Most heads may initially be very wary of working with three committees made up of teachers, administrators and board members working collaboratively to help design evaluation/growth systems, salary and benefit systems that are mission driven, financially viable, transparent, fair, market sensitive and that offer planned career growth opportunities to faculty and staff.

However, this is what over 3000 heads of independent and international schools have accomplished with the assistance of our Firm over the past 30 years. The first step is the listening process that this Consultant leads through an interview/focus group process.  The second step is a workshop with the board, the teachers and administrators where we share findings, make recommendations and form and launch committees, typically the Compensation, Benefits and Evaluation Committees.  The next steps are follow up check-in/progress sessions called the Mid-Course Correction, the Round Robin where the Committee members test their ideas against one another and the Final Presentation to the full faculty.

The entire process takes about 8 to 10 months and demands at most 90 minutes a month from the participants except for the co-chairs of the committees who have two such meetings a month. 

The impact is not only better more mission-based financially sustainable systems, but higher teacher morale, greater good will for the head of school and much improved appreciation by teachers for the board and by the board for teachers and the teaching profession. They walk in each other’s shoes.

What are some of the specific outcomes that may be expected and that have occurred:

• Corrections and reduction of unexplained inequities in pay and roles
• Development of systems that provide teachers both with greater predictability of future earning power but also mission appropriate ways to leverage and increase their own future earning power
• Boards who are more likely to approach faculty compensation and benefits more generously NOT because that was an expectation in the process, but because there is generally a psychological boost that follows from the collaboration of teachers and board members
• Successful endowment campaigns with a focus on teacher and staff compensation
• A faculty that stays longer, is evaluated fairly and supportively but is also accountable to decision makers 
• A powerful growth in the maturity, leadership and support of those teachers who participate in the process and tremendous long-term professional development for the faculty co-chairs especially. 
• A heightened understanding and appreciation  of the complexities of the job of the head who must stay fiscally within the budget set by the board while trying to meet the needs of teachers and staff. 
• Creative salary systems and salary initiatives that enable the school to remain competitive but not by always jacking up the base pay and putting pressure on tuition. It is about developing mission-based sustainable systems. That is also what makes it attractive to major donor prospects. 
• Evaluation systems that are honest, fair consistent, growth oriented and yet candid enough for teachers at all career levels to grow in their craft, and receive appropriate praise, professional growth, and feedback in a fair and transparent manner aimed at improving teaching. 
• Benefit systems that are more mission based, not deemed to be prejudicial and unfair to certain groups of employees and yet flexible, choice oriented, including unique new ventures in wellness planning
• Retirement and medical plans that are tailored to a person or family’s needs, fairly and equitably designed and managed, that prompt staff participation in positive ways and help to ensure protection for families and soft landings in retirement
• Professional growth fund strategies that spend PD funds wisely and effectively
• Some good examples of developing recruitment bonuses for new hires, and a benefit bank for flexible spending based on teacher and staff individual and family needs
• Better designs of short-term disability and long-term disability plans to protect the teachers from disability income taxes, IF the plans are properly structured.
• Unique benefit options like long-term care, child care, meal support for day school teachers
• Offering tuition remission and/or need based financial aid programs to support staff children but in ways that do not cause dramatic benefit disparities between those with children and those without.
• Ways to manage and explain individual versus family premium costs for staff 

During a final presentation to 300 teachers, a lower school teacher Co-Chair praised some aspects of the current evaluation system while highlighting some of its flaws and suggested improvements. A middle school teacher Co-Chair discussed the plan for a more flexible and fair salary structure with a path towards greater earning power. The Board Finance Chair humorously presented data on Friday faculty absences while also emphasizing the importance of investing more school funds in retirement assets for teachers. The audience responded with a rare standing ovation.