Retention of Teachers in schools

Active participants are: Mr. S C Vohra, Mr. Jeeva, Mrs. Suryavathi, Mr. Sunil Joshi, Mr. Ram Prakash Sharma, Mr. Mohan Singh, Mrs. Gulshan, Mrs. Uma, Mr. S I khan, Mrs. Archana khurana Sharma, Mrs. Annapoorni Balan, Mr. Sanjay Parmar, Mr. Sanjay Agarwal and Mr. Azeez

Strength of a school lies in the stability of its teachers. Frequent changes of a teacher at whatever may be the reason for that, the reputation of the school is degraded definitely in the sector.

It’s said the whole philosophy lies in two words - obtain and sustain. Before we discuss how to retain teachers , we should discuss how to recruit good teachers. Good teachers are not easily available. In fact , we as principals have to compromise with average teachers depending upon the managements policies and school budget. Then we have to work hard with them  over a period of time and turn them into quality teachers. When such teachers try to fly away in search of greener pastures, it’s natural to feel sad. We can’t stop all such teachers to spread their wings in the blue unknown, we can definitely minimise the number.

First and foremost task is to treat them with the dignity they deserve. They need to be felt important and stake holders in the school administration. The head of the institution must develop a personal rapport with all the teachers and keep them into confidence. He/ she should never boss over them. From time to time family get togethers must be organised to create a healthy family atmosphere. Their monetary interests must be looked after so well that they don’t think of making their nests elsewhere.

Head should act as a cushion between staff and management in times of crisis and stand by them through thick and thin. Timely payment of salaries and performance linked incentives also help in retention to a large extent.

A teacher will never join a school for immediate leaving from the school. Teacher knows well how it affects education of a child. Most probably unban schools not coming under  this kind of loop. In urban sector schools get easily teachers of their design. Because easy availability. And Teachers do not bother about any reasons such as respect, salary.....Because they may find part time jobs such as coaching and tuition classes for their extra income or to fulfill the loss of salary. But in rural section schools are affected more. Teachers may give varied reasons such as distant place, no professional growth, tight schedule, colleagues are not good, students are very brilliant and I am unable to coop with them, students are not good at studies, Principlal is not good, no increments, no appreciation from the ends of management and Principal, no facilities, no good environment, poor salary, more strength, village school, no leave granted, .......But whatever may be the reason the teacher gives, might be true or not, management and Principal should devise a mechanism by which a teacher should not prefer to leave. It’s difficult enough to find the right person to fill an open position.

Recruitment efforts take time and money. Jobs sometimes take months to fill, and if everything goes well, the right person is placed in the job. Sounds difficult? It is. But that’s actually the easy part. Once someone has been placed, what is being done to keep them? Placing a right person in a wrong position and wrong person in the right position create always problems.

Who's responsibility it is to have a right person to a right position and to retain the person for a long run in a school. Today’s employees have options and opportunities. If they aren’t happy, they will leave. They will find a new job and the school will be left with an open position to fill – which takes time and money.  Lots of time. Lots of money. Retention is a big issue. Knowing what makes people happy in their job and doing the right things to make sure they are happy, will not only help the school's bottom line, it will make the organisation culture a positive place to be. Who wouldn’t want to work in a positive environment?. Here’s the problem. Many people think school culture is created from the top down, from HR, or other places. While that may be partially true, in the long run, that method of creating, maintaining or changing company culture only works in instilling very general elements of the culture.  Why?. Because leadership and HR are often not working alongside the rest of the organization on a day to day basis.  It is difficult to instill a culture if you aren’t regularly spending time with most of the people in the organisation.  While it can be trickled down through the different management levels, it isn’t always the most effective way to ensure everyone gets the same message.

In top schools like Doon, Lovedale, Daly, St Joseph, Loyala, Hindu, Padma sheshathri.....who has created such a culture and name. Is it the Principlal? Founder? Governor?....It is created by the these cultural elements evolved from the people. Organisations culture has a big influence on employee satisfaction. I recently asked people on LinkedIn which factors of the culture have the biggest impact on retention.  I listed a number of choices, and everyone was also able to add other factors which were not listed.  Responders commented on the post itself and I also received a number of private messages. The results show that even though there is so much talk about creating organisation culture, many organisations are missing the mark.

