Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don’t want to.
– Sir Richard Branson
Why is HR relevant?
• Staff costs will be the single highest cost centre of your entire budget. How you lead management of that resource will have an overwhelming impact on the outcomes for pupils.
• Aspects of managing human resources are delegated to Middle and Senior leaders. It is therefore critical that Senior Leaders understand the importance and key features of effective Human Resource management to effectively lead the leadership team.
• Human Resource policies and procedures must reflect the vision and mission of the organisation in order to influence and shape the culture of the organisation.
Key features of effective HR
12 key features
Below are some of the key features of HR.
1. Leaders are experts on people management, work and change.
2. Policies & Procedures that reflect vision and mission as well as compliance with legislation
3. Staff are recognised as the key resource within the organisation and are treated with care and understanding
4. Recruitment strategy and process that is inclusive, attracts a talented pool of applicants that is legislation compliant and ensures safeguarding
5. Leaders act with integrity
6. Staff should have a meaningful voice on things that affect them
7. Staff should be supported in their work and provided with the resources to be effective. In return take personal responsibility for their work, development and behaviour.
8. A safe and healthy environment provided for staff
9. Leaders are committed to developing themselves and the staff team
10. Staff are encouraged to use their skills and talents effectively to promote staffing feeling valued
11. Leaders consider the impact of their decisions on the wider society, beyond the immediate school or MAT.
12. An inclusive culture where staff are treated fairly within an equitable system
Leaders are experts on people management, work and change
Expectations
Expectations of today’s leaders is changing to include:
• The ‘human face of leadership’ - the old imagery of the Directors in a Board Room with a private dining facility is rarely true in today’s workplace
• Leadership in uncertainty – the impact of the COVID pandemic has beautifully shown us the importance of leadership in uncertainty
• Making sense of complexity – leaders must have space to strategise, problem solve and plan
• Principles/values-led leadership – this is an expectation from staff as well as Governors, families and pupils
• Wellbeing in the workplace – recognition of the importance of mental and physical wellbeing is increasingly recognized as key to staff recruitment and retention
• Trust and empowerment – facilitating autonomy and trust are important features in reducing employee stress
• Navigating polarities – for example maintaining stability while leading change, provide structure while offering flexibility.
• Personal resilience – Nothing new – but important and significant factor in managing own wellbeing
• Inclusive leadership – an inclusive organization can be identified through its inclusive culture, led by inclusive leaders
• Communication in a virtual world – good communication is a key feature of successful HR leaders. This includes communication in a range of media.
Policies & procedures that reflect vision and mission as well as compliance with legislation
Policies and procedures
The following are the most commonly used references in school vision/mission statements:
• Christian - Schools with religious character can give preference to candidates who follow the specific religion
• Community – Staff encouraged to engage in community activity (eg volunteer programmes)
• Safe – Safer Recruitment Policy
• Excellence – CPD policy that encourages all staff
• Potential – CPD policy that encourages all staff
• Skills – Person Specs for all roles
• Global
• Prepare – Work experience programme
• Achieve – Staff rewards programme to recognize accomplishments
• Life-long – Long Service award system
Treating staff correctly
Recognising staff
Staff are recognised as the key resource within the organisation and are treated with care and understanding.
How this may be seen in the workplace:
• Formal employee assistance programme
• Effective induction
• Mental Health support
• First Aiders
• A culture of inclusion (how can we help you to do this, rather than this is how we do this)
• Flexible working
• Shadowing, Coaching and Mentoring
Recruitment strategy
Looking for new staff
As a senior leader you must have a recruitment strategy and process that is inclusive, attracts a talented pool of applicants that is legislation compliant and ensures safeguarding.
Below are some of the key checks and criteria you must use during the recruitment process.
• Blind selection panels – shortlisting carried out without selectors being aware of race, gender, religion of candidates
• Data captured on applicants and compared with successful recruits (are percentage of minorities applying similar to percentage of minorities appointed?)
• Inclusive imagery and language in recruitment and promotional material
• Equality & Diversity champion in post and inputs to recruitment process
• Equality & Diversity policy reflected in HR policies and procedures
• Zero tolerance to discriminatory behaviour and culture of challenging bias encouraged and promoted.
Listening to staff
Informing and consulting
Irrespective of the number employees, staff must be informed and consulted on
• any possible redundancies
• changes to employment contracts
• a TUPE transfer
• changes to pension arrangements
If the number of employees is greater than 50, all require the staff to be informed and consulted on significant matters and decisions. These commonly include:
• working conditions
• new ways of working
• the output and quality of the business's goods or services
• training
• health and safety
• new equipment
• staffing levels
• physical and mental wellbeing
Supporting staff
Giving staff what they need to succeed
Staff should be supported in their work and provided with the resources to be effective. In return take personal responsibility for their work, development and behaviour.
• We need to consider the impact on staff when budgets are tight – are our expectations reasonable if we reduce staffing in classrooms, increase pupils numbers, freeze expenditure on resources, etc.
