WW Process Alert – One free “no rank”

Decision:
*We will proceed with this process change to provide students with one ‘no rank’ each term.

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Current state
Currently, students must rank all jobs in which they’ve received an offer or a rank from an employer. If
students get ranked for a job they do not have an interest in, they can rank it a 9, but students can still
be matched even with a rank of 9. Similarly, if students don’t rank, JobMine automatically assigns a rank
of 9, and students can still be matched. Students can currently request a sign-off within 24 hours
following an interview for any job they no longer want to be considered for. Sign-off requests aren’t
automatically granted, and are typically only approved when a student indicates that information
provided in the interview doesn’t match with the information that was provided in the posting, and
when the concern raised by the student can’t be addressed. The rationale behind our current state is
that we want to preserve the integrity of the co-op employment process, so we currently don’t permit
students to simply remove their application from further consideration.

Future state
Employers will continue to rank first before students have the opportunity to use their one free ‘no
rank.’ They would have one free ‘no rank’ per term. Students would be required to provide a reason for
not ranking, which may be shared with the employer through CECA staff members.

Rational
This functionality is available by enabling or disabling this option. Any additional costs are for training
and communicating the process change to CECA, students, and employers.

Stakeholder engagement
The implications of this change were reviewed with CECA’s cross functional Process Management Team
(PMT), CECA’s management team, all CECA staff during an open house and the student panel open
house.

CECA feedback: We hosted a WaterlooWorks Open House that provided CECA staff the opportunity to
give feedback on work underway, including the proposed process changes. Approximately 70 staff
members attended the open house. Feedback from staff was very constructive, and indicated an overall
balance of those who are supportive of, and those who have concerns with the proposed change.

Student Panel feedback: We also hosted a WaterlooWorks Student Panel Drop-In, where members of
the panel, Co-op Student Council, FEDS Council, Co-operative Education Council, and the Vice Presidents
of Education of the six student societies from each faculty were invited to provide their feedback on the
proposed process changes. The invite was sent to approximately 100 students, of this, about 50
students were on campus this term, and of this, we had roughly 30-40 students in attendance at the
drop-in. Feedback from students was also constructive, and indicated all in favour of the proposed
change.
The Cooperative Education Council supported this process change, commenting on the value of the
feedback to the employer.
Summary of student and staff feedback

Feedback themes – supportive:
 Win/win for students and employers as it will reduce the number of times a student is matched
with a job that they have ranked a 9; reduce the # of sign-offs; reduce the number of reneges on
matches, which will in turn reduce the number of Policy 70 type cases.
 Employers don’t really want an uninterested student.
 Employers would value the feedback on why students are not ranking their jobs.
 Moves us one step closer toward a competitive real-world environment.

Feedback themes – concerns:
 The same employers may get numerous ‘no ranks’ from students.
 Does not address the issue of students applying to jobs they don’t really want.
 Will need careful communication with employers on ‘no rank status.’