December 2011 Archives

While I've said this in previous posts, anyone at any level can be a manager of talent. We know that superintendents, HR directors, principals, and mentors are all talent managers in education. But, so are professional association representatives, education reform groups, public officials, and education leadership organizations. December 2011 has been a busy month in the national conversation about educator effectiveness, and talent managers at all levels have been involved in the discussion.

Below are five examples of various groups thinking on this issue. I recommend that all talent managers, education reformers, and policymakers read what these groups have to say as they are going to have a significant voice in the educator effectiveness conversation in 2012 and beyond.

Professional Association Representation: Nation Education Association
On December 8, 2011, the National Education Association released, "Leading the Profession: NEA's Three-Point Plan for Reform," outlining three areas in which the NEA believes steps should be taken to transform the teaching profession. It included a statement from NEA President Dennis Van Roekel that discusses global competition in the 21st century and proclaims that the United States "can no longer coast on our past accomplishments." Van Roekel goes on to say, "This environment requires teachers to have a wide range of skills and strategies to keep students engaged and learning beyond the basics. Now, more than ever, we will not meet the challenges that confront us without a highly skilled and effective teaching force."

The NEA developed their "Three-Point Plan for Reform" using ideas from NEA members and a report compiled by the independent Commission on Effective Teachers and Teaching, a panel of 21 teachers and education leaders.

Educational Reform Organizations: Teach for America
USA Today published an op-ed on December 20 written by Dennis Van Roekel, president of the NEA, and Wendy Kopp, CEO of Teach for America, titled "3 Ways to Improve the USA's Teachers." The two leaders urge Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and the U.S. Department of Education to keep a few things in mind as they begin implementing a new blueprint for teacher education reform. The article urges U.S. education leaders to look at using data to improve teacher preparation, bring new talent to the teaching profession, and give teachers opportunities for continuous professional development.

Nonpartisan Research Policy Groups: National Center on Teacher Quality
This week, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) posted a short, but very interesting blog entry related to teacher preparation. It begins with a quote from NCTQ President Kate Walsh from testimony she gave before Congress earlier this year. "It's easier to get into an ed school than to become a college football player," she says. After reading the post and reviewing the "fast pack" of research the organization prepared, I was completely blown away.

State Government: State of Iowa
After months of work, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds, Education Commissioner Jason Glass, and others from the state's Department of Education released, "One Unshakable Vision: World-Class Schools for Iowa." The plan identifies a wide variety of talent management improvements such as more in-class training for new teachers, mentoring, changes in college class curriculum to include more content-specific courses, scholarships for individuals willing to go into high-need subjects, as well as new requirements and screening processes for teacher preparation programs.

Educational Leadership Organization: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
In the ASCD December 23, 2011, blog post, "Lessons From Abroad," Gene R. Carter, executive director and CEO of ASCD, discusses foreign education system best practices. He notes that Ontario, Finland, and Singapore are highly selective when it comes to program entry. Carter suggests that, "The United States needs to focus on strengthening teacher education programs so that they help teachers become innovators and researchers in education, not just deliverers of curricula."

I find it interesting that all these groups are talking about the same strategies of improving the teaching profession. As we look forward to 2012, I'm sure we will hear from other individuals and organizations, specifically from the higher education community, about teacher preparation and effectiveness. I'm excited to see what happens next!

Posted by Emily Douglas at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

I'll never forget when I was a young child my father taking phone call after phone call to assist his customers during our family vacations. I also remember as a teenager my mother answering our home phone at 4 a.m. some mornings to help resolve disputes between her employees. At the time, I wondered why my dad didn't just let those calls go to voicemail, or why the ADULTS at my mom's office couldn't just "get along."

Now, after years as a human resource professional, I know that sometimes colleagues don't see eye to eye (and never will), important emails need answered even if you're sick, and customers don't operate (and shouldn't have to) around your family vacations. These experiences have made me aware of the importance of work-life balance, and I do my best to set boundaries between my professional and personal life. Unfortunately, many other workers feel as if they are unable to turn-off work once they leave the office.

A 2010 public opinion survey conducted by StrategyOne noted that, "43% of American workers said their company is not doing enough to address work/life balance issues." It is the job of talent managers in all industries, including education, to work with staff and organizational leadership to ensure appropriate work-life balance.

