Rohn Ritzema, Former Regional Director, ACSI, Northern CA/HI
One great way to improve your school culture is to evaluate employee recruitment and retention, and then develop an improvement plan.
I’ll begin with a way to encourage and then retain a potential staff member. I once interviewed a woman for a sixth-grade teaching position. As the interview ended, I prayed with her, asking the Lord to guide us both in our decisions. She accepted the position. Several months later she said, “Would you like to know why I accepted a position at this school?” When I said yes, she answered, “I interviewed for three positions. One school offered a better salary than I get here. The other had much nicer facilities. I took this position because you were the only principal who prayed with me.” You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Remember to pray with your staff, and potential staff.
Little things mean a lot, particularly for a small Christian school. One school I visited gives the staff complimentary yearbooks. One school’s PTF gives teachers spending money to take to the ACSI teacher convention to purchase items for their classroom. Esprit de corps is enhanced with school shirts or jackets. Often Friday is designated school spirit day, with staff wearing their school shirts. Is your school connected to the Internet? How about offering free email accounts to all staff? Many schools have SCRIP programs. One school sells SCRIP at cost to staff, giving them the discount. While the principal was looking for additional participants, he put together a list of merchants (often school parents) who agreed to offer discounts to staff. A parent (dentist) offered reduced prices for staff in a school with no dental plan.
One school has a program called PEST, meaning Parents Encouraging Staff and Teachers. As each year begins, parents adopt a staff member for the year and do nice things for the person, concealing their identity until the school year ends. My wife and I enjoyed blessing our child’s teacher.
I’ve collected many ideas for celebrating birthdays. Some schools have once-a-month birthday breakfasts. Some give serious gifts, while others give joke gifts. Some draw names with a dollar limit for gift-giving. In one school teachers draw names, and the school gives money for the gifts. One gives a box of See’s candy. One administrator designs individualized cards with his computer. Another hired a white limousine, which picked up staff members on their fortieth birthday and delivered them to school, where the entire staff greeted them. On their fiftieth birthday, the limo was black, and everyone dressed in black to greet them. A couple of schools give employees their birthday off.
The people on our school staffs are professionals, but most do not have business cards like other professionals. Why not purchase business cards for everyone, including secretaries and custodians? Treat your people like professionals. Provide frames, and have teachers hang their diplomas in their classroom. Several schools now offer contract-signing bonuses.
I urge you to have a well-thought-out written corrective action plan for dealing with personnel problems. It is disconcerting to see a colleague terminated in a makeshift manner, or seemingly without reason. When personnel issues are handled in an orderly, godly manner, everyone is encouraged, and staff members are likely to stay for years.
You need creativity more than money to do something for your staff. Decide right now on one new idea to implement this year, and change the culture at your school!
Changing the School Culture by Taking Employee Benefits to a New Level 4.3