What are the top staff development challenges in your industry?

The education industry faces a unique set of staff development challenges due to its dynamic nature and the constantly evolving needs of students. Educators need to be able to effectively integrate technology into their teaching practices & accommodate the diverse learning styles and needs of their students.Teacher burnout can lead to decreased job satisfaction, decreased productivity, and increased turnover.Educational leaders need to be able to create a positive and productive learning environment for their staff and students. Leaders can Provide professional development opportunities,Creating a mentorship program,Provide educators with the technology and training they need to integrate technology into their teaching practices.

Even though is a complex process, it is necessary to focus on new skills that will emerge sooner than we expect. Guiding people to understand that learning technology (BI, Analytics, change management) is necessary in order to improve personal and organizational results. Create safe spaces for them to experiment and learn new skills. Focus on the benefits of daring to learn new things!!! (Don´t forget to recognize the little milestones)

If you invest in your employees, ensure you have somewhere for them to go in your organization. Sometimes, we recognize a skill gap, invest in training, and do not allow employees to invest back into our institution because we do nothing with them. This hurts morale and makes employees wonder why they went through the effort to receive training.

Understanding what your business and what your people need is key. Don't make assumptions as these two needs may be very different at different levels. If you make assumptions, you'll struggle to get buy-in.

Hiring staff at all levels, for an organizational culture fit, is essential to staff retention. In non-profit industries, retention is challenging as their are limited promotion opportunities. However, to retain staff who are excellent culture fits, offer them new skill development opportunities to set them up for success, post your organization.

The culture in k-12 education has been at a standstill for a very long time. Burn-out of employees and the wide-range of beliefs surrounding pedagogy make it incredibly difficult to get large groups within the school into an effectively collaborative mindset which can lead to teacher isolation. It takes a lot of energy, time, and experience from the administrative team to accomplish the ideal learning culture.

A learning culture requires that everyone is willing to learn no matter who they are in the organization. Subject matter experts should be treated with respect from the custodian to the CEO.

Too many people who have lost passion for what they initially signed up for. Lack of expertise and knowledge among trainers, mentors, and leaders.

Work ethic has changed drastically. It went from working as team of people for people to working as a team just to hit budget goal. People now have lost interests in companies because it is more visible about the goal.

Recognition can be simple. Do a "lunch and learn" where you provide good food for those undertaking training. Provide certificates or badges that can be displayed. Above all, reward those willing to engage with promotions. When staff feel valued and appreciated, they will stay and reinvest themselves back into your organization.

In education there’s too much red tape, legal fear and policy meaning teachers lack the autonomy to create and deliver with the passion they signed up with. There is no longer time to develop teachers interests and expertise but only to continue to drill them on health and safety, and safeguarding. Top that off with budget constraints, lack of time and managing wellbeing, and there’s little hope for strong growth.

In the international education sector, as a remote-first global organization, our staff development challenges are quite diverse. We need the right fit for our teams, ensure diversity, and manage work-life balance across time zones. Additionally, adapting to various cultures, staying updated with changing regulations, and keeping up with evolving technologies require a versatile skill set. Let's see these challenges as opportunities to build a globally aware and skilled workforce!

Take your time to find the right tool, if you have different platforms or multiple software people will get implementation fatigue. It'll get metaphorically dusty, your budget will be sad and your no closer to your goals.

In my experience, when starting with a new organization or hiring a new staff member ask them how they want to be communicated with, (I.e. 1:1 meetings, email, phone, zoom, text…) and how often. Each person and each generation likes to be communicated with differently and, as a leader, you should adapt your communication style to match your team, not the other way around. This helps everyone stay on the same page to meet individual and organizational goals.

Get people talking across silos - how does it look and feel to work here? What do they want more of? What do they want less of? What are the org's ways of working? Share skills and experience - not let key knowledge just in someone's head - share the joy.

The top challenge I've had to navigate is time. People WANT training - they ask for it and they provide good feedback when they get it. However, there are many times where I've been ready to launch an initiative that I collaborated on with stakeholders, to then have stakeholders tell me we have to wait because the business is too busy. I get that business comes first; yet, how can you keep employee morale up to serve customers well if you're not providing them with some simple basics they're asking for. It really is a balancing act, and I find that we often sacrifice long-term gains for short-term wins.

In Education, allowing staff to indicate their development needs instead of telling them what their needs are is important. As a 30-year veteran teacher, I don't want to keep learning the same old topics from 20 years ago. Education has changed and so have my needs.