The fact that RESPECT was the one factor that was mentioned far more often than the others says much about what is really happening in many organisations today. For every element in a culture, employees can take actions to improve the culture and their place in it. Sometimes they may need to have difficult conversations with their managements  and leaders are not always willing to accommodate their needs and requests. When this happens, employees need to decide what will work best for them, to stay in a place which doesn’t satisfy these needs or to seek other employment. It is all about choices and it is the employee’s choice about how to proceed. Below is the list of cultural factors impacting employee retention, which was discussed on LinkedIn. It is listed in the order of most to least frequent mentions.

1.Respect is EVERYONE’s Responsibility!Respect each other by the age, by the experience, by the qualifications, by the nature of the person. It should begin from the leader. The leader should compete and lead others in giving respect to his subordinates. It is better giving respect than getting. If Work is God, then who is he performing the work. Should he be Respected or not?. It is the failure of the head of there is no mutual respect among the people in the campus. Respect between the Teachers, between the students and between Teachers and students is to be taken care more. An organisation which is built upon the Foundation of mutual respect never be doomed. If  leaders view their employees as co-workers instead of subordinates, empower them to make decisions and demonstrate they trust the employee’s abilities, employees will feel more respected.  School leaders can and should always model respectful behavior. This is to be taken  significantly more than any other factor.  People want to be respected as people, for their knowledge and for their work.  Respect also comes in the form of trust – trusting leaders, employees, and peers. 

2. Organisation's culture is everyone's responsibility
culture has a big influence on employee satisfaction. I recently asked people on LinkedIn which factors of the culture have the biggest impact on retention.  I listed a number of choices, and everyone was also able to add other factors which were not listed.  Responders commented on the post itself and I also received a number of private messages. Retention is a big issue. Knowing what makes people happy in their job and doing the right things to make sure they are happy, will not only help the school's bottom line, it will make the organisation culture a positive place to be. Who wouldn’t want to work in a positive environment? Everyone needs to stop only looking toward leadership to create and maintain the culture. Everyone needs to take responsibility for it on their own.

3. Career Path / Advancement is EVERYONE’s Responsibility!
Every employee is responsible for managing their own career path. If you were to ask employees what they would like their next role to be, they can usually answer that question. Growth and development are two different factors in an organisation. Individual in an organisation should grow and development is to the organisation.  If it is reversed, retention is impossible. Leaders should ensure the individual growth and development of the organisation together. It is indeed directly proportional to each other : If you were to ask them their long-range career goals, you will find that many have never even thought about them.  Employees should set career goals, share them with their leaders and work together toward that goal.  They themselves should look for internal and external training to prepare themselves. They need to seek new tasks and experiences which will help them grow.

4. Professional Growth is EVERYONE’s Responsibility!
Everyone in an organisation needs to take charge of his/her own professional growth. While there are some leaders who encourage professional growth, there are also many who discourage it.  It is up to the employee to identify courses to take and explain to the manager how these leaders can help accomplish their tasks and assignments.  *Mentorship* is also important. If the organisation doesn’t have a mentor program, employees should take the time to find someone who has accomplished similar goals. This can be someone inside or outside of the organisation. Employees take charge of this by scheduling time to meet with their prospective mentor, preparing a list of questions about how they got to where they are and asking them for guidance. Most people are willing to help someone else, but if someone is not, there are plenty others that are. Retention is not at all possible if the employee does not have the above mentioned two. *Professional growth and mentorship*

5. Money Earned is EVERYONE’s Responsibility!
Everyone is responsible for their own compensation. While it is true that the company sets the salary, it typically falls within a range. It is important for everyone to know their market value and ask for compensation within that range. *Retention is not possible when compensation is compromised* Are you being paid your worth?  Ask a question to yourself. If not... learn a lesson from it if not paid well.

