A Jack of All Trades

Many school business professionals work as generalists, covering a huge range of responsibilities such as HR, finance, health & safety, facilities, PR and compliance. Here, Conny Brandt reflects on the pros and cons of being a Jack of all Trades 

At a recent networking event, SBPs were asked what they thought the best and the worst part of their role was. A lot of us (me included) chose the variety as the best part of the job – it never gets boring and you don’t get stuck with just one thing. The worst part?   

 

Also the variety! The endless jugging, never having enough time for it all, and the constant feeling that you are not doing a particularly good job with any one thing.  

 

So how can you make this work? 

 

Knowing Your Priorities 

My number one priority has to be CPD. If you are expected to be the resident expert in anything from fire safety to harassment claims, via capacity assessments and social media, this is just not possible without investing significant time in actually learning about all these different things. Conferences like EdExec Live are really useful for this, because you get to choose from a range of workshops to pick the ones most relevant to you. You can also learn a lot from your network and your peers in other schools. For every area that you feel a bit uncertain about, there will be a SBP somewhere who has got that particular thing nailed, and who will usually be happy to share. 

 

Knowing Your Daily Plan 

Planning your work effectively is also really important. I know of SBPs who plan their days according to themes – a set day when they focus on HR, a day for H&S and so on, and who find this really helpful. For me personally, it never works out that way, and you inevitably get an urgent health and safety query come up on HR day!  

However, when I plan my week, I do try to group tasks together, e.g. I may plan to deal with all the recruitment and HR related issues on Wednesday morning and then go through our accounts on Thursday afternoon. Grouping items helps your brain focus on a specific field (despite the random interruptions!). 

 

Knowing Your Part 

I generally try to keep tabs on each area of responsibility and make time to check on things every so often, even if nothing has come up that has directly demanded my attention. I find that as soon as you turn your back on something, it starts to slip! So when planning work, ask yourself if there is anything that you maybe haven’t looked at in a little while, and set some time aside to ensure that things are still going okay. 

 If (or rather when) all the different areas start to look overwhelming, it’s best to take a step back, build an overview and prioritise.  Laura Williams’ ‘State of the Nation’ is a really useful tool for this: https://edexec.co.uk/the-sbl-state-of-the-nation/  

Finally, ensure you make time for bigger projects and strategic thinking. It’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day jobs that keep cropping up, but the most important things you are likely to do, in terms of the impact on your school, will be the longer term, strategic developments. If you can, arrange for some time to work from home, which should enable you to focus better, with fewer interruptions. While it can feel like rather a lot, on the best days, I absolutely love wearing all my different hats!