HR support for schools: What are your options?

Top choices for schools seeking HR support include:

• In-house HR departments, with HR specialists employed by the school.
• Outsourced HR, where schools can make use of external support.
• HR software solutions that manage, automate and simplify HR.
• HR consultancy services, where external consultants work in the school.
• Collaborative networks and associations that can support staff.

Explore these options in further detail and find out which HR support models could be right for your school. 

HR provision is necessary to cover important functions in schools, including compensation and benefits, time off, performance management, employee relations, professional development, change management, talent acquisition and more. Academies and multi-academy trusts (MATs) are most likely to have dedicated HR professionals on their payroll, as their organisations are run more like businesses. In smaller schools managed by local authorities, HR responsibilities may fall to the headteacher, other members of the senior leadership team or the school business manager.

Pros include:

• Bespoke, dedicated advice tailored to the individual school.
• In-house data storage, with no need to outsource sensitive information.
• HR availability as needed – responsible parties will be on site and easily contactable.

Cons include:

• Prohibitively high costs, which can make in-house HR inaccessible for schools. Lower budgets can also make it harder to hire and retain talented HR staff in a competitive market.
• A lack of scalability – the school may not have the budget to hire additional HR headcount as it grows.
• Difficulty hiring specialists. Schools may have an individual HR employee or a smaller department than a private company, meaning more responsibility falls to each person. Someone well versed in recruitment and retention, for example, may not be as up to speed on teachers’ pensions and parental leave.

When an in-house HR department isn’t the right fit, another route to go down is outsourced HR services. This is where the school relies on an agency or external provider to meet their HR needs, usually on an ongoing basis.

Some of the services an HR agency might provide include:

1. Consultations and advice, either in person or over the phone.
2. Recruitment and pre-employment checks.
3. Payroll and pension administration services.
4. Managing leave and absences, including annual leave, compassionate leave, sick leave, parental leave and more.
5. Handling grievance procedures, acting as a point of contact for employees and employers.
6. Change management during periods of organisational change.
7. Employee benefits and retention strategies.

Pros include:

• Good value. When an external partner can cover your HR needs, there’s no need to increase headcount in house. This can allow for more flexibility when budgeting and managing cost centres.
• Flexibility of services. Certain services like change management will not be needed all the time, making it hard to cover this kind of expertise in house. Working with external experts gives access to a wider pool of talent, as needed.
• An external perspective. People who work for one organisation day in, day out may be desensitised to certain problems, or may not have the diversity of experience needed to deliver change. New perspectives can shed light on problem areas and find solutions.

Cons include:

• Longer time to productivity. It will take some time for external providers to get to know your school. In future, gaps may emerge as they will not have the same depth of knowledge as in-house staff.
• Lack of control over staffing. Agency staff might change, different people may be assigned to your account and valuable knowledge can get lost.
• Data security risks. HR data is incredibly sensitive, and agencies will need access to it. There are risks during data transfer and in granting access to sensitive files – processes will need to be carefully reviewed, as will the external provider’s data storage methods and policies. 

HR software for schools is used to support everyday HR tasks, automate processes and save staff time, while increasing reliability and providing valuable data and insights.

The right HR software can be an incredibly powerful resource, offering:

1. Sickness and leave tracking, helping you monitor and reduce absences in the long run.
2. Frameworks and resources to deliver appraisals and evaluations, as well as storage for detailed records of the process to support professional development.
3. Employee self-service features to reduce workload. Staff can amend records, view their own payslips, request leave, claim expenses and more.
4. Comprehensive reporting on absences, turnover, headcount and much more. Some HR software suites have hundreds of reporting options available, with easy-to-use dashboards to provide simple views and analyses.
5. Options to run payroll and pensions administration in house using complementary software.

Pros include:

• Simplification and automation of everyday processes, reducing staff workloads. Manual tasks related to payroll, absence management and the running of the school can be dramatically streamlined and reduced.
• Valuable insights that can shape your school’s approach to hiring, retention, continuing professional development (CPD) and more. HR software has many standard reporting capabilities built in and can produce more bespoke reports on request. These can revolutionise the way you view and manage areas of your school, giving you insights you’ve not previously had.
• Good return on investment, making school budgets go further by automating tasks and providing actionable data. HR departments can become strategic partners and add value.

Cons include:

• Data management and security – most software is available in the cloud. This is convenient and user friendly, but does require robust data management.
• The need for in-house HR provision. While software will save time and make HR more effective, it does rely on in-house resources, which can be expensive for schools. However, this can be balanced out when considering the uplift to staff productivity.
• The cost. HR software can help make savings in the long run but it will require additional budget, and this can be harder to justify if you already employ in-house HR and administration staff. Making a business case for software can help once you know the ins and outs of pricing, and gives you the opportunity to forecast for the future.

Working with a consultancy is similar to outsourcing HR services, but it might give you more flexibility and could be used on an ad hoc basis. HR consultants can be individuals working alone, or they could be supplied by an agency. You may choose to hire a consultant in house for an extended period of time, where they will work alongside staff and can make recommendations for improvement. You may also take them on for individual projects, or at specific times of the year when workload rises.

Pros include:

• Additional flexibility – HR support on your terms.
• Expertise from an experienced consultant who can provide focused, specific feedback.
• The option for additional support, on your schedule.

Cons include:

• Added costs – consultancy fees can be high.
• A lack of internal knowledge.
• Extra workload for staff who will need to bring consultants up to speed and allocate tasks (though this should decrease over time).

School employees have the option to join networks and associations designed to support headteachers, teachers and other professionals in all aspects of their everyday work and self-development. Some are aimed at independent schools, and others cover the education sector more generally. While the scope will often be wider, many of the membership benefits fall under the HR umbrella. These include:

1. CPD.
2. Coaching.
3. Leadership programmes.
4. Additional accreditations.
5. Seminars, workshops and additional education.
6. Events for a specific demographic such as women in leadership.

Pros include:

• The opportunity to tap into a network of professionals who can provide advice, ideas and support.
• Hearing from others who have “been there, done that” and can provide a unique perspective.
• Coaching and learning opportunities for CPD. This is where networks and associations can be particularly valuable, providing CPD specifically for the teaching profession that may not be easy to replicate in school. 

Cons include:

• Additional costs that can make membership inaccessible to some professionals.
• A lack of specific HR advice. While members may be able to share problems or challenges, feedback from a network does not constitute HR advice.
• The time taken to attend meetings and sessions. A CPD report found that the majority of surveyed teachers (59% of female participants and 52% of male participants) would prefer online learning courses that can be completed at any time. Teachers are time poor and may not be able to attend specific sessions run by a professional network. 

Finding the right HR support for your school might take some time and you may not get it right immediately. However, the cost of inaction is far higher – HR is a vital function in any modern organisation with people at its core. HR administration is essential to the smooth running of a school, but it pays to go beyond the basics and design a customised HR strategy that improves performance, delivers ongoing professional development and truly supports staff. In the current climate, this is more important than ever, with the UK facing a teacher retention crisis that is seeing record numbers leaving the profession altogether. In 2022, 43,997 teachers left teaching – 7,800 more than 2021. A Department for Education (DfE) report on teacher retention concluded that “workload remains the most important factor influencing teachers’ decisions to leave the profession” and that teachers need more progression opportunities and in-school support. 

The right HR support will look different for every school. Take the time to review current provision with the senior leadership team, identify gaps and areas of improvement, and consider how robust HR support can make your school more efficient.