Our recent blog explained how wellness was a major talking point at April’s Schools & Academies Show and a study by the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families has also identified a clear need to address stress levels and the unrealistic workloads being placed on teachers and school staff. According to the final report, tackling these two issues would make the single biggest contribution towards improving wellbeing.
When asked what caused stress and unhappiness, 62 per cent believed this was down to workload and 42 per cent highlighted the sheer volume of administrative tasks as an issue. Interestingly, when asked which single initiative would be the most valuable to improve mental wellbeing at work, 58 per cent suggested a reduction in workload.
Employee wellbeing has been a hot topic within the commercial sector for a number of years, with many corporations rolling out company wide wellbeing schemes. ‘Walking meetings’, incentivised schemes and free yoga classes are some of the most popular choices.
To catch-up and tackle this issue head on, as well as introducing new schemes and activities, more schools and academies are beginning to incorporate innovative systems to increase productivity and make staff more efficient, freeing their time up to focus on the issues that really matter.
These solutions, such as HR & payroll software, handle admin tasks, update spreadsheets and produce reports - reducing the amount of time support staff are spending completing paperwork and updating records. These inescapable tasks are both time consuming and an inefficient use of a skilled workforce.
This gives support staff more freedom to provide and deliver outstanding wellness initiatives that improve the happiness of teachers and ultimately improve the quality of education for pupils - the reason the majority enter the profession.
Access Education HR & payroll also centralises employee records, allowing you to easily spot any trends in staff absence or performance issues. For example, if a school’s HR team notice that a member of staff is taking more time off sick than expected, our technology can highlight this and ensure that any unexpected issues can be addressed as early as possible.
If you run a multi-academy trust and decide to invest in new software, it will allow you to access a range of information relating to every academy across the trust. This is important for reviewing budgets and generating multiple reports, as well as mapping any performance trends or issues.
The Access Education software is now brought together on Access Workspace, which means that all aspects of your school’s day-to-day administration can be managed and updated in one place, freeing up time for wellness initiatives and increased staff support.