Around the Loop: From Measurement to Measurable Impact.

The research we do into what makes schools great places to work, has always been about bridging insight and action. 

This means creating a virtuous loop which takes leaders from establishing evidence; planning and strategising based on that evidence; taking the right action, and refreshing the evidence to evaluate impact, so we can adjust our plans; and the loop continues. 

Recently, our team has had the privilege of speaking with dozens of school leaders as they worked through their response to the rich, detailed dataset our State of the Independent School Workforce survey provided. While this dataset is new, the best practices for getting the most from it are as old as time.

Here are a few of the lessons we’ve learned from partnering with school leaders on this journey across Australia and the United States.

Lesson 1: When gathering evidence, context is king.

Let’s be clear: not all data is equal or transferable and not all data truly matters. 

Understanding what data matters to your leadership practice—in your context— is the aim of the game. Analysing our State of the Independent School Workforce dataset is like admiring an intricate photo mosaic: from a distance the commonalities form a coherent picture, but take a couple of steps forward and you quickly appreciate just how different the component images truly are.

There are 88 schools in this sample. The data tells 88 distinct stories.

For this reason, applying the learnings from the big picture will only get you so far. Your school’s workforce story is likely unique in several meaningful ways, so examining your own data within the historical context of your school is essential.

What was happening in your school before this data was collected? What was happening while it was being collected? How has change of leadership (or consistency of leadership) shaped your school’s workforce over recent years? The answers to each of these questions—and many more—will affect how you weight each finding and prioritise your response. 

A set of findings that shows negative perceptions of the school’s organisational culture and low levels of staff engagement will mean quite different things in a school which has experienced substantial leadership turnover in recent years than one where both leaders and staff are long-tenured. 

Effective leaders know their organisational history and leverage this wisdom.

Lesson 2: Good planning should create order from overwhelm.

The true value in a workforce dataset is not in the numbers (however mysterious and important they may be); it’s in the action they provoke. Getting to the right actions involves creating order out of potential overwhelm. 

To this end, prioritisation matters and pragmatism is the highest virtue. 

For the average participating school from the State of the Independent School Workforce project, the data tells us about at least 6 wins—things that are clearly working well in how employees experience their jobs—and at least 6 risks to manage. This means the average leader has a dozen chunks of information that could inform some meaningful action, and this is only one of several sources of workforce data the average leader will consult in a given year. 

If not managed well, this is a recipe for decision paralysis. This is why having a framework and process for distilling evidence down to the top priorities is invaluable. This is as much about choosing what not to pursue as it is about choosing what to pursue. 

Our experience supporting leaders through this process to develop their schools first Workforce Strategy shows us that the solutions to many schools’ workforce challenges are often hiding in plain sight – leaders have begun to experiment with them, but they’ve not established a process for ensuring the work gets done in a way that engages staff in its sustainable success. 

Lesson 3: If you want to go further, go together.

My friends and family know I care so much (too much?) about good coffee, and they often come to me for advice when they have a problem with their home coffee setup. I’ve learned a lot through trial and error, so I love to share my experiences. Occasionally, after I’ve shared my experiences via a lengthy series of texts, I’ll receive a “Cool, thanks” in return… and hear nothing further until they text me about the same issue again 12 months later. 

This is the experience of too many staff when it comes to workforce surveys: they take the time to thoughtfully share their reflections, then hear no more.  

One of the standout findings from the State of the Independent School Workforce project (consistent with what we’ve observed across all types of schools over several years in our broader State of the Sector project) is that employees seek greater input into the decisions that affect how they work.

Involving staff in the post-survey sense-making process of sharing what you’ve heard, understanding the findings mean and deciding what to do about can be deeply valuable for both employees and leaders. This doesn’t have to be an overwrought, formal process of decision-making by committee—you can right-size it based on your school’s needs. 

Start small, but do something to keep your people involved as you develop your plan—a workforce strategy; an annual school improvement plan; wherever the right process. Failing to do so after collecting such detailed information from staff is at best a missed opportunity for continuous improvement, and at worst corrosive to the trust between staff and leaders.

Lesson 4. Close the loop.

Organisational change is exciting. We get to innovate, stretch our brains in new ways and—hopefully—enjoy the satisfaction of achieving clarity on a long-standing curly problem. Less exciting for some, though, is the prospect of having to collect, organise and report on a pile of data to test whether the decisions made have had the desired effect.

If evaluating the progress of your workforce decisions and actions feels like an audit, you might be doing it wrong.  

Impact evaluation isn’t meant to be a one-off event; it’s a continuous, iterative cycle, and gathering less evaluation data more frequently is often beneficial. 

Educators know this experientially: relying solely on a large summative assessment can cost a teacher the opportunity to adjust and support a student based on their needs. Organisations are no different.

Done well, evaluation involves a mix of the quick quantitative (the easy-to-track metrics engagement, retention, and satisfaction data) and the qualitative (the rich and deep insights you glean from focus groups or curious ad-hoc conversations). 

Gathering impact data iteratively has the added benefit of supporting a culture of continuous improvement where it’s normal for leaders and staff to collaborate, owning the wins and committing to addressing the opportunities for change. 

Building momentum.

Education will keep evolving, and so must our practices. Schools that embrace continuous improvement—fuelled by evidence in context, big-picture prioritisation and collaborative action—will be best positioned to create rewarding experiences for their staff and deliver positive outcomes for their students.

PeopleBench is privileged to work with leaders at various stages of bedding down this process. Our software tools and services are informed by what we’ve learned through many projects like the State of the Independent School Workforce. We’re excited to be part of the next “loop” for schools across Australia and the United States. If you’d like to join us, contact us hello@peoplebench.com.au