Seven hours a day.
That’s how much time the average college student spends on their phone.
We’re not here to criticize, merely reporting that an entire generation of young people are spending almost as much of their lives online as they do sleeping. (And let’s be honest, plenty of college students are getting less than 7 hours a night.) Their entire lives are digital, their education is increasingly digital and so are many of the ways they socialize. And yet, when catering to these young people, higher education as a category comes up short when we assess digital maturity. Just 2% have optimized their tech stacks for the current generation. Why would you ask an 18-year-old student who grew up on the internet to submit a paper form? Do most Freshmen even own a printer?
The majority of incoming higher ed students are Gen Z, and they don’t just prefer digital experiences—they depend on them. In fact, 69% become uncomfortable after being away from internet access for more than eight hours, and 27% say they can only last one hour. When you fail to offer digital enrollment, orientation, surveys, and service requests, you make it harder for students to engage with you.
These manual processes are hard on employees, too. Our State of Digital Maturity report found that 72% of workers think inefficient processes negatively impact their job. This means higher levels of frustration, stress, and overall job dissatisfaction. Employees end up devoting their time to mindless, repetitive tasks instead of more strategic, fulfilling, and impactful work. How much time exactly? An average of two hours per day, according to our research.
Ask your school administrators what they would do if given back 14 hours a week. They would probably tell you that they would spend more time innovating and looking for creative ways to support the future leaders of our country.
But fear not. Our latest guide aims to tackle these very real problems by looking at automated workflows specific to education. Whether your specific focus is related to alumni relations, donation management, or even student enrollment, we have a workflow using Formstack products that will save your department time and money.
Dive into the guide ‘7 Education Form Workflows to Improve Your School Today,’ to see specific workflows that can automate processes, empower workers, and save resources in the education sector. You will also find best practices, customer stories, and step-by-step instructions on how to leverage digital transformation to turn your school into an efficient enterprise. Who says academia has to lag 20 years behind?
Not only do the benefits of Formstack relieve pressure from your staff, but they elevate the student experience. Whether you are sourcing student feedback, or even trying to rethink how your campus sources IT requests, every educator needs to read this guide now.