Last week, I ran across an interesting article published by BBC News about Volkswagen's efforts to improve work-life balance for their employees. The company has agreed to stop its Blackberry servers from sending emails to some staff members during non-work hours. Servers will only allow emails to be delivered 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after work. Volkswagen decided to institute the policy after many employees expressed concerns that their work life was interrupting their home life.

I know that there are many dedicated educators who work late nights and long weekends, even during the summer, grading papers, developing lesson plans, attending professional development workshops, tutoring students, meeting with parents, and participating in other school activities. However, we all must remember that to be our best at work, we also need rest and down-time. No one can be "on" 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Creating a culture that values work-life balance can help strengthen employee satisfaction, engagement, loyalty, morale, productivity, and commitment, which in turn works to retain high-performing employees, decrease absenteeism, and help the organization operate more efficiently.

Bradley Honan, Vice President of StrategyOne noted that, "significant numbers of American workers are asking companies to step up to the plate and address [work-life balance] more effectively. Workers are being asked to do more with less, and the strain on them is clearly showing."

How could your school district do a better job of promoting work-life balance? What strategies have you seen work successfully to improve work-life balance in schools or other organizations? Please, share your thoughts!

Posted by Emily Douglas at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

There is a debate in the education community about whether school districts have "customers" or "stakeholders." Many people think these two words are interchangeable and favor using "stakeholder" as the friendlier term to describe parents, teachers, students and others in the community. In reality, these two terms mean two different things.

A stakeholder is an individual, group, or organization who is affected by the outcome of a product or service and possibly involved in doing the work. Anyone associated with the project either directly or indirectly can consider themselves a stakeholder. Not all stakeholders are created equal and different stakeholders have varying levels of involvement or say in decision making. In education, a stakeholder could be anyone from a local business to a private donor, taxpayer, or government organization. Remember, anyone who decides they're a stakeholder is one.

A customer, on the other hand, is an individual who receives or purchases a product or service. A customer also has (or should have) the ability to buy or rate this product or service. Such feedback (or voice of the customer) is then frequently used to improve organizational processes and set requirements. Every organization has customers, and without them, most organizations would not exist. In education, parents, students, businesses, local taxpayers, bus drivers, teachers, principals and other school staff are all customers.

There are both external and internal customers. External customers are not part of an organization but receive something from it. For example, taxpayers pay to help operate and maintain schools, which in turn, help educate their children (or children in their community) and contribute to the quality of the community. Internal customers operate daily within an organization. Teachers, principals, human resources employees, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, the superintendent, and STUDENTS (a group of "customers" that people typically forget) are all internal customers for schools.

School district employees are customers of their human resources department. They come to HR with a request or need, and it is the job of the HR staff to respond, providing specific services or information. The interaction between schools and the district's central office is another great example of the internal customer relationship. Schools request information from central office personnel making them a customer of the central office. Likewise, the central office requests documents or information from schools, making the central office a customer of the schools. All of those interactions could be measured, evaluated, or improved.

Please, share your thoughts. Do you believe school districts have customers, stakeholders, both, or neither?

My take: Districts have BOTH customers AND stakeholders.

Posted by Emily Douglas at 3:27 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Here's a short and simple question: Does your school district have a program to onboard new employees? I frequently ask this question to groups of educators, and more often than not, I get a puzzled look in return. Then, our conversation generally goes as follows:

Me: "When a new teacher or other staff member is brought into your district, do they walk in the first day knowing the culture of their building, safety rules, health insurance or emergency procedure information, how to access their email, who their mentor is, important internal processes, what the goals and strategy of the district are, how they will be evaluated, etc.?"

Group: Laughs hysterically... A few sarcastic comments from some people in the back...

While I'd like to say this is a 1 in 10 occurrence, sadly, it's more like an 8 in 10 occurrence. In all of the various industries I've worked (from electricity and retail to healthcare, automotive design, farming, and education), it's the same story. What it comes down to is that most organizations, regardless of what they make or buy, or the services they provide, do a poor job of onboarding new employees.

Chronologically, onboarding should occur after sourcing, recruitment, selection, and hiring. By definition, onboarding (some call this induction or socialization) is the act of bringing new employees up to speed on the organization's goals and strategy, rules, internal processes, expectations, culture, etc.

