Why a solid teacher recruitment and retention strategy is crucial in schools

Recruiting and retaining top teaching talent is important for pupils because:

• Consistency is key: Stable teams provide continuity in the classroom which underpins learning and development. Research on school culture emphasises the role of consistency in institutional practices, noting how it can shift the prevailing culture and create predictability.
• It shapes the school culture: When staff are in their roles on a long-term basis, they have the experience and influence to proactively create a positive environment around them. School culture has been directly linked to student achievement, so prioritising retention to build a great culture is important for everyone.
• Educational outcomes can be directly affected: When teachers leave schools at high rates, student learning drops. One study found that students experiencing high levels of turnover do less well in their end-of-school exams. Retention strategies are important to mitigate these risks. 

The operational and financial costs of high staff turnover

High staff turnover can cause operational issues that make it more challenging to run a school efficiently. When teachers resign, it can disrupt departments and the school as a whole, increasing reliance on certain colleagues to cover lessons and work. Over time, this can lead to higher stress levels and might contribute to absenteeism and burnout. Rapidly changing team dynamics can also turn up the pressure on HR departments and senior members of staff who are responsible for onboarding, training and ensuring all work is covered while new staff members get up to speed.

High turnover also has financial implications that will often mount up over time. Recruiting new teachers can be time consuming and costly — advertising costs, agency fees, HR support and onboarding processes all need to be factored in. And in the interim, covering the cost of supply teachers can become a major financial burden. A Department for Education (DfE) report found that schools are paying an almost 100% mark-up on supply teacher pay due to agency costs. This means that secondary supply teachers earn £150 a day on average, yet schools pay £291 a day on average. With demand for supply teachers up in around two-fifths of schools (due in part to long-term absences and difficulties recruiting and retaining permanent staff), this compounds the problem and is costing taxpayers over £1 billion a year. 

How to build a successful teacher recruitment strategy

1. Targeted recruitment. Create profiles to define the school’s ideal candidates, considering qualifications as well as cultural fit. This is an important recruitment exercise — identifying the right candidates is the first step in attracting them.
2. Automate processes where possible. This is where recruitment software comes in; it’s used by many schools to automate aspects of the process, streamlining applications and interviews, keeping good applicants engaged and reducing time to hire.
3.  Form productive partnerships. This might mean a reliable recruitment partner, or investing in in-house HR. It can also mean wider industry relationships, for example, with training institutions, helping to capture interest from newly qualified teachers and those even earlier on in their journey towards teaching.
4. Build the school’s brand. The school website, job adverts, social media, the interview process — these touchpoints all provide an opportunity to show the world what you want them to know.

How to develop an effective teacher retention strategy

Focus on work-life balance

A model created by the National Foundation for Educational Research suggests that reducing workload could have a similar impact on retention as a payrise one percentage point higher than average earnings growth. Work-life balance is a huge concern, and is the most frequently cited reason by teachers for leaving the profession. When schools can reduce teacher workloads, there’s significant scope to improve retention.

Consider how to recognise and reward teachers

Recognising achievements and calling out great work adds to the inclusive and supportive culture of the school. And while it’s not all about salaries, pay has been shown to affect teachers’ effort and motivation, so it’s an important consideration.

Provide meaningful professional development

Continuing professional development (CPD) is important to teachers, but workload pressures may prevent them taking full advantage. Offer CPD, and ensure teachers’ schedules and workloads allow them to attend.

Focus on career progression

Consider how to create clear pathways to career growth, and how to make teachers aware of their options and opportunities. Consider initiatives such as mentoring, career workshops and additional training to offer active support. 

Teacher retention strategies in action: Examples of school success stories

Barr Beacon School in Walsall saw a significant improvement in staff retention when it embarked on a journey to improve workloads. Headteacher Lynsey Draycott decided to take action because she saw first hand that teachers were leaving the profession. By treating workload reduction as an ongoing process, Barr Beacon School committed to a number of initiatives and allowed for staff feedback as well. The school believes that when something new is introduced, something old must be taken away, and their transparency in this area helped with their recruitment efforts as well as directly impacting retention.

Meadow High School in Hillingdon was also able to reduce staff turnover by focussing on teacher wellbeing. Headteacher Jenny Rigby took two key actions to help get to the root of wellbeing issues: she committed to a work-life survey and encouraged all staff to take part, as well as giving staff time to talk and share problems. Both initiatives helped create a more open environment, where staff can give and receive feedback and really consider their own holistic development. In terms of visible results, the school was successful in reducing sick days and absenteeism, and achieved a very low turnover of staff. 

Amidst all the challenges of running a school, it can be difficult to prioritise the implementation of new strategies. These are some of the challenges that schools commonly face, along with some ideas to help overcome them:

Challenge 1: Budgets are limited, with no scope to fund new initiatives. Begin by assessing where there are opportunities to improve school culture and staff wellbeing. Small steps like better recognition, collaborative approaches and access to leadership can help shape a culture. Good leadership can be intrinsic to retention — staff who have a poor view of leadership in November are more likely to have left their job by summer. In addition, a positive view of leadership is also correlated with higher job satisfaction.

Challenge 2: People processes like recruitment and retention are disjointed, costly and difficult to manage. Creating a joined-up approach to recruitment and retention is essential in maintaining staff stability long term. A unified strategy with defined accountabilities should be the initial step. From there, focusing on automation and streamlining — with the help of HR and recruitment software — will help make strategies fit for purpose in the long term.

Challenge 3: When leaders resign, it can leave major holes and have a detrimental effect on structure, morale and continuity. Work with HR to focus on succession planning — the process of identifying and developing continuous talent pipelines so staff are ready to step up into leadership roles. Succession planning relies on training, CPD but most of all, awareness and readiness. By planning and preparing, it becomes simpler to develop the leaders of the future who already know and appreciate the school’s culture and inner workings. 

The long-term benefits of a teacher recruitment and retention strategy

Recruitment and retention are two sides of the same coin, with each supporting the other and contributing to the continuity of quality teaching. When schools invest in a recruitment and retention strategy — not just financially, but when building their culture — they are more likely to have an engaged and motivated workforce, with a continuous pipeline of talent. HR and recruitment software can help schools develop more successful strategies in fewer steps.