CURBING STAFF TURNOVER WITH THE ADAPTED JAPANESE EMPLOYMENT MODEL

INTRODUCTION

Good evening highly esteemed Life builders. I cannot begin tonight’s presentation without expressing my deepest appreciation to Francis Uzor (JP) who midwifed the birth of this forum that has invariably become an adult classroom and personal development platform for educators and school managers. I also extend my appreciation to the eminent scholars who have been sharing their wealth of experiences, albeit, gratuitously on this forum for the benefit of all members.

Tonight’s presentation actually is a continuation of one of our recent discussions on the high level of staff turnover being witnessed in some of our schools and our inability to arrive at a generally agreed remedy for the ugly development on that day. I am not also promising that we will leave the house tonight with a one-fit-it-all solution model for the age-long challenge. My presentation is majorly derived from what we consider as ‘working’ in our school over the years. The presentation may not generally be looked at from pure academic angle but contains experiences gained through modifying the popular Japanese employment model to suit our local environment. Most of the topics to be treated here today therefore may not largely align with academic journals or established norms but based on customized version of various concepts, designed to ensure staff stability in schools.

Statement of the problem

Over the years, staff turnover has been implicated as one major contributor to the ineffectiveness of many organisations, and for our purpose today, schools. Staff turnover in schools, particularly private schools, may be described loosely as the rate and frequency of disruptive staff migration from one school to another, especially at unexpected and unplanned times. Aside from the constant disruptions caused by the turnover, it is very costly to schools as training and retraining costs become high, apart from the negative impact on the learners and reputation of the schools.

Let us start the presentation now. Our topic is “CURBING STAFF TURNOVER WITH THE ADAPTED JAPANESE EMPLOYMENT MODEL”

Characteristics of the Japanese Employment System

It is generally believed that job mobility remains considerably lower in Japan than in other advanced economies like UK and USA. Even though this environment is in transition today in Japan, it has characterized the Japanese employment system for long. Generally, the Japanese employment system has the following key features:

• Lifetime/log-term employment opportunity
• Seniority-based wage system
• Employment protection policies
• Merit-based Rewards system
• Intensive and internal training of core employees
• Employee involvement and consultation by management

In summary, the Japanese employment model emphasizes long-term employment, supported by various welfare-based policies and designs. We will not dwell on the intricate details of the model but how we can modify same to assist us in our local schools.

ADAPTING JAPANESE EMPLOYMENT MODEL IN YOUR SCHOOL

We will be looking at the key strategies to adapting the Japanese employment model in our schools now.

1. Right employment screening and process

Schools don not generally engage in production of tangible products. However, schools have very unique, sensitive, and important raw materials. These materials are the children. They are very special to their parents and society that some of their parents cannot release them for a weekend with their own relations, for fear of harm or danger. The same parents however release such precious jewels to schools for training, on trust. It becomes imperative therefore for the schools to employ staff that will allay the fears of the parents, make the children comfortable as well as learn, especially for a reasonably long time under the same hands. To recruit such staff that will bond with the children and their parents while teaching all the necessary values is a very hard task to achieve. Since you will be expecting to have a long relationship with the staff, you must set out with the mindset to recruit those that would grow and bond with the school for a reasonable length of time, more so when they are expected to be the major interface with the only raw materials that school deals with, the precious jewels – the children.

Many schools do not take enough pains to carry out a thorough screening process in hiring their staff. Staff recruitment should be a serious business and not left in the hands of persons that have vague understanding of the school’s Vision and Mission statements. Avoid ‘halo effects’ in recruiting your staff. This means that you should not be influenced by only personalities, certificates, referees, oration etc. but adopt generally accepted and professional recruitment parameters in addition to vision and mission-critical requirements. Some school owners can employ a staff by merely looking at the crafted CVs which are mostly copied from other applicants.

Look for three key features of a good staff as follows:

1. Feasibility – An applicant should be qualified for the position or subject he/she is being considered for, just like having a positive business feasibility studies before starting a business. The applicant’s credentials can reveal a lot, if carefully analysed and used during the interview.
2. Visibility – A staff is considered visible if he/she can be seen in the crowd. Crowd here is taken to mean a team setting. Detailed interviewing system can reveal how visible a potential staff can be if employed.
3. Pull-ability – A staff is pull-able if he/she can easily fit into one to two positions/levels/roles and responsibilities below or above him/her, should the situation warrants.