Onboarding is important because it decreases the amount of time it takes for someone to become comfortable and productive, while increasing an individual's understanding of the organization's vision, culture, and internal processes. It promotes appropriate behaviors and builds an understanding of evaluation and growth opportunities. An effective onboarding program can also help strengthen employee loyalty and reduce the chance that high-performing staff will leave for other opportunities.

While not everyone takes the same approach to onboarding, most organizations that do it well believe the process should extend beyond a one day meeting and into the first 90 days of an employee's tenure.

Onboarding is not "easy," but it is essential to growing talent in schools and other professions. Unfortunately, many HR managers leave it out of their talent management strategy. From my experiences, here is a list of 8 tips that will help any organization in developing their onboarding process.

Tip #1: The process should be formal but fun and should not overload!

Tip #2: Great programs extend support over 90 days and some programs extend into a new hire's first year of employment.

Tip #3: Everyone learns differently, so use a blended learning model - including online learning, social media, video, classroom activities, on-the-job previews, etc.

Tip #4: Invite current employees to share experiences with new staff.

Tip #5: Involve current staff in the design of your onboarding process.

Tip #6: Every new hire should be assigned a mentor or coach.

Tip #7: Make it personal. While we say this in education constantly, I believe it's true anytime you deal with people: "People are not widgets!"

Tip #8: Upon completing the onboarding process, new employees should be asked for feedback on their experience!

How does your organization approach the onboarding process?

Do you have any tips to add to this list?

Posted by Emily Douglas at 6:56 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

I'm not one of those people who think all school district functions should be run like a business. (So don't shoot me yet!) The superintendent of a 10,000-student district and the CEO of a Fortune 500 company face very different challenges that can't all be addressed with the same strategies or tools. However, I do believe there are some important lessons and practices around management, customer service, and efficiency from the business world that can be successfully replicated in education.

Businesses try new things and succeed daily. Businesses also try new things and fail daily. The same thing goes for hospitals, foundations, nonprofits, colleges, and K-12 institutions. The way I see it, whether it's a business, nonprofit, or school district, everyone makes mistakes along the way, and it's worth analyzing and learning from those mistakes so as to not repeat them.

On December 5, Forbes published an article by contributor Scott Davis titled "5 Brands Most Likely To Be Gone By 2015". The article details the findings from a survey of 5,000 consumers about which brands they'd put on the "deathwatch" for anytime between now and 2015. It's a great piece and very forward thinking. But, I can't say any of the businesses on the list, which includes Kodak, Netflix, and the U.S. Postal Service, surprises me. The important and interesting part of the article to me was learning why these brands have lost relevance. There are some key lessons that all organizations, including school districts, can learn so as not to repeat these mistakes in the future.

Brand Failure #1: They don't know what their customers want and as a result provide them with bad service or services that don't meet customer's needs.
• Lesson for Districts: Involving internal and external customers in district decisions is critical. Discovering what practices and processes truly matter to various audiences will provide a foundation to successfully manage change and accelerate school improvement.
• Lesson for Talent Managers: When selecting teachers, principals, central office employees, custodians, janitors, etc, make sure you discuss their beliefs around "customer service." Hiring people who value service can only help.

Brand Failure #2: They're not innovative and/or willing to change even though their competitors are.
• Lesson for Districts: Remember, not all change is bad. Thus, if you're not willing to change or meet specific needs, there is someone who will.
• Lesson for Talent Managers: Great talent has choices. I should probably repeat that again. Great talent has MANY choices. Make sure you're not losing top talent and top recruits to other school districts or organizations.

Brand Failure #3: They use outdated processes and thinking resulting in ineffective practices and financial issues.
• Lesson for Districts: Anything and everything that involves more than two steps or two people is a process. Understanding this fact and that we must investigate our processes is very important.
• Lesson for Talent Managers: Having processes documented and communicating them is not only great for managing work but makes an employee or prospective employee's life easier, improving your chances of landing top talent.

Brand Failure #4: They don't use technology to their benefit.
• Lesson for Districts: Technology is here to stay. There are numerous tech tools, from iPads to social media to Smartboards, that can help make districts more efficient, encourage communication and collaboration among stakeholders, and help improve instruction in the classroom. But the power comes from actually using them!
• Lesson for Talent Managers: Some people are great with technology while others less experienced, and this is ok. Growing talent is as important as keeping great talent.

The business world and the education world are, in many ways, very different. But, this doesn't mean that the two can't learn from one another. The true power comes not from where or whom you learned a lesson from, but how you apply it to improve your organization.