Some suggestions.
From the Lesson learned… If you have a question, don’t be afraid to ask. It’s usually not what you are asking, but how you are asking.  Asking for clarification opened the door to the conversation without making it a confrontational situation. I don’t know if it would have gone as well if I accused him of paying me less because of gender.  Sometimes (many times) there is much more decision-making information we are unaware of. We really didn’t know the reason for the salary decision, so asking about it first was a better move. *Speak to the right people* Don’t waste time complaining to a co-worker who can’t resolve the issue. Speaking to the wrong people causes unnecessary negativity. If it is a real issue that needs to be addressed, speak to the person that can help resolve it.  *Know your worth* If we knew our worth, we would have better negotiated when the job was offered. Today, there are many online resources that can help figure out what you are worth. Salaries may vary, based on location and industry, but with some research, all that information can be found as well. Get paid for the market value of the job.

6. Recognition is EVERYONE’s Responsibility!
À very big heart is a must for the leaders to recognise and appreciate. Everyone should encourage recognition in the school.  Employees who take the time to congratulate other employees find they are often congratulated in return. Employees can change the culture by actively recognizing good work and success. They can even take it one step further by suggesting and implementing new ways to celebrate successes. This is one of the smartest way to retain Teachers. Appreciate for their success. Have some good words to say. It needs no money to buy some good appreciating words. You can make their day worth and purpose of their existence great.

7. Personal Growth is EVERYONE’s Responsibility!
Everyone is responsible for his or her own personal growth. Presentation skills, writing, goal setting, are all examples of skills which may or may not be directly tied to a job but are all types of personal growth. If training is not available in-house for these types of skills, employees should seek true training elsewhere.  Not all training needs to have a cost. Training can take many forms and there are many YouTube videos and podcasts which are free of charge. Above all *Ensure that their lifestyles modified after joining your organisation* Support them to lead a quality life. *Save their life from their lifestyles*

8. Challenge is EVERYONE’s Responsibility!
Everyone is responsible for seeing to it that they are challenged. If employees do the same thing day in and day out, they will get bored.  Employees who feel this way should discuss ways to be challenged with their leader and not by the leader.  Employees can seek or find challenging projects and offer to do them. If a leader  does not want their employee to step out of their role, the employee needs to discus the reason with the leader.

9. Time and Flexibility is EVERYONE’s Responsibility!
Issues around time and flexibility often center around family life. It did not get nearly the number of mentions as some of the other factors, but those who value time and flexibility strongly believe in its importance. Allow them to spend quality time with their families specially on their health.

10. Relationships with Co-workers is EVERYONE’s Responsibility!
This is also one of the best way of retaining the staffs through healthy relationships. Everyone is responsible for creating positive relationships with their co-workers. If an employee is having a difficult time with someone, they should reach out and try to fix the relationship. Socializing, eating lunch together, etc. are ways to form strong bonds with co-workers. Sometimes this extra time and effort goes a far way.

*Dear Principals and school managers*.......

Right after the recruitment process has come to a successful conclusion, a new challenge comes up for you. Recruitment process is not an end, it is a new challenge....
Increasing employee retention is pretty similar to the recruitment process insofar as both should be
1) structured
2) people-centred
3) results-driven
And your ultimate goal should be, Making sure your staff members are satisfied and engaged enough, they couldn’t even dream of moving elsewhere. And It is achievable. *Achieve this by keeping some of these points in mind*.

*1. IT'S ABOUT THE SKILLS AND THE PERSON* Obviously you want hire people with the right skills for the job, but whether a person is a good cultural fit is actually a better predictor of success and your new hire sticking around for at least a few years. But don't take the candidate's word for it. In your recruiting process be sure to include culture questions and ask your candidates' references about their work styles too. Here are some sample questions to help you understand a candidate's views on teamwork and leadership and can easily be adapted to conversations with references:
1. Give an example of a successful project that you were part of. What was your role? What made the project successful in your view? 2. Share a time when you experienced working with a difficult coworker on a team. How was the coworker difficult and what did you do to resolve the situation to encourage the team's ongoing progress? 3. Tell me about a time when you created agreement and shared purpose from a situation in which all parties originally differed in opinion, approach, and objectives. The above all Questions are culture fit Questions to assess an employee in an interview (keeping the core value is TEAM WORK). Some of the answers in expressions  of the candidates are given for your personal reference from which you can adjust your conclusions about the candidates before hiring. Cultural fit answers.... keeping core value of the organisation is TEAM WORK. When you assess cultural fit. The candidate: Expresses comfort, and even a preference, for working with and on teams, Articulates his or her strengths in a team environment or working on a team, Is able to discuss the role that he or she typically plays on a work team, Describes a level of comfort how co-workers or bosses view his or her contribution in a teamwork environment, Says we when describing accomplishments, Attributes the success of endeavors to the group, Does not say I and me in response to many questions, and When describing past approaches, problem-solving, achievements, endeavors, and projects, in response to other interview questions, includes forming a team or teamwork solutions as viable options.

