student body — roughly 6,000 undergraduate and 6,000 graduate students — the opportunity to build the skills, knowledge, and perspective they need to make a difference in our world and create real, lasting change.
Stu’s primary responsibilities include facilitating the student experience at the University of Denver and ensuring they reap the benefits of the 4D experience: advancing intellectual growth, pursuing careers & lives of purpose, promoting well-being, and exploring character.
Juggling the demands of a university while still remaining present and accessible to the student body can be difficult. And Stu noticed quickly that administrative details were taking away from his ability to interface with students and staff alike.
It became clear that he needed someone to handle the little things for him and his team so that he could focus on the larger demands of his job.
“Just calendar management in itself is a challenge. I needed someone who could help me with my inbox, who could coordinate guests to the campus, who could do any number of things that would really just extend my bandwidth of what I can do and how I can have an impact on our student experience at DU.”
Then Stu heard of BELAY through the Business Made Simple Podcast with Donald Miller.
“They were talking about virtual assistants. At the time, I had utilized some students to fill the role here. I had dabbled with trying to hire somebody for a few hours in a small, part-time role, but what kind of piqued my interest was matching folks with the specific skill set you are looking for.
“Obviously, I think the world changed through COVID, and so the idea of someone working virtually with you and getting things done well — I think it just accelerated that thought process a little bit.”
Stu experienced the benefits of BELAY’s personalized matching process immediately when he met his new BELAY Virtual Assistant, Grace.
"What I love about what BELAY did is they matched us with somebody who is familiar with higher education first and foremost. There's a familiarity of industry that I think is so important. Whereas previously when we outsourced, that was very hit and miss — but if somebody's been familiar with higher education, that makes a huge difference because they get things like the language and how things are referenced.
“Grace also has what I would say is a highly professional skill set. When I was working with some students previously, they were learning and developing in so many ways. But Grace was a professional right away. She knew what she was doing, and she operated that way from the start.”
With the support of his Client Success Consultant, Stu found ways to get creative with Grace’s onboarding process to make sure she felt a connection to the University of Denver – even while virtual.
“When I took this step, I thought a lot about what we regularly do for the onboarding of employees, and a Virtual Assistant is slightly different in the sense of their interactions and their role. We are a very relational business here and obviously, in-person. This was slightly different.
“So, we built standard operating protocols around certain things that need to be done. We tried to – I think there's been a learning curve, and I mean that in a good way – we tried to get creative online with training like a virtual tour of the campus so she had context for the buildings and other pieces.
“So we tried to have some fun with it, but obviously we were doing it in a very different way, and I think we learned a lot of lessons doing that.”
In fact, Stu and his team learned so much that they changed their onboarding process going forward.
“We have a large part-time team of student employees or community members who work for us, and we moved a lot of that onboarding process online after going through this kind of process. We got such good lessons from it.”
They also intentionally carved out space for Grace to meet relevant staff members which created closer bonds across the team.
“I think folks feel really comfortable reaching out to Grace after a lot of those interactions. And then obviously she learned our business being in those meetings as well, and it enabled her to ask great questions of us. [T]hen, also we had to think, ‘What are we just assuming that maybe Grace wouldn't know and what could we work on as well?’”
Grace and Stu have a biweekly meeting cadence to ensure clear communication and consistent support.
“There's really two standing meetings, and then if something's going on, if we need to grab fifteen minutes, we do. I try to be really respectful of Grace's time. We've tried to really operate within certain hours and create our workflow around that.
“But there have been a couple of times where Grace has really worked to step out of that and support me, especially if we're dealing with something I would call more of a crisis situation or other things. She's been willing to step up and really help me coordinate some things. So I've been greatly appreciative of that.”
As time went on, Grace and Stu became more adept at working with each other. As Grace’s capacity grows, Stu’s bandwidth grows as well — a sign of successful delegation.
“I think as we've evolved, Grace has actually developed more bandwidth, and I've developed more comfort to give other things. So there were the core things that we agreed on the front end, and she's become exceptional at those. And obviously, Grace and I have a very different relationship than when we started. So the comfort level that's there to have her work on some things and other things is in a very different place.
“So today, Grace has worked on lots of different things for me — whether that's researching something, helping draft a presentation or any number of pieces — she's been able to step in and do those things, which has been a great benefit to myself and our team.”
“The benefits and returns we saw were pretty immediate. I think really we probably had about a two-week onboarding process, and then after that, we were going.
“I always say I'm learning things at the University of Denver, and I've been here 25 years, so Grace is always learning things about the University of Denver, too. So that's going to be continual, but that just gets stronger and stronger as we move forward.
“And I recognize my role at the University is a high-level role and Grace has to represent me at times, and I was comfortable with that from the get-go.”
Greater than the time Grace has saved for Stu is the impact he is able to make with that time.
“You underestimate how much time scheduling things takes and following up and confirming — and the busier you get, the more your time is in demand.
“I have key objectives each week that I really think about what I want to get done and how I can get there. I could tell you that prior to Grace, I was very hit-and-miss. There are not many weeks now where I don’t meet my key objectives because at the end of the day, they require relational time, and not having to spend as much of that time on the computer or administration makes a huge difference.”
That’s what BELAY is all about — helping you achieve your vision and reach your goals.