Reimagining Day School Faculty Compensation

By Dr. Harry Bloom, Founder and President, Benchmarking for Good

After five years of conducting faculty climate surveys in day schools, two key themes have emerged for me. One, that compensation is not at the top of the list of important factors for the significant majority of teachers, but it is still very important to 2/3 of faculty. The second is that many faculty members are dissatisfied with how they are compensated—with the Covid pandemic having likely increased this dissatisfaction. And, given how salaries are set in many schools, the dissatisfaction is justified. So, while compensation is not at the top of teachers’ priority list, the sense of unfairness its implementation engenders in faculty members is a negative force that undermines enthusiasm, advocacy and employment continuity for the profession. Later in this article I will make some suggestions that I believe could help alleviate this undesirable situation.  

 Some Facts Drawn from the Research

Just over half of the more than a thousand faculty members I have surveyed over a five year period of time reported being satisfied (of these only 15% were very satisfied) with the competitiveness of their salaries. And written comments in the surveys provide a sense of why the other half are dissatisfied:

“As a teacher with multiple degrees and a passion for education, it seems unfair to struggle to afford necessities like food and housing. I love the school because of the fantastic students and colleagues; however, it is hard to obtain a healthy work/life balance or provide my students with a top-tier education when I can't afford to eat lunch and have to work extra shifts elsewhere.”

“Although the school may offer a competitive salary to some employees, there is a lack of equity in that each employee needs to “fend for themselves” and to push to make sure they earn what they are worth.”

“Years of employment in school do not lead to a higher salary, additional degrees  do not lead to a higher salary.  There is no scale and no transparency. Performance is not rewarded in compensation and it seems that the only possible way for there to be growth in salary is by procuring a higher salary at another institution and hoping it will be matched.”

“There has been a lot of talk about inexperienced/non-credentialed people coming on as teachers who make significantly more than teachers who already work for the school/have been here for years. It is very demoralizing, causes intense strife, and damages relationships with administration. Add to that the fact that yearly salary adjustments do not account for inflation, we make less money year over year.”

Board Members Bear Some of the Responsibility

While there is an intense and understandable focus by volunteer Board members on making schools affordable for parents, including the wealthy, this has been achieved through a reluctance to increase tuition in order to fund higher salaries and to faculty compensation systems at most schools which focus on minimizing raises. Salary increases are rationed and increases go disproportionately to faculty members who have the temerity to request them, and less so to faculty members who are uncomfortable with a negotiating process they are uncomfortable engaging in.

Enlightened School Administrators Are Recognizing the Lack of Sustainability in Current Practices

Enlightened Heads of School are increasingly recognizing the reality that any faculty compensation system that does not lead to their schools being a destination of choice for the best faculty members–particularly in a very competitive employment market– is ultimately dysfunctional. It is likely to result in decreased quality, lower perceived value, reduced enrollment and employee turnover.  In short, a race to the bottom. 

Some Key Questions to Ponder:

• Do current compensation practices result in the “best and brightest” wanting to be educators in our school? 

• Has the pendulum perhaps swung too far toward affordability concerns versus to concerns related to employee satisfaction and continuity? 

• Should the value of having day schools becoming employers of choice receive more strategic and operational attention? 

Here are Some Suggestions to Help Ensure Our Schools are Magnets for the Best Educators

School leaders need to increase the transparency of salary setting by

• Disclosing the share of the school budget that faculty salaries comprise and making sure it is a defensible percentage relative to its importance.

• Enumerating those performance factors that are valued and will result in higher compensation. If years of experience is valued, say so and reflect that in compensation. If advanced degrees or certifications are valued, say so and reflect that in compensation. Etcetera. 

• Taking necessary steps to ensure salaries at a minimum keep up with inflation.

• Being honest about the need to pay more for teachers who possess scarce skills. 

In Conclusion: 

The Faculty compensation systems in many day schools are inequitable and inadequate and undermine trust and satisfaction. If school leaders truly “walk the walk” in pursuing equity and justice and a system that will attract the caliber of faculty our children deserve, faculty compensation systems should better reflect these values. Straight talk with parents about the need to balance faculty quality and morale is needed and will be understood by those with an open mind.

Day Schools can and should do better to avoid Faculty burnout and discouraging quality faculty members from joining our schools. 

We can and need to do better. 

To learn how to become more knowledgeable about making your school a destination of choice for faculty please contact Dr. Harry Bloom at harrybloom@benchmarkingforgood.org

#facultycompensation  #facultyclimate  #facultyretention  #facultyrecruitment

How to Become a Faculty Employer of Choice! What the Research Indicates

A Benchmarking for Good survey of over 800 faculty members at fourteen geographically dispersed Jewish day schools provides important insights about what school leaders need to do to become employers of choice in a challenging labor market. 

One might automatically think that offering competitive salaries as the key factor, but salaries turn out to be an important, but middle tier importance factor. Ensuring faculty members feel respected is the top criterion for determining whether a school is an employer of choice. There was a fair amount of uniformity across the surveyed schools about the relative importance of the various factors.

