Recreation and Wellness recognized for student employee appreciation strategies

Auburn University’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center has long been a favorite on-campus job for students. Nearly 400 student employees work for Recreation and Wellness in various roles ranging from fitness instructors and intramural referees to social media content creators and facilities support.

Campus Rec Magazine recently recognized the unit for the staff’s innovative ways of recognizing and appreciating student employees. The article highlights Recreation and Wellness’ strategies to engage student employees, such as the Aquatics division’s incentive program for student lifeguards and Group Fitness’ in-house, student-led professional development conference and awards.

Corie Baldwin, assistant director of assessment and risk management at Recreation and Wellness, says the keys to the unit’s success in creating camaraderie are listening and being responsive to student employee feedback.

“Discover what has meaning to them and be willing to pivot,” Baldwin said. “Our previous employees wanted medallions as a keepsake for their time at Campus Recreation. Our current staff would prefer to have graduation cords. We are now looking into purchasing cords for our seniors to wear on graduation day.”

To learn more, visit the Recreation and Wellness website.