Faculty Compensation and Benefits

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Faculty Compensation and Benefits

• Trends Worldwide

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FACULTY COMPENSATION

• Trends Worldwide
• Compensation Theory and Practice
• Mission and Culture
• Benefits Options
• Salary Systems
• Compensation Levels
• Funding Methods

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Trends Worldwide

• New for profit schools are seeking the best and
  paying top dollar
• Fewer qualified candidates in the marketplace
• Higher starting, mid career and senior level
  salaries
• Yen, Euro, Pound, Dollar, and Yuan (RMB all
  strong currencies as perceived by teachers)

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Trends Aggressive Recruitment

• Schools are competing against one another for
  capable young teachers
• The most mobile group are those with 3-5 years of
  experience, and who are ready to move where the
  money and working conditions are the most
  competitive

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Compensation Theory

• Teachers are not risk takers. They are care
  givers
• Teachers want absolute predictability of future
  earning power, thus scales appeal to them.
• Teachers also want to know HOW to influence
  future earning power.

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Compensation Practice I

• Teachers have learned how to influence future
  earning power through
• more steps due to more years of service
• advanced degrees and graduate credits
• extracurricular, coaching activities
• stipends, positions of responsibility
• titles or administrative positions
• extra course load

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Comparisons

• Teachers care most about comparing themselves to
  what other high end area international schools
  are paying
• If teachers are paid enough in their minds,
  they do not care greatly about the salary
  delivery system

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Comparisons II

• If teachers do not feel well paid, they care very
  much about the equity of distribution and usually
  want a scale.
• Most international schools have inflexible scales

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The Salary and Benefits System

• There are four elements to the salary and
  benefit system
• 1.The philosophy of delivery often overlooked.
  KEYshould be mission driven
• 2. Salary delivery system follows from
  philosophy, often overlooked
• 3. Cash levels usually a percentage increase
• 4. Benefits Providing flexibility based on age,
  experience and family status.

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The Correct Approach

• Administration and boards must focus not just on
  the amount of money paid
• Administration NEEDS to review HOW the money is
  paid out, not just in percentage or currency
  terms, but how each group of teachers benefits
  overall relative to the others, even on the scale
• Mission Driven Compensation

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Uniqueness of Mission

• The intellectual dialogue of teachers,
  trustees and administrators about the
  relationship between school mission and salary
  philosophy is key
• Littleford Associates can facilitate this
  dialogue

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Myths Vs Realities

• International school faculties are viewed
  publicly as collegial and collaborative. Most
  school cultures are not.
• Schools often have feudal cultures, i.e.,
  isolationist, not collaborative.
• These may develop along department or other
  lines.
• Most evaluation/appraisal and creative salary
  systems do not function in practice as they are
  touted to do in print and in public

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The Importance of Culture

• Salary systems, if mission driven, strive to
  nurture, support, enhance and reward the desired
  culture.
• Teachers are not in competition with each other.
  They are reaching for the schools goals.

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The Importance of Culture II

• Teachers will leave after 3-5 years if
  salaries/benefits are too low, responsibilities
  are not increased and if the school culture and
  climate are unhealthy
• It takes only 5 out of 60 teachers to create an
  unhealthy climate
• In some international schools 90 of the teachers
  are local and never leave

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Salary Compression

• A starting salary of 40,000 should deliver a
  high salary of AT LEAST 80,000 or double
  (excluding administrators)
• The strongest salary systems pay two and one half
  times at the top what they pay at the bottom.

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Salary Compression II

• Schools need to have a bump in mean salary from
  one, five year experience cohort, to the next
• Schools may overlook the fact that their more
  experienced teachers may actually be going DOWN
  in mean salaries from one cohort to the next

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Bottom Bell

• Most international schools recruit young teachers
  and lose the talented ones within 3-5 years
• Mid career teachers are the most difficult to
  recruit, and they are often among the least happy
  in their jobs.
• Early buy out plans may be needed to assist some
  long term teachers with retirement
• In many cultures, it is now almost impossible to
  fire a teacher, particularly local hires.

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Inexpensive Creative Benefits

• Public recognition of service
• Financial planning or other pro bono personal
  services
• Resigning/retention bonus
• Recruitment bonus
• Effective use of PD money

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Compensation Methods

• Bonus plans, on evaluation of teaching
  performance in the classroom, workload
  assessment, performance outside of the classroom
  and leadership traits
• Bands and ranges such as instructor, teacher,
  experienced teacher, senior teacher, and faculty
  leader or gradations

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Rewarding Excellence through Bands and Ranges

• Bands may include permanent jumps in base, plus
  bonuses
• Rewards are not merit or competitive but could
  be performance based when measured against
  mission for individuals or teams or groups

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Bands and Ranges II

• Provide the school with the ability to pay its
  most valued teachers
• Enable teachers to know HOW to influence future
  earning power
• May also reward groups of teachers or teams of
  teachers

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Evaluating Excellence

• A common misconception among heads and teachers
  is that professional growth and teacher
  accountability are either incompatible
  objectives, or goals that must be accomplished
  separately.
• The two biggest criticisms by teachers of
  evaluation are that it is either threatening and
  unfair on the one hand, or lacks substance for
  real growth, on the other.

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Evaluating Excellence II

• Teachers will not fear evaluation if they are
  involved in the development of the
• criteria by which they will be evaluated AND
• if the process is consistent, and honest.

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How to Find the MoneyAnalyze Your Sacred Cows

• Raise tuition
• Create the Annual Fund Goal-Salaries
• Profit Centers Explore them! (Busing, food
  service, school stores and Internet courses can
  make big money!
• Launch Endowment Campaigns

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How to Find the Money II

• Increase Class Size Smaller is not necessarily
  better
• Increase School Enrollment
• Control and be creative with benefits and the
  salary delivery system Resist the urge to add
  steps and beware the slippery slope of
  stipends!

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The Banding Model

• Faculty desire for recognition range of forms
• The importance of the heads political capital
• Timing is everything!

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Conclusion

• The Chinese character, Ji-huey, means opportunity
• The challenge to find great teachers is also an
  opportunity to design salary systems that can
  attract and retain them

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Global Issues - Local Solutions

• John C. Littleford
• 1-800-69-TEACH
• John_at_JLittleford.com
• www.JLittleford.com