Have their favourite Beer in the fridge!
Barry Cooper
Founding Principal | Edruptor 2024 | Making a Difference Through Education | Start Ups | Ed Tech | AI | Cultural education | Entrepreneurship | Building Strong Communities | podcast host.
How were you welcomed into your new role in September 2020?
A very clever man said something very clever the other day. Make sure their favourite beer is in the fridge. It’s a small thing; but imagine flying halfway around the world to take up a post at a new international school; imagine you don’t speak much of the language, you’re in a strange place, you’re tired, a bit scared; but there is fridge, glistening in the light, is a taste of home (it doesn't have to be beer; remember 1.1 billion people don't drink alcohol) and a recognition that someone, somewhere was listening and had a thought that you might quite like a touch of home at a tough time.
Onboarding of staff is hard; HR departments are under the cosh from the very start of the process to the very end. It is a task so thankless that Sisyphus would happily return to his boulder. But it is vital; and a great HR team can make all the difference if they are well funded, organised and most importantly, have put the new staff at the centre of their thinking. Not the organisation, not the school, the process or the legal framework they will have to dance through; but the new staff. This is where the school leaders, the academic team need to stand up and step in to make sure that their new colleagues and hopefully friends will feel as welcome as possible be it Shanghai or Stockholm, Hong Kong or Hamburg.
It is here that staff retention begins. A team that arrives and feels looked after, feels informed and even, where appropriate, has agency will, in the fullness of time think very carefully about their decision to stay; especially if the academic team have been involved and have had the grace to make their welcome to the team light and personal.
How were you welcomed in 2020, how will you welcome your new team in 2021?
Head of Upper Key Stage 2 at Britannica International Budapest
4 年Excellent idea, but need to include favourite wine too ??
Founding Head of Pre-Prep and member of the College Leadership Team at Brighton College Dubai
4 年Onboarding is so important. Great little read ??
Future of Work | Organisation Architecture | HR Automation |
4 年Short but sweet post Barry, but on the money. Far too many school principals and owners however still don't understand why this is so important. In some schools I've been involved in, a crappy arrival has been seen by principals as a rite of passage, and it's almost as though it's seen as some kind of perverse test of character! As HRD in my last organisation, we went all out on the arrival 'experience' - after the 1st year, SLTs resented and fought me.......after the 2nd year people finally started to understand the impact of having teachers who weren't burning out by half term of winter break, but instead were fitting in and performing to potential far more quickly than previous. Only future years will see the impact on outcomes, but I'm 100% sure it will Little touches like a gender appropriate welcome gift for the kids are tiny in the big scheme of things, but signal that the school leadership cares about the detail - just as we expect a teacher would with their students - it sets the scene Educators MUST learn from international companies in this field, Sadly too many international schools hire cretins who have zero concept of employee experience, expat failure etc Lets hope your reminder switches schools on NOW to plan