HR issues in schools: Common challenges and how to overcome them

Explore five key challenges faced by schools and their HR professionals. What are the biggest problems that need to be overcome?

1. Recruitment and retention

According to the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER), teacher recruitment and retention is in a perilous state. Initial teacher training (ITT) recruitment has consistently missed targets, and the problem is particularly prevalent in secondary schools. Between 2015/16 and 2023/24, pupil numbers have grown by 15% but the number of teachers has only grown by 3%, and in 2024/25, postgraduate secondary recruitment was nearly 40% below target.

The NFER’s annual report on the teacher labour market highlighted little progress on retention, with 43,522 teachers leaving the profession in 2022/23 — that’s around 9.6% of the total teaching workforce. Of that, 8.8% were working-age teachers who were not retiring.

For HR, this means it can be challenging to keep great staff long term. When positions become available, there’s a smaller talent pool for recruitment, increasing costs and time to hire. And it’s not just teachers — in an Association of School and College Leaders survey, 92% of respondents reported difficulties recruiting support staff.

2. Managing staff wellbeing and reducing burnout

Closely linked to retention, wellbeing in education presents a major HR hurdle, with the Teacher Wellbeing Index noting “disturbingly high rates of stress, anxiety, depression and burnout across the education workforce.” 78% of education staff are stressed and 63% of teachers and leaders say their job negatively affects their mental health. According to the Teacher Wellbeing Index, 35% of school teachers and 39% of senior leaders thought their symptoms could be signs of burnout.

With staff under this kind of pressure, higher turnover is a likely consequence. 44% of teachers said they were planning to leave the profession by 2027, and many cited their unmanageable workload. This can leave HR departments in a state of flux, with mental health challenges and burnout driving qualified, talented staff to depart in increasing numbers.

3. Payroll complexities

The biggest challenge posed by payroll is the need to do it extremely well, every single time. Research by Sage found that 51% of employees would lose trust in their employer if they were paid incorrectly, and 46% of UK employees said they have missed a bill payment due to inaccurate payroll.

Payroll in schools can be complicated due to varying pay scales — especially in larger schools and academies — pension schemes and tax requirements. Schools must also factor in payments to supply teachers, which will change from month to month. In addition, strict processes around data protection and compliance need to be developed, as payroll involves the storage, handling and processing of highly sensitive data in large volumes. To do this, HR professionals must stay on top of regulations and be very well informed in their field.

4. HR compliance and safeguarding

Safeguarding and compliance are essential parts of the recruitment process — DBS certificates, teaching qualifications and the right to work in the UK will need to be checked, along with other documentation depending on the position. Details need to be entered into the single central record.

HR teams are likely to be involved in compliance and safeguarding in a number of ways, including:

• Carrying out pre-employment checks
• Record keeping
• Managing safeguarding policies and ensuring adherence with them
• Providing safeguarding training
• Ensuring compliance with employment laws

Taking care of these processes can be especially challenging for HR teams, requiring expertise, diligence and high levels of accountability.

5. Inefficiencies and human error

Schools are often under-resourced and support functions like HR can suffer, increasing inefficiency and leading to a higher degree of human error. This can be a prevalent challenge in large schools and multi-academy trusts, where multiple systems might be used that do not align well, making HR processes manual and duplicative. For example, a lack of data centralisation makes it more challenging to manage payroll across multiple schools, and individual teams will sometimes work in siloes. All too often, schools will inherit legacy systems and software for managing these processes and when they’re not up to the job, tasks become more complicated and prone to errors.  

These seven principles of HR management can help combat common HR issues in schools.

1. Reduce teacher workload

A teacher supply impact model from the NFER suggests that cutting workload to improve retention could have a similar impact to increasing pay by one percentage point higher than average earnings growth. The message for HR is clear: reducing workload can be more effective and less costly than a pay rise, especially a small one. HR can support teachers with administration, behaviour management, parent-teacher communication and more to lessen their load, with technology offering many options for streamlining. 

2. Prioritise wellbeing

Once again, the main conclusion from a NASUWT wellbeing survey was that workload continues to be the primary source of stress for teachers. By reducing workload, HR can improve wellbeing in the workplace and in turn promote higher rates of retention. HR can also provide staff with workplaces that promote wellbeing, have a school-based counsellor and put measures in place to monitor and manage stress or burnout. Another wellbeing consideration is the provision of flexible working opportunities. NFER’s teacher labour market report concluded that a lack of access to flexible working arrangements may be contributing to teachers leaving the profession. The report suggests that schools can offer part-time working, allow teachers to use planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) time flexibly at home, and provide access to ad hoc days off. 

3. Focus on culture

Building a positive culture where teachers are supported, respected and listened to is essential for retention. One study found that when leadership had a demonstrative vested interest in staff, this positively contributed to teacher retention, and other factors including collaboration and empowerment helped inform teachers' decisions to stay in the profession. Another study highlighted four key themes related to culture that contribute to teachers’ professional satisfaction and commitment: resonant communication, relationship building, reciprocal trust and shared identity. With this in mind, HR can help build a culture that makes teachers morel likely to stay. 

4. Set a recruitment strategy

Recruitment strategy can be proactive, not just reactive. Ensure your recruitment team can identify their ideal candidates and have developed personas. They should also know how to communicate the benefits of working at the school, and spend time building the brand — this is as much a job for recruitment and HR as it is for marketing staff.

5. Make use of technology

Begin with an audit of existing systems and assess the potential for additional usage. When Ewell Castle School unlocked new use cases for existing software, they were able to significantly enhance operational efficiency. Where additional functionality is needed, begin building a case for integrated software that can be used to manage HR from the top down. HR software will allow visibility into and control of essential processes without manual, repetitive inputs that are prone to human error.

6. Consider outsourcing

Some parts of HR management can be outsourced to an external provider, helping to ensure accuracy and freeing up internal teams’ time. Payroll is often outsourced very successfully, with the option to have an external provider look after it end-to-end, or take over parts of the process.

7. Centralise HR processes

For academies and larger schools, finding the balance between centralisation and autonomy is key. General annual grant (GAG) pooling is on the rise and could triple as academies offer more services centrally. MATs that have already implemented centralisation say it’s lessened the load on individual schools, and problems can be solved together. 

Software offers the potential to solve many HR issues in schools, revolutionising ways of working and helping HR offer practical support that can boost the school’s brand, reduce stress and boost retention. Look for software that’s integrated and cloud based, offering a simple approach to HR processes, financial management and budgeting that can reduce errors, improve compliance and free up school leaders’ time. 

Access Education’s cloud-hosted HR software empowered The Circle Trust to harness collaborative working relationships and fully support individual schools. As a rapidly expanding trust, the software now helps generate reports and view school-level information while including individual schools and prioritising their needs. 

Another option is managed payroll, which can increase accuracy and ensure payroll is delivered on time. All Saints’ Academy began using Access Education’s managed payroll service and found the approach made perfect sense for them. The most important aspects were industry expertise and efficient problem solving. “We saw plenty of other companies advertise payroll solutions for the sector, but none were particularly education specific, whereas Access was,” said Rick van Driel, Director of Finance and Operations. “Whenever I call Access Payroll requiring support, I am speaking to somebody within minutes… my queries get answered almost immediately.”

A smarter approach: Solving HR issues in schools

A proactive approach to HR management can help solve many common issues, and it becomes much simpler with the right technology.

Discover how Access Education’s HR and payroll solutions can help your school or trust simplify processes, improve accuracy and ensure compliance.