• This ties in nicely with the importance of effective communication – if staff know that a budgetary constraint is temporary, why we are struggling, asked for their views before making change, meaningful discussion when staff raise concerns.
• Part of respecting the professional roles of colleagues and staff and their authentic autonomy, is expecting staff to take personal responsibility for their work development and behaviour. This is fairly and appropriately managed within the scaffolding of a performance management policy/system, staff code of conduct and disciplinary policy.
A safe and healthy environment
Protecting your staff
Both criminal and civil law apply to workplace health and safety. They're not the same. As an employer, you must protect your workers and others from getting hurt or ill through work. If you don't:
• A regulator such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) or local authority may take action against you under criminal law Links to an external site.
• The person affected may make a claim for compensation against you under civil law Links to an external site.
The six main areas that can affect stress levels are:
1. Demands
2. Control
3. Support
4. Relationships
5. Role
6. Change
The HSE provide risk assessment template toolkits and “talking” templates for managers, including one specifically designed for school leaders:
Talking Toolkit: Preventing work-related stress (hse.gov.uk) Links to an external site.
Below is an example of using the toolkit:
• Arrange to meet the teacher, inviting them to bring a work colleague or Trade Union representative to support them if they would find it helpful. You may wish to also invite the school’s HR Manager/Advisor to attend
• Be clear that the meeting is to work with them in supporting them in reducing their workplace stress
• Use the talking toolkit as a framework for the conversation with the teacher
• Agree a workplace stress risk assessment and individual medical risk assessment
• Agree who the risk assessment should be shared with
• Agree an appropriate review schedule of the risk assessment
Staff development
The following CPD cycle can be helpful to underpin a CPD policy for all staff:
1. Identify: Understand where you've come from, where you are and where you want to be.
2. Plan: Plan how you can get to where you want to be, with clear outcomes and milestone to track progress.
3. Act: Act upon your plan and be open to learning experiences.
4. Reflect: Make the most of your day-to-day learning by routinely reflecting upon experience.
5. Apply: Create opportunities where you can translate theory into practice and put your learning to work.
6. Share: Share your learning in communities of practice to generate greater insight and benefit from the support of your community.
7. Impact: Measure the overall impact your learning has had on the work you do.
Making sure staff feel valued
Encouraging staff
Staff are encouraged to use their skills and talents effectively to make them feel valued. Below are some ways and methods that can help encourage staff, which in turn can increase their performance.
• Know your staff – talk to them and give opportunity for them to talk
• Ensure gratitude is authentic and meaningful – timely, relevant, sincere
• Give supportive/positive feedback regularly – not just at appraisals
• Give balanced feedback – not necessarily at the same time (sandwich method can result in staff only hearing one aspect)
• Make formal appraisals a priority – try never to delay, be interrupted or give less than full attention.
• Give staff opportunities to develop that are relevant and stretch them
• Care about their wellbeing – not just their work contributions
• Staff recognition schemes
Treating staff fairly
An inclusive culture
An inclusive culture is a culture that is open to differences in experiences, backgrounds and ways of thinking.
Key features of an inclusive culture:
• Employees play an important role in developing inclusive workplaces – for example, calling out exclusionary behaviour and treating colleagues with fairness and respect.
• Line manager and employee relationships are important to building inclusion; not only do line managers put Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) policies into practice through people management practices, but the way they treat staff and actively include them in decision-making and their influence on the day-to-day team environment is crucial for inclusion.
• Senior leaders need to role-model inclusion and ‘walk the talk’; their behaviour sets the tone for what is expected in the workplace
• D&I policies need to be in place, but they must be backed up by a climate for inclusion that values difference.
• People management practices should be evaluated for bias; for example, do progression and promotion or voice practices promote inclusion
• Specific practices (such as reasonable adjustments and diversity policies) and broader practices (such as flexible working) can support inclusion.
This recognises that while inclusive practices should be applied across the board, some groups face particular issues that require targeted support
Recap
After reading through the information in this article, here are 12 key points:
1. Leaders are experts on people management, work and change.
2. Policies & Procedures that reflect vision and mission as well as compliance with legislation
3. Staff are recognised as the key resource within the organisation and are treated with care and understanding
4. Recruitment strategy and process that is inclusive, attracts a talented pool of applicants that is legislation compliant and ensures safeguarding
5. Leaders act with integrity
6. Staff should have a meaningful voice on things that affect them
7. Staff should be supported in their work and provided with the resources to be effective. In return take personal responsibility for their work, development and behaviour.
8. A safe and healthy environment provided for staff
9. Leaders are committed to developing themselves and the staff team
10.Staff are encouraged to use their skills and talents effectively to promote staffing feeling valued
11.Leaders consider the impact of their decisions on the wider society, beyond the immediate school or MAT.
12.An inclusive culture where staff are treated fairly within an equitable system 13.Post
