We are all still slowly recovering from the aftermath of the pandemic and lockdown, both personally and professionally, and research shows that one noticeable impact, particularly in the education sector, is a marked uptick in the number of employees considering leaving their employment.
More importantly, the same research has identified that despite the increase in those looking to leave their current employment, there isn’t a corresponding increase in the number of those looking to leave the profession.
Providing an explanation for this is likely to be multifaceted, including factors regarding the importance of staff welfare and wellbeing, increases in workload, and the tumultuous past few years leaving employees generally exhausted and looking to change their priorities and work-life balance.
An increase in the amount of employees considering resigning obviously presents a risk to settings, as a disjointed workforce can cause significant disruption. As a result, education settings are placing greater emphasis on retaining their staff, and in many ways, this is more difficult for the education sector given the closely defined parameters surrounding pay.
From our experience with working closely with clients in the education sector, here are several strategies that can assist with improving retention rates:
Increase in Flexibility
Employing more part-time staff and/or permitting staff to undertake part of their work, such as planning/marking, from home.
Focus on Career Development
Engage in conversations with employees regarding how they envisage progressing in their career and identifying any training needs that would coincide with this. By putting a plan in place, employees would feel more valued in the workplace and comfortable knowing they have a career projection plan in place.
Implementation of Wellbeing Strategies
This can include introducing a wellbeing charter and/or appointing wellbeing champions. By giving employees the tools to reduce stress, support mental health and improve their own wellbeing, it will make them feel more comfortable in the workplace and less likely to want to jump ship.
Assess Workloads
Undertake individual workload assessments to identify whether employee workloads are manageable or not. This will allow conversations to be had with staff which will bring to light any issues an employee may have with their workload, which in turn, would allow support to be provided.
Absence Management
Having a robust absence management process in place will assist with reducing the risk of employees becoming overburdened as a result of having to cover the work of absent colleagues.
Inclusivity
Adopting an approach where all leaders have a truly inclusive attitude and approach to people management.
Finally, as a more rounded point, I also believe that it is important that each setting carefully considers the role of HR within their business, and places significant emphasis on their own people management.
HR teams in settings tend to be tied up in “firefighting”, i.e., dealing with reactive employee issues, than having the ability to focus on more pro-active people management topics, which can lead to employees feeling undervalued, unappreciated and looking elsewhere…
About the author
Shakira Joyner
Shakira Joyner is Company Director at Personology. An accomplished Senior Human Resources Consultant, Shakira has a diverse skill set in human resources management, including undertaking confidential forensic investigations, change management, performance management and establishing strategic in- house HR functions. Well-practiced in advising on complex disciplinary and grievance matters and working with professional high level, senior managers to achieve resolution, Shakira has an extensive career in human resources management, with particular specialism in the education sector and has undertaken complex cases involving safeguarding and Employment Tribunal work.