Adoption of a proper recruitment process can therefore greatly assist in staff retainership and utility.

2. DETAILED Letter of employment stating conditions and prospects

Many schools do not issue letters of employment and some issue letters that do not contain sufficient and relevant information. Issue letters of employment that contain details like Date of interview, date of commencement, confirmation of employment period, where applicable, basic salary, allowances, perks, promotions/career path, disengagement conditions, welfare policies etc. A separate document containing a detailed JD for the role or position should be issued too and all the documents must be signed by the staff and held in the staff folders.

Guarantor forms can also be used, if necessary but holding details of unknown guarantors is not different from not holding any.

3. HUMANE Staff welfare schemeS

humane staff welfare schemes do not necessarily translate to expensive emolument regime. Even though teachers’ salaries are considered low, we must strive to pay salaries that can attract commitment and devotion, not necessarily what others are paying around us. Depending on your school environment and fees regime, 50 to 60% cost/income ratio, of which staff salaries should take over 40% should be considered ideal. Finance experts and some operators in the house may argue this but it works for many others. Like I said in our last discussion, the school business should firstly be regarded as an NGO, secondly as Charity and thirdly as a business. Depending on the weights attached to each of the three, staff emoluments can be made to compare favourably with other business outfits. Many school owners however set out to appropriate a large chunk of their earnings to themselves and only the remnant goes to the staff. We cannot live big and treat staff as numbers.

1. I met a head of school in one examination center and he was trekking back to his school after the examinations. I offered him a lift in my car and while thanking me profusely for the gesture, he complained that his proprietor does not give them transport fares to such venues. This, to me is callous. This is official job and the school should be able to pay for same!
2. Some schools also deduct all forms of ‘punishment levies’ (Lateness, absence, etc.) from their staff salaries that some staff end up going home without any money at the end of the month.
3. Other schools do not pay salaries during holidays, maternity periods, etc.

Some of the above policies impact negatively on staff retention.

Some welfare schemes that can be considered include:

1. Staff loan scheme
2. Prompt payment of salaries

• Contributory pension scheme – not necessarily statutory version

1. Land ownership assistance scheme
2. Long service awards, including home appliances, lands, money etc.
3. Performance based rewards scheme. Annual incentives and increments should be put in place, no matter how small

• Birth, death, condolences benefits
• Career development support schemes, including sponsorship of further education

1. Sharing of extraordinary incomes like extra lessons, summer school earnings etc. with the staff, with the greater portion going to them
2. Assets ownership support scheme like purchase of laptops, phone sets etc.

4. On/OFF the job career development PROGRAMMES and seminars

It is a known fact that many teachers do not have the capacity to attend external career development programmes, workshops and seminars due to paucity of funds. The 21^st century teaching environment is too dynamic for some teachers who had their certificates as far back as ten years ago and have laminated such certificates to operate without up-datedness. It is like using a Volkswagen vehicle mechanics of the 70s to repair your 2017 Prado. Schools can enhance the skills of their staff through in-house organized workshops, trainings, seminars etc., using internal resource persons, parents, consultants and sponsoring some of the staff for external trainings and sharing experiences gained therefrom with peers. School owners on their own should not feel that expenditure on staff training is a waste of recourses. Many school owners fear that trained teachers are likely to leave the organisation. While bonding agreements can be employed for trained staff, training teachers do not always result to leaving of such teachers. The major problem here is that many school owners too are training-shy. You can only effectively manage and supervise staff that you know what they are doing. Remember that businesses don’t usually grow bigger than the vision of the owner and by extension, the capacity of the owner (Debatable!).  Peer review and participatory trainings can also be arranged. In this case, teachers with specific skills can be asked to train the others during internal seminars and workshops. Tokens can be given to such facilitators to encourage them.

Delegation of duties with responsibility can also encourage your staff. Many school owners do not delegate for personal reasons or do so with limited responsibilities attached. Where staff are allowed to participate in decisions that affect them or take ownership of some responsibilities, they tend to bond better with their organisations.

5. ENTRENCHMENT OF Extended family relationship POLICY

A main feature of the Japanese employment model is participatory and management/employee business ownership arrangement. How many school owners know the houses of their staff, the full names of the spouses of their staff and personal challenges of the staff, out of the school? We merely relate with the staff on the surface and punish them when we are expected to sympathise or empathise with them when somethings happen because of their unexpressed challenges. School owners should try to create avenues for bonding with their staff’s family members, in addition to knowing the staff only in the office. Family get-togethers, involving staff spouses and other family members can be arranged occasionally for relationship purposes. Staff themselves should be encouraged to visit one another. Rumour mongering and gossips are reduced with having full knowledge of each other. Staff generally gossip and peddle rumours about each other when there is dearth of knowledge about others. Not all staff may buy into this arrangement for fear of peer inferiority complexes but a good management style and enlightenment can encourage full participation.

