Schools are implementing a number of strategies, whether that’s showing more appreciation for teachers, offering staff time for ‘life admin’, or investing more in mental health support and resources, but few are effectively turning the dial on teacher wellbeing and mental health. To help you implement the most effective strategies, we’ve identified the popular tips that might not actually be helping your staff, and what you should be doing instead.
1. Strategise change
Organisational change can be very stressful for staff. Many fear a significant change could increase their workload, scupper their processes and hamper productivity, and increase their stress levels from having to respond to the changes.
Creating a strategy for change – also known as change management – is key to ensure it’s rolled out seamlessly and with no opposition from your team. There are lots of ways you can ensure changes are implemented successfully including building a change management network, crafting a communication strategy, and preparing for employee resistance. You can learn more about change management for schools in this blog.
2. Create wellbeing programmes with your staff
Identifying the best ways to promote better mental health and wellbeing in school can be difficult without your team’s input. Ensure there is leadership alignment on wellbeing initiatives to ensure the solutions are effective and promote buy-in to the programme. It can hold school leaders more accountable to staff wellbeing, too.
3. Swap wellbeing sessions for workload reductions
If a teacher is suffering with poor workplace mental health or wellbeing as a result of a high workload, taking up their work time with a ‘fun’ activity designed to ease their stress won’t help. It will just force them delay their marking or admin tasks until later.
Instead, get to the root of the challenges hampering their wellbeing and mental health, such as reducing their workload and work on real strategies to impact on that.
4. Praise when teachers go above and beyond
Showing appreciation is key to let your staff know you’re aware of their vast workload and value them for their effort. Make sure the appreciation is meaningful, too; don’t just give out rewards for staff doing their everyday work, and make sure you choose rewards that match the value of their effort.
Don’t forget that some staff will want a quiet word thanking them for their hard work, whereas others might like to have their success shared publicly – show your appreciation in a way they will feel most comfortable with.
5. Don’t just promise a better work-life balance
Many recommend giving teachers additional time off or more flexibility with their work hours to give them a better work-life balance and ease their stress levels. But a 2023 study suggests that structural factors like processes, procedures, and organisational culture play a big role in employee wellbeing, too.
Again, prioritise cutting teacher workload rather than just giving them the chance to spend more time at home or outside of work which they may just use to get their work done. From our experience, clunky software often adds to the every day strains so it’s always worth considering all roles within the school when you’re overhauling your key systems. The MIS is no longer limited to the admin team so there’s lots of easy workload wins to be made by switching to a more modern solution, such as Bromcom.
About Bromcom
Bromcom is a cloud-based MIS provider which offers a range of advanced solutions to primaries, secondaries, all-through schools, special schools, multi-academy trusts, and local authorities across the country. Visit our website to learn more about Bromcom MIS and how it could benefit your school.
