How to reduce teaching staff’s attrition rates?

Reducing staff attrition rates is high on the agenda of almost all educational settings and indeed businesses throughout the world. In Dubai this rate has increased since 2011 when according to the Gulf News (6th July, 2011) it was 15%, this figure based on an analysis from the figures available on school reports for 174 schools (46 schools are not yet inspection or are listed but no further information is provided) shows the rates of attrition in Dubai schools are now 19%, with GEMS schools doing better with an average of 17% (www.khda.gov.ae). Rates of attrition in schools has always been a challenge and it appears that this challenge seems to be increasing over time.

So what can schools do about it and how can this be reduced over time?

Making sure that your staff are content in their role, not suffering from the pressure of the job, or finding it hard to deal with the stress and are prepared and able to stay for their natural duration in your setting, should be a priority for any senior leader. This was one of the first steps we took as a leadership team as it was apparent that rolling stone staff would affect the consistency and continuity of education in schools; we were able to reduce attrition rates from high 30% to 13% over two years.

Long term stress and pressure at work is not good for anyone and no one should be expected to live under that cloud. A little bit of stress and pressure actually goes a long way and can spurt us on the plan our best lesson, deliver a fantastic assembly or manage a difficult situation effectively; but too much pressure and week upon week of stress can cause staff to leave the setting and sometimes the profession for good. Schools must find the right balance or the ‘Goldilocks effect’ when it comes to the right amount of stress and workload, this is challenging if you are in a highly paced and competitive environment, with several different priorities from key stakeholders, but leadership must find a way of shielding, sifting and rationalising workload, so that staff have just the right amount of stress for productivity and a quality education.

What is it then that reduces attrition rates and how best can it be approached?

1.     Employ the right staff for your school. Making sure that the right people are in the right roles at the right team can reduce the pressure of everyone. A receptionist who gets people’s names tight when they are calling them through to your office. A premises team who knows when to order the necessary resources due to a planned system for stock and a middle leader who has the skills and aspirations to step up when the senior leadership team are busy, and a crisis ensues. This links well to your recruitment process, it is important that the vacancies are advertised and the setting describes correctly, nothing is worse than having a photo of a beautiful high-rise building in a marina near the sea when in fact the staff may live in a low-rise budget accommodation near an expressway, this may be fine and candidates may still wish to apply, but honesty and integrity in advertising is necessary so that you recruit candidates who are well informed about the role and will not have any surprises.

2.     Make sure that your staff are properly and correctly remunerated for their work. Having a clear structure for progression and sticking to it also helps balance the pressure and stress of being in the profession. Clearly advertising salary scales and progression scales help staff understand where they are and If achieving their KPI’s where they can get, linking this to career development and thresholds does help. Now, if you are a school which cannot support annual pay rises then this is fine, be honest with staff and make it clear that there is a pay freeze for a number of years, you will be surprised how many staff will stay as they respect the honesty shown by the school and value can be added in other ways. GEMS education did this recently and it clearly did not increase their rates of attrition higher than other schools in Dubai as they are 2% lower.

3.     Give praise to your staff, and make sure that this praise is equal amongst them all. Everyone needs encouragement and recognition of the tasks they carry out and when staff do something right, let them know it has been noted. An aim of any setting is to create an encouraging, positive work environment. Positive organisational culture through simple ‘acts of kindness’ such as a greeting and a smile, showing interest in staff, recognising effort is more effective than any staff meal (in my opinion).

4.     Set out a clear career path and support each member of the team in making the progress they would like and are capable of. This will give them a sense of direction and purpose. Provide them with coaching by recommending ways to advance and with training opportunities to ensure they have the skills to achieve their goals. Also make sure that you give them opportunities to learn new skills and practice them. This can be challenging for some schools if there is no skill set capacity to develop this; the drive for continuous learning must come from leadership and the support in this does not involve significant investment, but implementing some systems which track and give opportunities for professional growth and have learning conversations will help to develop this process which can be embedded over time. I often meet staff who have never been asked what they would like to do next, and if they are asked the leaders will not give them a clear pathway of how to achieve this aim. Start talking about learning and aspirations in your schools and work to list the pathway to get there, no different to what we would do with our students.

5.     If it is at all possible, allow for a more flexible work schedule. Flexible work schedules let employees adjust their work time and can help alleviate stress and pressure at work before the member of staff becomes too poorly to work. This is not always possible, but sometimes allowing the member of staff to work off site during their non-contact time can pay dividends.

Remember that your staff’s well-being and safety is ultimately your responsibility. There are simple steps that anyone can take to enable the team to feel better about this most rewarding, but stressful of professions. The key to staff choosing to invest their career in your school will be dependent upon the value this experience will bring, monetary value is necessary but on a lower need, staff need a happy place where they are valued and can see their contributions making a difference, we must not always follow a deficit model of pointing out the gaps but one in which we regularly highlight best practice.

Article written by

Nav IQ

Executive Principal

Creative Science Schools | Dubai