TRY THIS: Ask all your staff to mention the first, middle and family names of one another, including management staff and you will be surprised to see that we are only working with “Mrs. Jonah, Mr. Jose, Miss Johnson, Director, Proprietress, Principal, Head Teacher etc. as mere numbers and not friends or family members.

6. Deployment of technology and ease of JOB PROCESSES

Another very important consideration is the deployment of technology. The 21^st century teaching and learning environment does not support overload of manual operations. Technology is available now to reduce workload, including examination processes, lesson notes, record keeping, teaching, learning, knowledge sharing. Many big schools are still operating manually, making simple processes to be laborious. Low cost school management systems exist to assist school owners today and I am sure Francis Uzor (JP) is everywhere on the NET to be invited. We must simplify work processes with technology. We must avoid what I call ‘Skirt and blouse’ technology deployment. This means, running a fully automated system with manual equivalent. Some school owners must keep everything in the system also in their manual registers. Hmmmmm!

7. TAKEAWAYS

As we leave the class, I will like to leave us with some takeaways which have greatly complemented the adapted Japanese employment model in a school I will refer to as ‘The XXX school’:

1. How concise, clear and catchy are your Vision and Mission statements, Core values propositions, Slogans etc.? Can you or your staff recall them off hand without ‘girfaffing’? Staff that will bond with you should be able to speak and talk through those important critical documents and challenged to defend same with their work and attitudes.
2. Let us see XXX school’s Vision statement -“To be a reference point and first choice institution in the provision of early child and youth education in Nigeria and beyond”,

• Mission statement – “XXX school exists to provide a high-quality pre-primary, Primary and College education to the Nation, using highly qualified and experienced teachers in a very conducive learning environment and at affordable costs”,

1. XXX school’s Core Values – P.R.I.C.E (Passion, Relationship, Integrity, Creativity and Excellence) Even though the above cannot be taken as prototypes, they are not more than memory verses in religious organisations which one can recite with ease and apply where needed. All your staff must buy into the documents and frequent reminders on the ideals contained in the documents should be done.
2. XXX school provides for a day off for each teacher on monthly/termly basis, aside unplanned absences and holidays to rejuvenate or attend to personal issues. You can do this if you have qualified and pull-able floating staff for reliefs.
3. XXX school provides for a daily 15 minutes napping period for teachers and learners, immediately after long break to rejuvenate and transit to the next lesson. It is a silence period for all in the school.

• XXX school provides an Idea Bank for staff suggestions. Suggested ideas are ironically deposited in the ‘Bank’ and interest/rewards given for workable and implemented suggestions.
• Almost all critical information and decisions in XXX school are discussed with the staff, particularly the teachers, including financial health of the school. Teachers are greatly used in school fees drive as they are aware of its deployment.

1. Staff children are given relatively high discounts for their children in the school. This to enable them retain their children in the school where they give the best education. Discounts are also given to children of staff that have left the school.
2. Class relay teaching system – XXX school has a system where tested teachers handle their classes for years but with relevant trainings to be up-dated. For instance, many teachers teach the same class for over 10 years. It is called relay system because all learners passing through those teachers acquire the same standards of learning through their stay in the school, having been prepared and handed over to the next teachers along the line. This system works better with long staying staff which is available in XXX school. Average stay by teachers in the school is 6 years, with many as old as the school, 12ish.

CONCLUSION

I did warn from the beginning of the presentation that we may not achieve a one-fit-it-all solution model for tackling the high staff turnover in some of our schools but we should be able to pick few ideas, compare notes and share working formulas from colleagues after full discussions on the presentation. Once more, we should note that other members of the forum may have better approaches to solving the challenge in question and sharing them here will be mutually beneficial. We must also know that staff turnover will always be there even with the best strategies. God bless the house.

Victor Akogwu

08023083998

gvuakogwu@yahoo.com

**Mr. Akogwu provides in-house school improvement programmes, Montessori-based teaching skills acquisition seminars, staff development/trainings and tailor-made seminars for schools at pocket friendly costs.