Feedback
Improving the Organization Through Staff Retention and Acquisition
The availability and acquisition of highly qualified staff is top of mind for many school administrators. It’s a complex topic, so I plan to break down each of the following components over the coming weeks, sharing examples and strategies to address each one of the following:
- Staff Retention
- Hiring Practices
- Onboarding
- Setting Expectations
- Feedback
- Applicant Pool
Feedback
Providing staff with authentic, honest feedback is central to staff’s ability to best understand their current and past performance in order to improve future performance and outcomes. Important to feedback structures are the following:
- Informal Feedback
- Formal Feedback
- Growth Opportunities and Support
Informal Feedback
Informal feedback involves providing authentic information in the moment to staff in order to reinforce desired practices and habits with the purpose of continuing positive practices as well as to carefully provide correctives in a more immediate and consistent manner.
Plus
- Consistency of positive staff behaviors are reinforced.
- Authentic information is provided to the staff member in a timely manner.
- More immediate staff interactions provide opportunities for collaborative learning.
- Timely understanding of system-wide cultural expectations are best realized.
- Specific examples of positive behaviors can be referenced in a timely manner.
Delta
- A caution is to phrase information in a positive manner.
- Negative feedback should be carefully considered and made in a more formal setting.
- Draw clear boundaries between informal and formal feedback.
What can we do?
- Be visible on a consistent basis.
- Be visible at different times of the day and to a variety of staff members.
- Interact with all staff.
- Notice positive behaviors to be reinforced and communicate with appropriate staff members.
- Use caution when providing redirection.
- Ensure all staff benefit from informal positive feedback.
- Document where informal feedback has occurred and intentionally provide informal feedback where there are gaps.
- Clearly define what is an informal “drop in” and what might constitute a more formal “drop in” strategy.
- Ask staff members for permission to utilize best practice examples to communicate with all staff.
Anecdotally Speaking
Having adopted a set of core values, the district sought ways to communicate and reinforce the values identified. As the Principal conducted a drop in, they witnessed a staff member incorporating the district core values into their classroom expectations for students. The Principal asked the staff member if the district could use the document as an “exemplar” for other staff members to follow. Upon receiving such permission, the Principal sent the example to staff as well as the Superintendent as a way to promote unique ways to promote district core values.
Formal Feedback
Once the district had expectations aligned throughout their operational systems, they embedded evaluative features of the expectations into their formal feedback strategies. Effective formal feedback structures include specific information aligned to actionable goals and supported through professional development.
Plus
- Collaboratively built goals enhance employee engagement and performance.
- Specific and authentic feedback allows for necessary room to grow.
- Aligned systems promote efficiency and effectiveness.
- Focusing on professional development ensures a commitment to employee long term success.
- Consistent structures promote fairness in the workplace.
- Facilitating formal feedback cycles, promotes professionalism and unity of purpose.
- Formal feedback structures provide documentation needed to best facilitate reflective practices.
Delta
- “One off” evaluations can result in perspectives generated at a moment in time as opposed to seeing a consistency of behaviors and alignment of expectations.
What can we do?
- Collaboratively build ways to measure staff performance.
- Have more than one way to measure staff performance.
- Provide professional development opportunities aligned with observed staff performance.
- Establish objective measures of effectiveness.
- Align expectations with performance measures.
- Allow multiple opportunities (if needed) for staff to demonstrate competency.
- Approach formal feedback from the perspective of employee support.
- Shift responsibility for scheduling observations to the staff member and emphasize the need for strong performance is the responsibility of the staff member.
- Consider formal feedback structures as an opportunity to provide support with an emphasis on employee growth and development.
Anecdotally Speaking
The supervisor met with the employee to be evaluated, outlined major areas to be observed, emphasized significant portions of the evaluative process as well as timelines and performance expectations. When meeting with the supervisor to review the “final” document, the employee had one area of underperformance and after discussing this area with the supervisor, agreed with the supervisor to seek professional development opportunities and demonstrate greater competency in a particular area. The supervisor agreed to append the formal evaluation once the employee demonstrated higher levels of competency. After attending a relevant workshop and meeting with a peer whose strength aligned with the employee’s underperformance, the employee provided artifact evidence to the supervisor who gratefully appended the initial evaluation with more positive feedback regarding the affected area.
Growth Opportunities and Support
The priority of feedback should always be to recognize areas of strength as well as areas of growth and subsequent support for staff.
Plus
- Retention efforts will be more effective.
- A staff that is supported through professional growth will increase the professionalism of the district.
- A continually improving staff will enhance the performance of the district.
- Supporting current staff will encourage networked staff to apply for open positions.
- A supported staff is a productive staff.
- An engaged staff will promote a sense of creativity and adherence to best practices.
- A highly supported staff will in turn support one another more effectively.
Delta
- Budget for professional development will need to be allocated.
- Time to grow professionally is at a premium.
What can we do?
- Allocate professional development budget for all employees.
- Align professional development with employee goals.
- Implement a “teach the teacher” mentality where those who attend professional development events, in turn, provide their information with those who were not able to attend.
- Use data derived from formal feedback strategies to describe strengths and opportunities from which professional development events can emerge.
- Promote onsite opportunities for consistent areas of greatest need.
Anecdotally Speaking
The district, without a structure involving “teach the teacher,” sent representatives of an employee group to a staff development opportunity that occurred off site. Upon their return, the staff who attended the three day workshop did not pass along their information to the greater group. Staff cited a lack of understanding that the expectation would be to share information they learned with peers. Subsequently, a Memorandum of Understanding was created expecting staff to share information with peers. At negotiation time, the language was included in the Master Agreement.
Providing effective feedback to staff with an emphasis on support and growth, is integral to fostering a sense of continuous improvement and learning.
As you work through changes in your organization and/or district, consider using one of our Frameworks (Growth and Change and/or Strategic Growth and Change) found at the following link:
Next week I will focus on the topic of “Applicant Pool.”