How can all organizations learn from the lessons above?

Posted by Emily Douglas at 6:23 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Last week, I had a very interesting conversation with a friend who is in the process of looking for a new job. She shared that she is not only interested in working for an organization with a good reputation but one that is part of a strong community. While she has had success in finding job openings in several states that offer competitive pay, benefits, and opportunities for growth, she has run into trouble trying to find information about the specific characteristics of each community.

My friend asked me, "Why don't organizations do a better job of communicating information about their communities and their community involvement to help attract talent?" Communicating the goals and vision of an organization is essential in recruiting the best candidates for a position. But, it is also important for employers to showcase what their surrounding community has to offer potential job applicants. Most of us want not only a great place to work, but a fun, safe neighborhood in which to live.

A number of HR managers across the country, including in the education community, are beginning to recognize the importance of developing a comprehensive human resources branding strategy that raises awareness for both the values of working for their organization and the benefits of living in the surrounding community. "HR branding" (or "employment branding") is one of the latest and greatest trends in talent management.

The American Marketing Association defines branding as a, "customer experience represented by a collection of images and ideas." An effective HR branding strategy uses many tools to communicate to both current and prospective employees the benefits of working for an organization in an effort to attract and retain high-potential candidates. The brand should showcase an organization's culture and values as well as the perks of moving to a specific community.

I have worked with some school districts, and researched others, that are doing a fantastic job with HR branding, while many others are still working through the process of identifying strategic HR goals and developing a branding strategy. A number of businesses are not yet experts at HR branding either.

No matter where they are at in the process, the good news is that school districts, businesses and many more organizations are jumping on the HR branding bandwagon rather than dismissing it as "just another fad." While an HR branding strategy is unlikely to make or break an organization, it could be the difference in successfully hiring a talented new teacher or losing that person to another school district.

Posted by Emily Douglas at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Compensation in education is a highly debated topic in school districts and statehouses across the country. Some people argue that teachers are underpaid while others believe that educators make too much money. I am not going to pass judgment on that question in this post. But, whatever side of the debate you're on, it is important for school leaders, policymakers, and other education stakeholders to understand that compensation is more than just the cash payment we see in our paychecks. Total pay is made up of many pieces, some cash and some non-cash. When you add all of these together, you come up with an individual's "total compensation."

What makes up total compensation?

• Base pay: In most education systems, base pay is compensation that is guaranteed and typically paid as a "salary." It generally reflects the market value of the skills, knowledge, or abilities required to perform a job. For teachers, base pay is usually determined by a step-and-level system. Historically, base pay made up 80-85 percent of an individual's total compensation, but with rising healthcare costs that percentage is shifting quickly.
• Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA): A COLA can be a onetime bonus or base pay increase meant to cover inflation or market-required changes to an organization's pay system. They are generally calculated using federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data and the location of the organization. In schools, COLAs are often built into collective bargaining agreements. From my experience and observations, fewer and fewer businesses are giving COLA increases, choosing instead to use the funds for performance-based bonuses or salary increases.
• Bonuses: Bonus pay is usually provided as a one-time lump sum award to reward employees for performance based on set criteria. It is important to remember that bonuses do not increase an employee's base pay.
• Supplemental pay: Supplemental pay is compensation provided to employees for extra duties, responsibilities, or time spent working. Common variations of this include coaching stipends, mentoring responsibilities, or working extended day or extended year programs. (We are really good at supplemental pay in education!)
• Indirect compensation: Indirect compensation is a non-monetary benefit provided by an organization to its employees. This includes health insurance, life insurance, retirement, paid time off, discounts for goods/services, etc. These benefits are becoming more and more costly to provide.

Total Compensation Equation:

I have found in my journeys through the nonprofit, business, and education worlds that many people do not know or understand what makes up their total compensation. So, here are three suggestions to help talent managers and HR folks get everyone on the same page:

1. Make it public: Provide general information to staff on what makes up an employee's total compensation. Some districts, colleges, businesses, and government organizations include this on their website.
2. Make it personal: Some organizations provide a total compensation breakdown on individual paycheck stubs. This is another way to communicate to staff about their total compensation.
3. Make yourself available: Compensation is a sensitive subject. It is important to be customer service-focused and encourage employees to ask questions about their compensation. Remember, not everyone is an HR expert!

Posted by Emily Douglas at 5:35 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend