 Brad Rathgeber If your school has not yet felt the effects of the Great Resignation, count yourself lucky. 4.2 million Americans quit their jobs in October alone. We’re fielding phone calls weekly from schools asking if we could handle cohorts of students in our courses because of sudden faculty departures. The 2022-2023 hiring season is poised to be the busiest we’ve yet to experience, as employees reassess their goals, motivations for work, and life priorities. To prepare for this hiring season, Academic Leaders should take the next few weeks to focus their efforts in four areas that will make a difference.
Focus on Belonging Academic Leaders need to ask daily: what can I do to make sure that my team feels valued, and has a sense of belonging at my school? A recent McKinsey & Company report showed a disconnect between why employers thought their employees were leaving and why they actually are leaving. The report highlighted that employers need to focus much more on employee’s sense of belonging, employees: “didn’t feel valued by their organizations (54 percent) or their managers (52 percent) or because they didn’t feel a sense of belonging at work (51 percent). Notably, employees who classified themselves as non-White or multiracial were more likely than their White counterparts to say they had left because they didn’t feel they belonged at their companies.” Re-Recruit Your Team It is time to re-recruit your current employees. And yet, January and February are notoriously challenging times in independent schools. Consider what you might do as an Academic Leader to connect deeply with everyone on your team, and reserve time in your calendar now to prioritize those connections. A recent Harvard Business Review article suggested three keys to re-recruitment: spend significant time with each of your employees to understand their motivations and ambitions; make sure that they see their positive impact on the organization and the difference they are making; and make sure that your conversations are on-going, not one and done. Get Your Job Descriptions Current Jobs have changed during the COVID pandemic, but most schools have not, in turn, altered their job descriptions. Academic Leaders will want to make sure that their job descriptions reflect the changes that occurred during the pandemic, including possibilities for job flexibility, the technological acumen required to manage new systems, compliance with local or school health and safety policies, and willingness to take on additional duties as assigned. Check in With Your Attorney The pandemic hasn’t only changed job titles and descriptions–it’s also brought about changes in hiring and employment regulations. As you review openings and positions, it’s a good idea to check in with your attorney before the hiring season begins. A short conversation will help you to understand national and state requirements, and to avoid any pitfalls that could arise in the interview and decision process. More than in any other year, a little foresight and preparation can avoid costly mistakes.
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 Liz Katz When you enter a school as a teacher, your understanding of the school begins in its most intimate space—the classroom—and radiates outward from there. When you work in enrollment and admissions, however, your understanding of your school also needs to start beyond your campus, encompassing the larger communities and forces that surround and engage with the school, and converging inward.
Most Academic Leaders begin in the classroom, but as they move into school administration, their perspective starts to shift. Successful and strategic Academic Leaders learn how to balance the internal and external mindsets, and to exist in the productive tension that emerges from the two ways of seeing the world. Enrollment management goes far beyond the cycle of activity that admits a new class to your school, although that’s always a key part of the work. Enrollment managers are in search of a complex balance among a series of four drivers: enrollment numbers, revenue, candidates, and class composition. Each of these drivers, in turn, has a direct impact on the responsibilities of the Academic Leader. Enrollment numbers dictate class size, sectioning, and number of students per teacher. Revenue affects raises and hiring. Both the candidate pool and class composition determine the students who arrive in the classroom and whom the academic program serves. Because of all these overlaps, it’s easy to see why effective collaborations between Academic Leaders and enrollment management professionals can be so powerful. You’re each other’s best allies on the leadership team, and when you make decisions together, you can manage the levers of change for curriculum, instruction, and community. Your enrollment management team can also be your advocate for change—when there’s internal resistance to growth, they can explain how student and family needs are evolving, and how the academic program needs to evolve as well to continue to serve the community. Enrollment management work lives in the same place of tension that academic leadership does—you toggle between practical choices about individual people, and abstract decisions that affect the larger school. You don’t have to be an island of one in your work—you can be part of an island nation. |
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June 2022
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