Falling apart? Find a way back!
After binge watching the new Beatles documentary “Get back!”, Fab 4 fan Michael Iannini thinks again about what makes great collaboration possible.
After binge watching the new Beatles documentary “Get back!”, Fab 4 fan Michael Iannini thinks again about what makes great collaboration possible.
Wednesday 13th July, 2022.
Tony Child has news of the return of a much loved summer event in the UK this July – a great networking opportunity for school leaders and other supporters of international schools.
The annual COBIS conference took place in London as a hybrid event in May. At a time of such change, it was important to get people together again, as Andy Homden reports.
Keeping people safe in high-risk situations is what Phil Jones does. What can schools learn from his approach?
Katrina Daniels-Samasa suggests that if a school does not actively cultivate its climate, it will drift and when it drifts, avoidable problems will arise.
Set up in 2021, the Times Education Commission is about to report on the state of education in the UK. Commission Chair, Rachel Sylvester looks at the initial findings.
Stephen Priest, Principal of the British International School of Tbilisi and Chair of Black Sea Schools Group looks at the heroism of colleagues in Ukraine and how schools have been supporting each other.
Who are the biggest influencers in education? Following a white paper by ISC Research, Ashley Kirk looks at the world of ‘edruptors’ and what they have to say.
Whether everyone is flying or flagging, you will get more out of your team if you take a quick look at how you work together, argues Michael Iannini.
If it is becoming increasingly tough to recruit, it has become doubly important to retain great staff. Simon Dunford looks at building a school’s reputation as a good employer in the age of social media.
Following on from the article in the February 2022 issue of ITM by Diane Jacoutot, which highlighted how the recruitment market is now going to be tougher than ever, what should, or what can schools do to give themselves a competitive edge?
Prospective teachers, like parents, are a key audience for what is being said about any school. If you can’t attract the right teachers, a school’s potential to attract new families is massively diminished.
Competition for staff is undoubtedly going to be increasingly tough. As a school, you need to set yourself ahead of the pack: having an historical reputation for excellence in education will not alone cut it if you also have a parallel reputation for not actually being a great place to work.
The undeniable fact is that teachers talk. They talk to each other, both within the school and with teachers from different schools, locally and globally. In the internet age this is so easy with different social and sharing platforms and forums.
Teachers discuss how they are treated and valued by employers; they discuss the effectiveness of the leadership. In all industries, and education is no different, the expertise and behaviour of leadership can be the number 1 reason for workplace dissatisfaction and people leaving organisations.
People don’t leave bad companies. They leave bad leaders
Betsy Allen-Manning
On the internet, the sort of questions that are being asked about schools are:
These types of questions are asked before people even decide to apply for a position or join a school. Schools, in this tougher recruitment market, need to ensure that they also have a great reputation as an employer.
Even when finances are tight, they must prioritise finding a way to offer the very best recruitment packages possible. Money is always going to be important – most people ultimately work to earn the best living possible. So, to attract the highest level of quality applicants, you must be offering packages that are attractive.
Never move the goal posts. You must also protect the attractive packages that you have offered. A surefire way to erode trust and respect from you as an employer (and ‘encourage’ people to leave) is by making negative changes to your employment packages and conditions (salary/benefit/holiday changes). The news of you doing so will spread like wildfire across the internet and will do a huge amount of damage to your reputation as a trusted, supportive and ethical employer.
If restructuring is necessary – and it sometimes is – do things as transparently as possible. If you surprise your staff, the online backlash might be difficult to contain.
While financial rewards are often a primary motivator in the recruitment challenge, it is not the only thing and there are plenty of other ways that you can make your school an attractive place to join.
Having the right culture is so crucial in everything that you do and, therefore, can achieve. Make sure that your leadership has created a strong culture within the school and staff that actively promotes, nurtures and protects –
Having a focus on providing excellent professional development opportunities for your staff can be an excellent way of showing that you value your staff and want to support their growth.
Ensure that the working conditions for your staff is appropriate. This might sound too obvious to mention but, whilst you are paying for your staff to provide you with a service, do everything you can to avoid staff burnout. Provide them with the best tools that you can to enable them to do their job. Actively look after their health and well-being.
Some ways you can demonstrate that you value your staff (other than uplifts in pay and benefits):
Consider:
The bottom line here is that recruiting the best people is now going to be harder than ever before. Schools need to actively be promoting themselves as, and get a genuine reputation for, being a great place to work. Schools should be aiming to have people discussing and sharing online, things like, “They are really good to their staff; it is apparently a great place to work”.
Author and CEO of Dumond Education, Simon Dunford is an experienced educator with over 25 years’ experience in teaching, leadership and advisory roles in many countries and regions worldwide.
Feature and support images: by geralt on Pixabay