Are schools finally ready to break 100 years of inertia?

Are schools ready to break 100 years of inertia? 

Let’s start with saying that I love working with schools- fact. Which is a little weird, is that I have very mixed memories of my own school life. A poor council estate boxer, at a highly academic, affluent school – you can probably imagine my problems, with teachers and pupils alike.

But at least I was a well-balanced kid, as I had a chip on both shoulders!

Just imagine what it was like for me, trying to explain to my pals on a London council estate in the 80’s, that I play cricket and captain the fives team: “It’s like posh squash in a concrete garage, with padded gloves on” to which I would receive the reply, “What’s squash?”

Yet years later a career move from IT & finance to education felt nothing but natural. I have always thoroughly enjoyed delivering resourcing, retention and recruitment solutions to a sector that not only needed my help, but one that delivers such a special and important service. 

However! Over the last 15 years I have been made increasingly aware that initiating change or even just introducing something new into the schools sector, can feel a bit like you’re pushing water up hill, while herding cats and catching flies with chop-sticks, all at the same time!

I’m not saying schools don’t want to change. Of course schools want to be more effective, more efficient and more attractive- who wouldn’t? But changing a school’s process can feel like a mammoth effort. No matter how big the future benefits are or how immense the savings may be, if it takes too much time, it’s probably dead before you start. 

The reality is, most schools are pressured into thinking about next week, not next term or next year or 3 years from now.

So when you’ve had a week like RealiseMe just had, you do feel the need to talk about it. 

But before I explain our joy, let’s set the scene. Otherwise those from more mature recruitment sectors may feel it’s nothing out of the ordinary…

Firstly - 

Schools are under a great deal of pressure, every day. They must hit academic targets, manage pupil behaviour, improve social mobility, deliver the next generation of society contributors and be nice to the odd painful parent. All within a tight 190 days a year… so no wonder they feel compressed and constrained.  

Secondly –

They have no assets (a bit like a recruitment company), they are only as good as their staff. Unfortunately, besides the move from paper to the web, as well as getting more expensive, their main medium for recruiting their staff hasn’t changed in over 100 years!

And Lastly – 

Compounding all of their problems, teacher training numbers are down year on year. 350,000 qualified teachers have left the workforce, budgets are declining in real terms and school rolls are increasing rapidly.

So when little old me rolls up (even with my shamazing CV!) and explains how I’m going to save their sector ￡100m+ per annum, put them back in the driving seat with future staffing, improve retention and have them whistling a melody of happy tunes on the journey home….they tend to think I’ve been at the Tipex thinner!

Yet this week, we have had 2 Academy chains(MATs) and what looks like most of the schools in an authority, call up and say: 

“We get it, we understand it, we believe in it and how do we start?”’ 

It’s always great to get the thumbs up on a project, it’s just a fantastic feeling – but for me, it was more than that this time, it was each separate school group’s clarity on their decision.

Each one had done their own market due diligence and compared competitors. One of the MATs quite rightly pointed out that the others they had seen were just pretty data collection apps, ready to collect contact details so that a faux-agency could call up and sell a service.

It was even acknowledged by my bearers of good news that they knew it would take a lot of work and that it wouldn’t be easy at first, but the benefits would far outweigh any possible teething problems.

The RealiseMe team are absolutely buzzing about this change of mind-set!

School leaders, MATs, HR and internal recruitment teams are starting to turn away from years of failed government initiatives, waiting for advert responses and slow recruitment fairs, to finally drag their sector into a new resourcing age. These schools want to embrace technology and leverage specialist recruitment expertise, so that they can safeguard their school’s future and put money back where it’s needed. 

Two years on from the first line of code and over ￡1m of tech investment down, RealiseMe is seeing a wave of forward-thinking schools, who are ready to disrupt and deliver real change. 

I finally feel that we are working with the innovators, mavericks, early adopters and true pioneers in the education sector.

So, just maybe the years of inertia, apathy and complacency around recruitment and retention are coming to an end…but only time will tell. 

Although, so far in 2019 it feels like schools are finally ready to break a century old mould and say goodbye to 100 years of inertia!

Just putting someone in charge of recruitment or asking HR to deal with the an everything solution is no longer good enough. Those in the know are partnering with us to bring about real change to their school recruitment processes, while improving talent acquisition and saving material sums of money. 

So we take our hats off to the new age of school leaders, innovators and disruptors.....it will be worth the effort!

If you are a school, MAT, LEA or education institution and would like to know more about RealiseMe.com please DM me or emails [email protected] and we will arrange a demonstration.

Alternatively, sign up, advertise for free and join all the schools receiving free placements of staff.