Competencies Proven to Prevent and Reduce Staff Stress

There is a competitive, moral and financial imperative for MATs and their schools to build a culture where staff really matter. Where they will enjoy themselves, be able to do their best work and stay! 

At the core of this are everyday behaviours that will affect the experience of every staff member. While it is likely that you will have a vision and values, are the behaviours that underpin these clearly articulated and shared across the MAT, so they can be more easily understood and lived?

A good place to start is with the behaviours of leaders. Understanding how to lead others can sometimes be lacking in line managers, who often have to continue with much of their previous role, particularly those in the classroom. They are likely to lack capacity and many have not had the necessary development or training.

These are the words of one of the UK's leading organisational wellbeing experts. Without the necessary training and awareness, it isn't a surprise that the way some leaders behave has a negative impact on the people they lead.

To help leaders understand the behaviours that are likely to benefit staff, you can share 12 competencies proven to prevent and reduce workplace stress.

Moments of truth

If you look back at your own experiences, you may remember key moments that stand out - moments of truth. For example when looking for a new job, role or promotion, those things that influenced how you thought about a Trust or school’s reputation - what people were saying, the job advert, the recruitment process, your first day, the training and development you received, and how you were treated and felt valued.

Each of these include specific ‘moments of truth’ that add to your view of an organisation, meaning you might think “I can’t wait to be a part of it”, or “I wouldn’t want to work there". It’s a highly competitive labour market, and workload, budget, and mental health issues are known by the public. MATs and schools are fighting to recruit and retain the best staff from a shrinking pool.

These moments of truth happen throughout the working day too, and getting most of them right builds staff engagement, improves loyalty, increases retention, reduces stress and raises student outcomes. Get them wrong…and I don’t need to spell out what happens!

There are many opportunities of showing staff the benefits of working with you and creating a great employee experience. These cover the full staff lifecycle and I am sure you will have built many of them into your Trust's people strategy.

  • Attraction – how prospective staff and other stakeholders view your MAT and schools.
  • Recruitment – the process prospective staff go through in being considered for a job with you and how this stands out from other.
  • Onboarding – how welcome staff feel when they join you (this covers much more than the first day or your initial induction process and should start as soon as they are appointed).
  • Performance – how this is supported and managed.
  • Development – the time and focus given to staff CPD, career conversations and progression.
  • Retention – how you proactively retain good staff and identify those at risk (all the other bullet points support this too).
  • Farewell – how staff feel when they leave and how well this is managed, irrespective of the reason they leave.

All of these are linked and come together to form your employer brand and determine how people think, feel and act when coming into contact with you.

However, they are all underpinned by everyday leadership behaviours. Getting this right first means you don't waste effort on the others because too many of your staff choose to move on. 

Begin with the everyday behaviour of school leaders

Your staff face moments of truth every day. They include; 

  • How workload is distributed and managed
  • The degree to which staff feel involved in decisions affecting them
  • Whether they have genuine opportunities to give feedback and question leaders, feel listened to and supported (or not)
  • The behaviours they experience from leaders and colleagues - how they are greeted at the start and end of the day, talked to and more...

These are just a few of them and one common factor across many of these are interactions with their line manager and other leaders. Do those leading in your MAT and schools have a high enough awareness and understanding of the direct impact they have? Too often the answer maybe no.

Working with Headteachers, Principles and CEOs to create Welbee, they shared how they are often driven by the heavy demands placed on them. School leaders are always racing against the clock.

In too many cases line managers haven’t had the necessary training and development. One day they were a teacher, the next asked to lead a year group, key stage or department (depending on your phase). They remain subject or specialism experts when they need to become people experts.

The good news is that extensive research from Goldsmiths, University of London, identified twelve specific leadership competencies that will help. They are different from those used in National Qualifications.

Refined management competencies for preventing and reducing stress at work.

For those reading this from the HR profession, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development were one of the three funders of the research and these competencies are on their website. The other funders were Investors in People and the Health and Safety Executive.

Self-assessing against these competencies is the easy bit. Supporting leaders to choose to adapt and change behaviour is much harder. People have deep and long-held beliefs and need to understand why they should change, as well as regular and deliberate reflection and practice to develop new habits.

Senior leaders must be role models, so others copy, and as line managers they have to coach their middle leaders. Without this people will very quickly return to their default position.

Introducing the above behaviours to senior and middle leaders across your MAT is a great first step, the cornerstone on which to build your people strategy. It will mean many more positive moments of truth and it is the fastest way to improve the experience of your staff.

When developing vision and values, ensuring that the behaviours that underpin them are clearly understood and articulated is key. We often do this brilliantly with students, yet when looking at staff values, we do not go the extra step to ensure every one has. a shared view of which behaviours mean they are being lived.

If you do this and discuss how well they are modelled within your MAT and schools, it is easier to agree actions, praise and hold to account, so they simply become part of your culture. 

Below are some of the behaviours covered in the above competencies. If you would like to know more, have questions or would like a sample of the leadership competency cards (you can see some below) sending to you, then email support@welbee.co.uk with the subject line 'Competency Cards' and we will put some in the post for you.

Dip your toe in the water...?

Can we take just 25 minutes of your time to show you how we make improving staff wellbeing easier for Trusts and their schools? 

Use the button below to book your free no obligation 25 minute Demo.

“Welbee provides an amazing foundation to our wellbeing strategy. It's cost-effective, easy to use and provides excellent support, making the complex job of managing multiple pieces of data from 1300 employees, easy. Welbee is a highly effective staff wellbeing evaluation and improvement tool, making staff wellbeing simply part of what happens every day.”

Debbie Duggan

Operational Resources Director

It's OK if you are still not sure and would like more information first - just email support@welbee.co.uk and we will answer any questions and share the of Welbee and how these help deliver the evidence proven benefits of higher staff retention, lower staff absences, better financial performance and further raise student outcomes. All starting with DfE Staff Wellbeing Charter recognised measurement.