AIU Online ripoff, high pressured sales, boiler room, threatening employees Hoffman Estates Illinois

Looks like a former advisor finally got revenge on one member of top management who is being accused of threatening employees jobs and "motivating" through fear. This was cc'd to about 400 admissions advisors and the University president and head of recruitment (errrr: admissions). I guess now we know why admissions advisors will say anything to a student to get them enrolled. If not, they lose there jobs!

From: H**** P*****
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2005 10:52 AM
To: Suggestion Box; Steve Fireng; Debbie Love

Subject:
Importance: High

This suggestion is directed toward Debbie Love exclusively.

There are several suggestions that I have, and after being employed at AIU for over a year I can assure you these comments are felt by many advisors. Think of this as an opportunity for improvement in retention as well as an opportunity to help create advisors who consistently hit their ESP's.

The first thing I would like to comment on is the communication gap. There is a huge gap filtering down what is going on in the company. One of the reasons why so many ridiculous rumors are created on the floor is because advisors simply just don't know what is going on. An example of this is the contradiction between being an advisor versus being a sales rep.

New people do not have enough of a ramp up time to understand that hitting your ESP is the main thing necessary in order to keep your job. The problem with this is advisors begin to hand pick their enrollments because they are not sure if the student will start or not. Before the advisor knows it, enrollments are down, show rate is better, and they are on a PIP. There is no clear communication that all you have to do is enroll.

Portland had the pleasure in welcoming Mrs. Love to our facility when the SACS review was taking place. Her impromptu meeting was horrible; which leads me into my next suggestion. I suggest that Mrs. Love take on a different approach at motivating the Portland site. She wanted to let the advisors know that hard work (dials/talk time) equals job security. This is just not true. Numbers secure the job. This should be told to everyone upfront so everyone is on the same page.

Mrs. Love called a site wide meeting; in this meeting she was condescending and extremely disrespectful. Yelling at an entire room of advisors is a fabulous way to take moral and throw it out the window. The window that clearly has no bars on the window. Using the lousy Portland job market as a tool of motivation is hardly effective at retaining valuable employees who should become future managers.

Valuable employees are not concerned with the job market. They do not need AIU. Yelling to a group of advisors Did you like being on unemployment? Did you like wondering how you were going to feed your family? is completely unprofessional and classless. As a leader, one should present their message in a respectful way without being condescending and vicious.

I suggest she refrain from telling a group of two hundred advisors who she doesn't know that she owns them. This is just disrespectful and un-motivational. It is human nature to work hard for people you respect. Most often the reason we respect a leader is because we feel they respect us. Telling a group you own them and that they were unemployed before AIU is hardly respect on any level.

Lack of respect equals: less productivity, higher turnover of intelligent, educated valuable employees, and a slump in hitting budgets across the board all the way up. Dealing with your employees the same way we deal with our demographic is a bad idea.

Portland is not Chicago. Since a team is simply a reflection of management, my suggestion is that Mrs. Love understand that although she feels Portland should trust her she might want to check her ego at the door and realize Portland is not where they should be because there is a gap in communication and her motivation tactics are not working out here in the Northwest.

My experience at AIU has been an interesting one. My DOA's and SDOA's have been fabulous and probably would like to be treated with more professional consideration as well. There is a lot of potential at AIU, but unfortunately disrespecting educated professionals pushes them out the door. Just to clarify any rumors.it does rain here in Portland Mrs. Love.

Float on,
Ms. H******* *******
Sr. National Admissions Advisor

American Intercontinental University Online

877-701-3800 Extension 3****

Fax: 503-***-***

Joel
Beaverton, Oregon
U.S.A.