The K-12 teacher shortage has made finding, hiring, and retaining amazing teachers extremely challenging. When a talented teacher walks out your door, everyone in the district can feel the impact. U.S. districts lose $8.5 billion per year on teacher turnover, and each new hire costs an average of $20,000 in urban districts. You can calculate your own K-12 district’s teacher turnover costs using this calculator.
However, an effective onboarding program powered by data-based technology can break the teacher turnover cycle and encourage new teachers to stay in your classrooms and the profession.
Here’s an overview of effective onboarding and how it can increase teacher retention rates.
What is Teacher Onboarding?
In a nutshell, onboarding is the supportive process that happens along the way.
Onboarding is Not Orientation
Orientation is paperwork. Teacher orientation may include new hire paperwork and a review of the employee handbook and policies. Onboarding helps new hires settle into a new work environment and may include providing clear job expectations, connecting new hires to mentors, and sharing resources to help them succeed.
Teacher onboarding takes a more in-depth approach to help teachers adapt to their new work environment socially, culturally, and professionally.
How to Reduce Teacher Turnover with Effective Onboarding
Effective onboarding programs can increase teacher retention rates. So keep your talented teachers and reduce teacher turnover by incorporating an effective onboarding program into your existing orientation procedures.
When done well, onboarding programs improve retention by helping new teachers:
- Feel welcomed and engaged
- Build relationships with coworkers and mentors
- Grow their social and professional skills
- Embrace school culture and understand district goals
How to Build an Intentional and Effective Onboarding Program for Your Teachers
Organizations with strong onboarding programs experience 62% greater new hire productivity and 50% greater new hire retention.
The building blocks for a valuable onboarding experience for teachers starts with the four C’s: compliance, clarification, culture, and connection. Simply put, onboarding should:
- Comply with all laws, policies, and regulations
- Clarify their job expectations
- Explain your team’s culture
- Help new hires develop interpersonal connections
The best onboarding programs pair new teachers with a buddy, or mentor, so they can start developing connections and have someone supportive to help them navigate their new position.
You can also use the ABC’s to improve your district’s engagement with candidates: ambassadorship, branding, and communication. Learn more about these tactics in the on-demand webinar Best Practices for a Successful Onboarding Experience.
How Technology for Teachers Can Power Effective Onboarding
Data-backed edtech helps teachers and administrators provide an effective and efficient onboarding experience. Using a digital talent management solution gives teachers a valuable resource for answers to their day-one questions, reduces administrative burden by eliminating paper processes, and centralizes HR operations to increase district transparency.
Dr. Elaine Howard, Chief Human Resources Officer at Boerne ISD (TX), uses PowerSchool Talent to streamline talent management and deliver a more engaging onboarding experience. With this PowerSchool Cloud, her district can relieve stress both on new hires and HR staff by automating tasks like distributing onboarding packets and checklists.
Bourne ISD gives their new hires the freedom to move at their own pace, on their own schedule, with what they call “pajama onboarding,” where new employees can onboard from their couch, home office, or anywhere they have an internet connection. This leads to happier new hires who are more prepared for their first day on the job. And if they need assistance or have questions, Boerne ISD’s HR staff is never too busy to provide personalized support and conversations.
Boerne, TX
Our onboarding process really helps integrate our new hires in the district in a way that we’ve never seen before. Primarily, it gives us access to that new hire across the board by all of our divisions. Technology is able to interact with our candidates through the onboarding process. Our Teaching and Learning division is able to interact with our candidates through the onboarding process. We receive teachers that tell us all the time, ‘We have never onboarded so easily. We have never onboarded so quickly.’
Dr. Elaine Howard Chief Human Resources Officer
Boerne ISD
A digital onboarding tool such as the one in PowerSchool’s Talent Recruitment & Retention Cloud can help teachers assimilate into their schools faster and find opportunities for improvement—which can increase job satisfaction and improve teacher retention rates.
Ready for a deeper dive into K-12 teacher onboarding?
Watch this webinar for more details on designing and implementing a successful onboarding program in your K-12 district.
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