How to compensate your Campus Reps

There are many ways to compensate campus reps, the most common way being traditional compensation: cash. If you cannot afford to directly compensate your campus reps, there are other forms of compensation such as providing the student with free product, continued education, or a full-time offer after graduation. You can also get creative with more innovative ideas, such as asking your current employees to put on a “real life” seminar for your reps. Use your current employees to teach campus reps real-life skills such as appropriate professional social media use or personal finance. Review the list below for more information on effective ways to compensate campus reps.

Method 1: Cash 

If you can afford to pay your campus reps, do it! Why? Cash is king! When reviewing job descriptions online, it is common to see an hourly rate of $10-$15 an hour on average. Monetary compensation can be either hourly or flat rate. When reviewing those same job boards for flat rate pay, we have seen campus reps make anywhere from $500 – $1,500 over the course of 12-16 weeks. But what separates the good campus rep programs beyond that? Think beyond monetary compensation for your campus reps. 

On Pura Vida’s website – an online seller of handmade bracelets -they mention that by becoming a campus rep, you’ll get access to free swag and cool perks, plus an exclusive referral code that your friends, family, and followers can use to shop puravidabracelets.com at 20% off. 

Pura Vida credits their campus rep program to their success and their campus reps did not receive monetary compensation up front. They recently sold to Vera Bradley for ~$75 Million. 

Method 2: Product 

Does your company make a product that your campus reps want? For example, let’s say you are a computer company and give your campus reps a laptop as a way to compensate them for their work. Or, you might sponsor an event, which allows you extra tickets as compensation incentives for your campus reps.

Method 3: Continued Education 

What if you don’t have a product of interest to campus rep compensation, but you offer a service that will help your campus reps? For example, you are a test prep company that gives away a course as a way to compensate your campus reps for their work. 

Kaplan Test Prep offers campus reps a free Kaplan course after just 3 months to help them succeed in their own educational goals.

Method 4: Questions & Answers 

People can spend their whole life figuring out what they want to do. Can members of your team help them by providing a question & answer session with different departments? For example, your CEO visits top performing campus reps to talk about how they got to where they are today. Your marketing department presents a class on social media marketing. Your tech team gives a class on app development. Your accounting department teaches your reps about personal finance.

Method 5: Feature campus reps 

Take time to recognize your campus reps. Although they may not work in your office, they are employees of your brand and will appreciate the praise. Some high-performing companies showcase campus reps on their websites or social media to emphasize their importance to the company. Essentially advertising your campus reps not only makes the individual reps feel good, it is also attractive to prospective employees. Employees appreciate being appreciated – public recognition is a great place to start. If you choose to recognize your campus reps you would be in good company – Victoria’s Secret PINK, Pura Vida, and Kaplan Test Prep all feature their campus reps on the company website.

Method 6: Full Time Employment 

If your reps prove to be reliable employees, can they be given an interview with your company for a full time career? Connect campus reps with a person in your Human Resources department to open the conversation upon graduation from your Campus Rep Program. 

Take these 6 tips to better compensate your campus reps for their work. Need more ideas, or want to create a personalized plan for your reps? Contact Campus Commandos for more information.