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