Previous research, predominantly from the USA, has hypothesised about the link between perceived quality of school leadership, staff job satisfaction and retention. However, in a significant step towards a better understanding of the drivers of teacher retention and turnover in English schools, Professor John Jerrim today releases a new paper that shows clear links between staff views on leadership in the first term of the academic year and whether teachers have left their job at the end of the academic year. With the teacher retention crisis costing taxpayers more than £1bna year, the importance of holding on to talent has never been greater.

Drawing on three waves of The Engagement Platform(TEP) data collected from a panel of over 4,000 members of school staff in England, Professor John Jerrim’s paper shows that:

• Views of leadership in the autumn term correlate with whether teachers and school staff have left their job by the end of     the academic year

• Increases in staff perceptions of the quality of school leadership are linked with increased job satisfaction

In short, staff engagement markers taken towards the start of the academic year are able to help predict satisfaction and retention eight months later.  

The research demonstrates how understanding the engagement of school staff in a timely way could enable leaders to intervene and prevent potential retention risks. Schools that participate in TEP take part in a termly national census of engagement, which gives them a live view of the drivers of engagement in their setting. The timely nature of the analysis enables them to compare against dynamic local and national benchmarks and importantly, take swift action before an engagement issue becomes a retention risk.

This analysis comes as ImpactEd Group, which incubates TEP, have launched a wider research commission with Professor John Jerrim and a group of school system leaders, to test if the same correlation can be seen for student engagement. The aim of that research is to determine whether student engagement – the level of commitment, involvement and emotional investment a student has with their school – can also be a powerful signal of their future attendance and attainment. As well as understanding emotional engagement being a good in and of itself, if engagement is indeed a nearly warning signal, for students as well as staff, this may be a crucial missing piece of the puzzle needed to help drive positive outcomes in schools.

Speaking about the research Professor John Jerrim said:

“Over the past two years, The Engagement Platform (TEP) has worked with schools to better understand the impact of employee engagement. The central hypothesis has been that how staff think and feel about their role in the workplace drives their behaviours. After three waves of panel data, there is now clear evidence of the employee engagement–behaviour link. So whilst workload, funding and accountability might be out of the sphere of influence of many school leaders, equipping them with engagement data and showing perceptions of leadership and buy-in, gives our sector leaders something very actionable to work with.”

Dr Chris Wilson, Group Director at ImpactEd Group added:

“Professor John Jerrim’s paper shows the definitive link between employee engagement and workforce trends. As such, the predictive ability of engagement should be seen as a powerful new tool in the school improvement armour, as the sector seeks to retain the best talent in our classrooms.  We are now working energetically with school and sector leaders to build awareness of this work and subsidise uptake of the TEP data collection tools.”

Commenting on the action that TEP has enabled, Alison Tones, Headteacher of Rufford Primary and Nursery School in Nottingham said:

“We’ve had a great experience partnering with TEP... it’s been simple to use and easy to engage our staff with. We really appreciate the thoughtful and pragmatic approach, rooted in research and the genuine desire to build the service shaped around the needs of school leaders like me. TEP data is now a key part of our decision making process as we strive to build an outstanding working environment for our teachers and school staff.”

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Schools that would like to contribute to this research, and review their own data should contact hello@impactedgroup.uk

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