The real reason you can’t find great people…

It’s not the salary.

Increasing salaries has been sold to us as the magic bullet that will solve recruitment and retention issues across schools everywhere.  But adding an extra £10k onto every job ad isn’t the answer (unless the question is “how can I get my manager to pull me into a 1:1 meeting titled “urgent”?).

Don’t get me wrong, an experienced IT / Estates / HR / Finance / Data person can get themselves a massive salary outside of education.

The best people in our schools don’t get up in the dark on a wet Wednesday in Jan thinking of their monthly pay packet.

**So, let’s make everyone a volunteer and pay them all in good wishes and positivity – yay!!**

I mean, obviously not.  We all need to pay the mortgage. But salary alone isn’t inspiring.

I speak with people who are happy to take a pay cut for the right job.

So, what makes people more excited than money?

Security. I tell everyone considering a move to education “it’s most recession-proof sector there is!”.

Career prospects. Most of the MAT directors I know started off in school-based roles.  You can build a solid career in education.

Training. Do you know how hard it is to get a private sector business to pay for an industry recognised qual? Most don’t want to spend the money or are scared their staff will leave if they’re too well trained!

Work life balance. No call out rota, no weekends, everyone disappears for two weeks in December.

Pension. The private sector average is 3% employer contributions.  For someone like me who got to 35, and started to panic, having an employer put £1000s into your pension every year is exciting.

Talk about these points more in your ad and through your recruitment process.  You’ll see that these are the things that really grab attention.

We don’t want to attract candidates based on a great salary.

Yep. That’s right.

We don’t want someone to apply because “the salary’s amazing”.

Someone who joins you for money will be tempted away as soon as they hear £competitive.

Everyone who goes through my pre-screen interview is asked “why did you decide to apply for this role?” and if money is mentioned as a main reason, I’m mentally swiping left.

I want them to tell me “I want to make an impact”, “I’ve always wanted to work in a school”, “if I had my time again, I’d be a teacher”, “education is the key to a good life”. 

That’s the gold. 

That tells me they’re going to stay a bit longer to check in with the Y11 girl who’s worked herself into a state of panic about her GCSE maths exam next week.

The Exception (when salary does matter)

With entry level roles it’s worth checking whether you’re underpaying.

The actual salary should be enough to pay for housing, bills, travel.

Have a look at The Real Living Wage https://livingwage.org.uk/faqs.  For a 37.5-hour week the annual salary should be £23,400, £25,453 in London.  I’d argue that as most term time staff don’t get a second job in holidays that the £23,400 - £25,453 should be the actual salary.

The Good News

We can’t usually bung a few grand on a salary, the way a private business can.  If candidates were all driven by salaries first, we couldn’t compete. And people would opt for the employer with the fattest wallet.

By focussing on what we offer that other employers don’t (pensions, training, security), we can set ourselves apart from other sectors and win over the heart centred candidates that make an impact.

Which for you, means appointing with ease.  And in the bigger picture, building a strong team with people who will propel you to the good times and be all in during the challenges.

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