A mission statement can describe a lot about a school, but it’s the people who work there who best represent its heart and soul. Schools thrive when there are quality people—at every level, in every department—who are engaged, passionate, fulfilled, challenged, and motivated. From heads to teachers to administrators, the people make all the difference.
But the nature of the workforce is shifting rapidly. The mindset and the processes for attracting, recruiting, hiring, retaining, and developing the kind of people schools need must adapt accordingly. As you think about how to nurture talent across a wide variety of roles within a school, and as you explore the topics in the pages ahead—hiring, staffing, professional development, building career paths and pipelines—it’s important to keep one group of people in particular at the forefront: millennials. Born between 1981 and 1997, these individuals now make up the dominant generational group in the workforce. In addition to an increasingly mobile and technology-driven labor pool, this large-scale generational shift is one of the greatest forces at play.
There’s no shortage of research about millennials—their characteristics, what they want, how they operate, as well as what they bring to their work. As reported in the NAIS 2016-2017 Trendbook, millennials:
- cite pay and financial benefits as the most important considerations for employment.
- value an in loco parentis employer that takes an active role in their professional and financial well-being.
- have hefty student loan balances.
- are less likely to be homeowners and likely to be living with a parent.
- are becoming parents at a time when child care is now the largest household expense.
- don’t seek to stay in one job for a long period of time.
- are becoming part of the growing independent workforce (freelancers and temps, also known as contingent labor).
As you make your way through this issue, keep these millennial characteristics in mind, as well as related issues, such as approaches your school could take to help staff cope with living in high-cost areas, your school policy on paid parental leave and how it’s being communicated, and how your school might take advantage of the growing freelance workforce.
And think about this: If you could build your workforce from scratch today, what would it look like? How would it differ from your present workforce?