As a new school year begins, and hallways are once again filled with the sound of student life and learning, many of you will welcome new teachers and school administrators to your community.
While the first few days of school bring an inevitable buzz of excitement for students and teachers alike, I tend to wonder how these new colleagues must feel, and how many of these first few days at the school are in line with expectations that were raised for them when they first visited your school’s website and went through the application process from interview to contract.
While I have no doubt that schools put a lot of effort into a carefully crafted induction program for new hires, the reality is that, oftentimes, we feel the urge to overload our newest colleagues with information and expectations, rather than creating an inspiring and welcoming experience that fosters a sense of belonging, understanding and connection – which will ultimately set them up for success.
Dare I suggest that we simply tend to leave far too much to chance and that what is really missing in many schools is an Employee Experience Strategy?
So, where to begin?
Many of you will know of the Lifecycle of School Experience that we [YELLOW CAR] developed some years ago to visualise the six stages that families journey through, from Attraction to Departure. Our contention has always been that the same is true of all employees. But, just to make the point, we’ve made this explicit in the illustration below and called it (not surprisingly) The Lifecycle of School Employee Experience.
Just like there should be a team member or a team responsible for overseeing the family journey, we are convinced that there should be clarity on who takes on the role of curating every stage of the employee journey. The obvious answer would be Human Resources or the equivalent, but the question there might be the extent to which they feel accountable for, and have oversight over each stage of that journey, deeply understanding the bigger context.
The reality is, what we typically see in schools tends to be a fragmented and disjointed approach, often process focused, which results in an equally fragmented and disjointed experience for those involved.
Ultimately, schools that prioritise designing the journey for their staff are more likely to create an environment where employees feel valued, supported and inspired to give their best.
Perhaps, take a moment to imagine how much more enticing it could be to prospective, new and current employees to know that this is a school that has taken the time to carefully and purposefully design each stage of their journey; that steps have been taken to ensure that the journey is coherent along the way; that people across the school know the role that is theirs to play in curating this experience; that the necessary moments of feedback have been designed with learning and growth in mind; that surprises and moments of human kindness have been built in along the way; and that this entire endeavour has been designed to ensure, not only for students but employees also, that time spent at school was time well spent.
