Problem Solving through Research: Our Own Teachers Don't Recommend Working at Our School!

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

The Case for Action

Benchmarking for Good research and analysis of survey results with nearly 1500 Jewish day school faculty reveals that only 56% of teachers at Jewish day schools are very likely to recommend working at their school to prospective hires, despite reporting personal job satisfaction levels of 4.3/5.0. This paradox indicates the following thinking process on the part of a very significant percentage of Jewish day school teachers:" I am accepting of the challenges related to working at our school but am reluctant to recommend it to others." Clearly this is a staff recruitment challenge that needs resolution if day schools are to recruit the next generation of teachers in the face of an aging current teacher population and the likelihood of significant retirements in the coming years.

Top 3 Causes of Teachers' Reluctance to Recommend Their School to Others are:

(1) Perceived unrealistic workload expectations on the part of supervisors

(2) Dissatisfaction with the work environment

(3) Perceived barriers to open communication

Action Planning for Addressing the Problem

Obviously, every school's personnel and environment is unique. However, here are some common sense suggested actions that school administrators can take to make current teachers into more enthusiastic ambassadors to potential teachers. Their appropriateness for your school can be explored through Faculty Climate Surveys coupled with diagnostic qualitative research.

Near-Term Actions

1. Conduct a Workload Audit

Driver: Perception that their supervisor has unrealistic workload expectations

• Conduct anonymous flash survey asking teachers to list their top 3 unrealistic expectations

• Review actual vs. expected working hours through time logs

• Identify and immediately eliminate non-essential administrative tasks

• Success Metric: Reduce teachers' administrative burden by 20%

2. Open Communication Forums

Driver: Perception lack of open, safe communication

• Schedule mandatory listening sessions with no administrators present (facilitated by external consultant)

• Establish anonymous digital feedback channel with guaranteed 48-hour response time

• Create "no retaliation" policy for honest feedback, communicated in writing

• Near-term Success Metric: 100% teacher participation in at least one feedback channel

• Longer Term Success Metric: Improved open communication scores of future anonymous climate surveys

  
  

Longer-Term Interventions

3. Work Environment Quick Wins

Driver: Perceived poor work environment quality

• Allocate emergency budget for immediate classroom needs (supplies, technology)

• Create quiet teacher workspace separate from student areas

• Implement listening sessions to discuss top perceived environmental gaps and strategize short and longer term fixes

• Success Metric: 30% improvement in environment satisfaction scores

4. Supervisor Expectations Reset

• Supervisor training on realistic goal-setting (using SMART framework)

• Establish teacher-supervisor compacts with mutually agreed expectations

• Implement weekly check-ins replacing lengthy performance reviews

• Success Metric: Meaningful improvement in supervisor expectation dissatisfaction in future anonymous climate surveys

To explore how to access Benchmarking for Good no cost Faculty Employer of Choice research grants, please contact Dr. Harry Bloom at harrybloom@benchmarkingforgood.org

New Benchmarking for Good Blog Series Featuring Research to Solve Critical Day School Challenges

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

Benchmarking for Good is pleased to announce a new series of bi-monthly posts that will deal with common day school challenges that have surfaced through our research---and present pragmatic solutions--all grounded in hard data! Be on the lookout for our first post soon! We welcome your input on the topics we choose, the solutions we recommend and your own experience in the area in question.

How to Guarantee a Faculty with High Job Satisfaction? Research Says, Do These Three Things

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

It is the start of a new school year and school leaders need to make bets on where to focus their efforts. Well, there aren't many"sure things” in life but Benchmarking for Good faculty climate research among 1400 Jewish day school faculty members reveals a nearly sure bet leaders should be making: Specifically, if they focus on getting these three things right at their school they will have a faculty that is highly satisfied with their jobs. 

The Answer to 71% of Faculty Job Satisfaction

Based on the statistical analysis of Benchmarking for Good’s Faculty Climate Survey data, these three factors combined explain 71% of the variance in faculty job satisfaction among Jewish day school faculty  (R² = 0.71). This is remarkably high and reveals a powerful insight for school administrators.

The Breakdown:

1. Supervisor Respect & Support alone: 41% of variance

2. Adding Collegial Environment: Brings the explanation of variance to 58% (adds 17%)

3. Adding Work-Life Balance: Reaches 71% (adds final 13%)

What This Means in Practice:

• Faculty satisfied with their school’s performance on with all three factors have a 90% probability of being highly satisfied with their jobs

• Faculty with none of these factors have only an 8% probability of high satisfaction

• The multiplier effect: Teachers experiencing all three are 8.7x more likely to be "very satisfied" and 12x more likely to stay at their schools beyond 10 years

The Strategic Implication:

By focusing intensively on these three human-centered factors—how faculty are supervised, their collegial relationships, and their ability to maintain work-life balance—schools can address nearly three-quarters of what drives teacher satisfaction. This is both more cost-effective and more impactful than salary increases or benefit enhancements alone.

The Bottom Line: If you could only focus on three things to improve faculty satisfaction, these would give you the maximum return—explaining 71% of what makes teachers happy in their jobs. That remaining 29% is split among salary, benefits, mission alignment, parent relationships, professional development, and other factors, with no single one contributing more than 5-6% additional variance.

Getting the Information to Ensure Your School is Maximizing Faculty Job Satisfaction

For information on how Benchmarking for Good research grants can help you ensure your school’s faculty are filling fulfilled in their work, contact Dr. Harry Bloom at harrybloom@benchmarkingforgood.org