*2.PROVIDE CONTINUOUS TRAINING AND UPSKILLING OPPORTUNITIES*
We can't stress enough how training is something that needs to be done right and consistently throughout the onboarding process. It must also be an ongoing process for all employees.  Someone you hired a couple years back needs to stay up to date  on all the latest developments, tools and technologies in their area of expertise.  Be sure you're helping them do their job better and helping them learn new skills that will get to the next level in their current role, get that promotion or even make a lateral switch if that's where they'd like to go. We are deliberating on this issue for quite a long time. What I particularly feel is that there can be end number of reasons for not being able to retain an employee or what actually they might expect. What cut across the line is that everyone's need and motivation level is highly individualised and we should address their needs after identifying them rationally. Moreover if we can give a personal touch and be available when they need us the most, probably that magic works. Employees will leave only when they will have no other option but to move. In that case attrition level will be reduced if not eliminated

*3. CLEARLY DEFINE WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE AT YOUR COMPANY*
This helps both leaders and employees manage expectations - and mismanaged expectations is one of the biggest reasons for people leaving their jobs.  Of course everyone has their own definition of success, but if your employees' definition of success is generally well aligned with the company's definition, you're more likely to have happy, engaged and sucessfull employees.

*4.FIND A RELIABLE WAY TO TRACK EMPLOYEE MORALE & ENGAGEMENT* Some schools  send out a yearly "employee engagement" survey, and we're not saying it's not a helpful tool, but in today's world of technology there are more consistent and reliable ways to check in on your employee's morale and engagement.  A yearly survey is a snapshot in time, highly influenced by the current climate at work and the previous couple months.  Why not regularly check in with your employees with small "pulse checks"? You're more likely to see trends form and catch warning signs before they snowball into bigger problems

*Conclusion:*

The Core of Human Resources should focus on a fine tuned approach of Attracting, Retaining, Motivating employees. Some ways to retain employees is through the following:

1. Attracting right employees, Recruitment is a very important function. First formal communication of an employee is with the Onboarding team/ Recruitment Specialist. The Recruitment process should be able to attract right talent & reward them equally with compensation & benefits (Similar jobs & similarly skilled employees have to be paid equally), Job opportunity (which utilises there skill & offers them a challenging job to scale up & realise there potential), Training & Development (should help or the employees perform there job better).

2. Employees can be motivated, by ensuring that employees who perform well are rewarded which encourages positive environment, increases productivity, boosts there morale. The HR processes systems should be capable enough to identify employees who need coaching, mentoring or a whole performance improvement program.

3. Leadership should be able to showcase the “Values/Principles” of the organisation. Let us say that the organisation supports the value of being Transparent/Fair or being ethical. These values should be underlining principles of all operations/transactions from a complicated exercise of negotiation with the client or a grievance handling with a contract based employees.

4. Employees should be encouraged to share there feedback through various means and Communication Channels like Employee satisfaction surveys, 1:1 Discussions etc. The suggestions should be implemented & rewarded (Based on the values & measuring the impact of these suggestions).

5. Employee wellbeing is also crucial (Employee wellbeing identifies the individual's happiness at work) A significant influence on their happiness level is their subjective opinions surrounding their job and their employer. The environment should encourage them to also balance there work life Offer them flexibility to also fulfil there personal goals through various initiatives & policies - Stress survey, Work from home , Working for specific hours in a week.

6. Retention at the same time can be very specific. The issue can be addressed by having a 1:1, group & leadership level discussions. Trend or Data Analysis which can suggest the required initiatives prior to a resignation.

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