David Carne discusses the ‘Great Resignation’ which has led to large numbers of employees across all sectors – including education – resigning their roles en masse following the COVID pandemic
Staff turnover in schools, absence levels, flexible working requests and early retirements have been on the rise. You only have to read the results of NAHT or ASCL surveys on school leaders to discover senior leaders planning to leave the workforce, or place an advert to see how challenging recruitment has become.
The root causes of the ‘Great Resignation’ have, arguably, been apparent for some time. According to Gallup, about a third of the worldwide workforce say they find their work engaging. The UK figure, after steadily falling for over a decade, stands at around 10%. The workforce’s priorities have also been changing. According to Deloitte, four-in-10 Gen-Z and millennials say work/life balance and development opportunities are most important when choosing a new employer, 40% have rejected a job that did not align with their values, and 75% would like to work flexibly at least some of the time.
Approximately, 40% of those employees say they will leave their current role within two years – many even without a new opportunity lined-up – and those figures are worse in public-facing jobs like education. Finally, there has been an impact of crisis burnout. Schools played a significant role during the pandemic, and some staff (notably at senior levels) have faced ‘front-line fatigue’, resulting in a re-evaluation of their priorities. This toxic trio of lack of engaging work, inability to satisfy employees’ priorities and post-pandemic re-evaluation of life priorities has led to a monumental number of resignations.
Engagement is about more than just being happy; it is about being emotionally invested in an organisation and its success. The data suggest that people are looking for meaning and purpose in their work; those that find it are three times more likely to remain in their jobs, and 41% less likely to be absent. This should be good news for the education sector which is driven by the moral purpose of transforming children’s lives, but many in the sector are arguing that we have to make the job more about that – giving teachers and support staff autonomy to use their professional judgement, rather than stifling creativity and emphasising process over outcome.
About a third of people cite boredom, the need for a new challenge and lack of recognition as reasons for leaving their roles. Employers are being challenged to create systems which promote ambition, reduce bureaucracy, incentivise professional development and create more equitable reward structures which recognise not everyone is on the same career path and, in schools, also recognise the role of professionals without QTS, and their contributions.
People also want to work for an employer they can trust, and who shares their values. The challenge for the education sector is to ensure we retain the broader moral purpose of education; we can be both high-performing and values-driven.
Schools are often places where theories of learning are tested against the everyday challenge of mass education; where calculated risk-taking in the curriculum, in leadership models, in organisational structures is embraced, and where values triumph over process-based approaches. To paraphrase Simon Sinek, when people see we are concerned with the WHY of what we do, and are flexible about the WHAT and the HOW, we become more appealing employers.
Finally, the sector needs positive working conditions and pay. Like many, I welcome the announcement of pay awards for teaching and support staff, and hope they will be fully-funded. However, the data suggests that pay alone will not be enough to recruit and retain the very best staff.
Three-quarters (75%) of employees say they would take a pay cut to join an organisation with a more positive culture and the opportunity to grow. I am not a big fan of the term work/life balance – it implies that work is something to be dreaded, and endured, and life is something to be enjoyed. I haven’t given up on the idea that workplaces can be places of great energy, meaning, purpose and challenges that employees want to engage with and go the extra mile for; however, I am an advocate of there being work/life boundaries.
Having the ability to engage in life outside the workplace, switch off and recuperate, pursue family life, hobbies, interests, etc., is important; the evidence shows these things improve performance at work, and giving people the ability to work flexibly expands the potential talent pool to include employees who otherwise might not have considered working in the sector. Maybe some staff could even work from home, some of the time!
Of course, creating meaningful, challenging, rewarding and values-driven organisations is exactly why many of us came into the sector in the first place.
David is a serving school business professional and executive coach
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