In a subsequent report we will shed light on how well the surveyed faculty members felt their needs were being met relative to these factors. 

Tier 1 Importance Factors

The top 3 “employer of choice” factors are: 

• Feeling Respected and Supported by Their Supervisor

• Having a Positive and Collegial Work Environment

• Working in An Environment Where Parents Treat Faculty with Respect

In the median surveyed school, eighty-four percent of faculty members indicated these factors were “Very Important” in defining a school as an employer of choice. 

Tier 2 Importance Factors

Two additional environmental factors represented the second tier of importance. They were 

• Working in an Environment Where Students Treat Other Students with Respect and Caring, and 

• Working in an Environment Where Students Treat Faculty with Respect. 

These two factors were indicated to be Very Important by 71% of faculty members in the median surveyed school. 

Tier 3 Importance Factors

Three factors represented the third tier of desired school characteristics. 

• Being Able to Freely Communicate Ideas, Concerns and Suggestions

• Receiving a Competitive Salary

• Having Appropriate Tools (Space, Technology, Curriculum, etc.) 

These 3 factors were indicated to be Very Important by ~60% of responding faculty members. To be clear, this does not mean that schools can deprioritize salary considerations, it simply indicates that salary alone will not ensure they are employers of choice if the other highly important factors are not in place. Of note, the importance ratings were relatively constant among faculty members of varying years of employment at the surveyed schools. 

Tiers 4 and 5 Importance Factors

Factors that were Very Important to from 25-40% of survey respondents were: 

• Receiving a Competitive Benefits Package

• Having Access to Career Growth Opportunities

• Having Access to Professional Development that Enhances Skills 

• Having Access to Expert Mentoring 

In Summary

There are many factors that contribute to a school becoming an employer of choice to faculty members, but climate factors centered around making faculty members feel respected by key stakeholder groups–supervisors, parents, fellow faculty members and students– are very  important for a strong majority of faculty members. School leaders need to conduct periodic survey research in order to be knowledgeable about how well they are perceived to be performing on these factors. Additionally, when shortcomings in perceived performance are revealed, they need to conduct in depth qualitative research to learn about where they are falling short and need to make improvements. 

Benchmarking for Good is making a concerted effort to help elevate the field in this important arena by offering a second round of no cost grants to a number of qualified schools interested in perfecting their practice in this area. Interested school leaders should contact Dr. Harry Bloom at harrybloom@benchmarkingforgood.org to explore whether this grant program is a good fit for their schools. 

#faculty #employerofchoice #school #privateschool

New Year’s Congrats and Wishes for Jewish Day Schools

By Dr. Harry Bloom, Founder and President, Benchmarking for Good, Inc.

2022//23 was a good year for Jewish Day schools. Areas of justifiable pride include:

1.Attrition management: Jewish Day School attrition levels were lower than those for overall day schools and all but Christian day schools.

2. Annual Fundraising: Annual fundraising per student by Jewish day schools was higher than that for all day schools and other faith based school segments!

3. Net Operating Surplus: The Net Operating Surplus for Jewish day schools was higher than for all day schools, Episcopal and Quaker schools, trailing only Christian schools.

4. Care of Faculty: Faculty Salaries per Student and Student to Faculty Ratio per student for the median Jewish Day school were more favorable than those for all day schools, Christian day schools and Episcopal day schools, trailing only Quaker schools. (Spoiler alert: We have a current grant program in the field helping a cohort of school establish faculty compensation and practices to maximize retention and quality.)

Now, for my 2023/24 school year wishes:

1. Enrollment Growth: I wish that Jewish day schools work to strengthen their perceived value in the marketplace as well as their enrollment management and marketing practices so that enrollment increases. Jewish day schools trail all other school segments in enrollment growth relative to pre-pandemic levels. Additionally, enrollment declined 5% relative to 2021/22 levels. (Spoiler alert: Benchmarking for Good is offering a grant to cohorts of Jewish day schools in the arena of enhancing perceived value! Please contact us to learn more.)

2. Tuition Integrity: I wish that Jewish day schools would establish tuition levels closer to the intersection of operational finding needs as well as actual tuition paid. What is concerning about current practice is both the 32% absolute gap between Gross Tuition and realized Net Tuition as well as the widening of the gap since 2019/20. Such a gap invites bargaining by parents, undermines perceptions of value, and presents an unrealistic “sticker price” to prospective parents concerned about affordability.

3. Endowment: Jewish day schools’ endowment levels trail those of all day school segments except Christian schools by a substantial magnitude. Now that rates of return on invested funds have risen substantially, this is a great time for Jewish day schools to focus their advancement efforts on endowment building.

Benchmarking for Good, Inc.

Benchmarking for Good, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, is devoted to helping networks of nonprofit organizations utilize comparative benchmarking, research, and peer to peer networking to make significant improvements in their Mission achievement and sustainability. Please visit our website at www.benchmarkingforgood.org to learn more about our organization and grant opportunities and contact Dr. Harry Bloom at harrybloom@benchmarkingforgood.org to explore how your organization can best take advantage of our grants.