What can colleges do to attract and retain high calibre staff?

The challenges in staff recruitment and retention across the FE sector are highly publicised and acutely felt by the majority of our member colleges. So, what can colleges do to attract and retain high calibre staff?

Employee benefits, along with your culture and environment, are a great place to start. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Good Work Survey 2023 found that 34% of workers considering new employment were doing so to get better benefits elsewhere – which was a greater proportion than those seeking increased job satisfaction, promotion opportunities or professional development.

An organisation which has excelled in creating, embedding and marketing a first-class employee benefits strategy is South Staffordshire College, under the leadership of Karen O’Reilly, Assistant Principal for Human Resources.

Karen’s vast experience in the private sector meant she had a vision of the positive role that employee benefits can play in the importance of a strong employer brand and therefore, when starting in March 2020, she introduced an unwavering focus on employee satisfaction and wellbeing.

The aim was to both transform the college’s perception and outcomes but also to ensure a fantastic culture where the whole college community can thrive. Prior to 2020, the college had been in a relatively challenging position, with regular redundancies, little investment in people and two consecutive Ofsted requires improvement grades. Pay had not increased in around ten years and bore little resemblance to AoC pay grades and, with an inadequate financial position, there was no opportunity to fix this quickly. Staff were dissatisfied, survey responses were low, and dialogue with unions was non-existent.

Supported by the Principal/CEO and leadership team, Karen created and embedded new strategies for people development, reward and recognition, and health and wellbeing, with engagement and buy-in from staff and unions at every step. Initially she focused on quick wins and high impact, low expenditure benefits, such as a holiday purchase scheme and baby hampers, which rapidly gained engagement and began to change perception of the college.

She then ensured new initiatives had a genuine impact on staff wellbeing and were tailored to benefit as many colleagues as possible. For example, as they had a predominantly female workforce, the maternity, menstrual health, menopause and adoption policies were all significantly improved, and a fertility policy, full pay for pre-natal care, additional paid leave for premature baby care and support for those who suffered pre-natal or baby loss were introduced.

The college also really raised the bar in terms of support for victims of domestic abuse, offering both financial and logistical support, tailored for each individual. This was quickly followed by Disability Confident initiatives featuring Reasonable Adjustment Passports, an Armed Forces Covenant and age-friendly policies, all backed up by an open culture of awareness and understanding. As Karen pointed out, an exceptional level of support for those involved in life-changing situations is hugely impactful, and such benefits have paid huge dividends in terms of staff buy-in and engagement.

The pandemic also provided opportunities for some truly impactful, supportive initiatives to be introduced at pace, such as providing furloughed staff with full pay, offering support for staff ‘struggling with juggling’ and ensuring disconnect time, as well as developing fact sheets for coping with the plethora of challenges that the pandemic brought.

Today, the legacy of these initiatives lives on, and staff now enjoy “ME Days”, wellbeing and celebration events, flexible working opportunities and an enforced “Right to Disconnect”. Birthday and work anniversary emails from the Principal/CEO show staff that they are valued, as do generous long service awards and gift vouchers at Christmas.

The college has received fantastic recognition from both internal and external FE colleagues. From the outset, the college has been proactive in marketing its benefits strategy and there have been some standout examples showcased, including social media images of staff enjoying balloon rides with champagne in recognition of long service. While the college still has a focused benefits marketing strategy, much of the momentum now comes from staff who regularly post proactive, positive social media messages and blogs to show their appreciation, as well as from word of mouth.

Extensive external recognition has been forthcoming, by way of awards and accolades such as the Armed Forces Covenant gold award and Matrix accreditation. Most impressively of all, in June 2024, South Staffordshire College won the Best Public Sector Benefits Award despite being the smallest employer nominated.

Staff from across the region are aware of the college’s positive reputation and see it as a destination of choice, setting it apart from other employers at a time of fierce competition for talent. The HR data is impressive, with ongoing improvements in employee survey response (69.5% in 2024) and engagement score (89.6%) and reduced annualised staff turnover and reduced sickness (2.09%). The college is also now judged to be good by Ofsted.

South Staffordshire College clearly demonstrates the transformative power of a well-designed and well-communicated employee benefits strategy. By prioritising staff wellbeing, engagement, reward and recognition, they have addressed recruitment and retention challenges, while building a motivated workforce capable of driving organisational success.

Bernie Cullen is a Recruitment Manager at AoC.

The AoC Executive Recruitment team has supported South Staffordshire College with its proactive approach to recruiting hard to fill positions, by successfully signposting Curriculum Manager roles for their Animal Management and Building Services provision.