Worklife Support

Wellbeing Education - guest blog by Nigel Gann

2011-09-07T17:33:00.007+01:00

Happy Schools?
Richard Layard Happiness: Lessons from a New Sciencesuggests that the things that make people happy are our social lives, the trust we have in others, the continuity of our lives, our feelings of self-worth (including feeling at least as well off as other people), and the feeling that things are getting better.

Can such elements be striven for in schools? Are they measurable? And if so, what will that tell us? And what’s it got to do with schools?

Individual happiness is an aspiration which depends on a variety of factors, personal and general. We hope to be happy in our work and in our personal lives. We work better when we feel good. Schools can be happy, or not.

That may depend on the agglomeration of personal happiness – over which we have little control – or, more likely, it is at least partly dependent on the characteristics of the school – its structures, its ways of working, its collective sense of self-worth and meaningful achievement.

What a Wellbeing School might look like
Case studies strongly suggest that a focus on staff wellbeing raises morale, improves practice, and develops collegiality, as well as raising outcomes at both primary and secondary levels.
Schools where staff have a greater sense of wellbeing are better places to be – they recruit and retain good staff more effectively than other schools; staff are off sick less and report lower levels of stress; and they produce better results.

They are not afraid to try new things or to evaluate their own performance. They also have a more positive impact on students.

They are places where people feel good most of the time. They are also likely to be places where people are valued more for their intrinsic personal worth than for their status in a hierarchical organisation.

Like most organisations, the key issues that arise in schools for all staff are communications and managing workload. Often the former is the greatest concern of support staff, who find themselves left out of the loop more often than they should, while the second is cited mainly, but not exclusively, by teaching staff and senior management.

Some examples of changing school practice
These examples come from the implementation of wellbeing programmes across schools in a large urban local authority.

A school found that deadlines were causing enormous stress for staff. Somehow, teachers were always taken by surprise a week or so before the deadline for assessments and reports. The headteacher agreed to formulate the calendar for the next academic year as early as possible, to involve staff at a consultative phase, to keep deadlines clearly highlighted in a prominent place, and to find the right balance between reminding and nagging.
In a secondary school, staff reported, in the survey, that they often felt they were spoken to by other staff in disrespectful ways. They spent the next two staff meetings sharing experiences and discussing solutions, and resolved to review the situation annually so as not to let this happen again.
In a primary school, staff reported substantial bullying, harassment and disrespectful behaviour. In the post-survey discussion, it was discovered that this referred to a small group of parents collecting their children at the end of the school day. This had been raised once some time before, but the then head had explained it away as the inevitable behaviour to be expected of parents in that neighbourhood. The new head declared this to be unacceptable, gave staff an immediate verbal response and walk-away strategy, and provided a local authority form reporting abuse of LA staff. The LA acted swiftly, declaring site bans on three families, and the issue was, for the moment, resolved.
A secondary school set up an agreement with a local garage to provide MOTs and servicing for staff cars, with collection from and delivery to the school car park.
In one primary school, the lunchtime staff were distressed on Children in Need Day, when all other staff and the children were dressed in pyjamas and dressing gowns. No-one had told them. The answer: The caretaker spent part of the next holidays making individual pigeon-holes for all staff, and the headteacher and administration staff made sure that newsletters, staff announcements, thank-you notes and, sometimes, chocolates would be found there.
A primary school introduced the use of texting to staff mobiles, so that part-time staff and staff absent for any reason still received important up-to-date information.

In each of these cases, the school showed itself sensitive and responsive to concerns that worried staff, affected their experience of their work and reduced their effectiveness.

What can we do in schools?
What can we do to help to achieve our wellbeing goals in schools?

We value everyone’s contribution to the school, underplaying hierarchies and promoting a shared vision;
We help people to manage their workload better;
We show appreciation of everyone who contributes to the good running of the school;
We tell everyone as much of what’s going on as much of the time as possible, and help people through times of change, even when it might not directly concern them;
We have strategies in place to support people unobtrusively when they are experiencing difficulties;
We help people to find the appropriate slot that work should play in their lives;
We focus on the core business of the school, and show how everyone can play a part in achieving it;
And we demonstrate to everyone how the school is getting better at achieving it;
We pledge that everyone who works here will leave in some way better off than they came.

Advancing wellbeing in a school changes lives. It puts people at the heart of the school. Outcome targets may be with us forever, and teachers suffer some of the highest rates of work-related stress. Mental health issues cost UK employers some £26 billion each year.

Your staff are always your most valuable resource. Look after them.

Nigel Gann is an education consultant, a wellbeing facilitator, and author of Targets for Tomorrow's Schools (Routledge) - www.hamdoneducation.co.uk

A longer version of this article appeared in “School Leadership Today”, V3.2, July 2011

Reviewed: To Miss with Love - Katharine Birbalsingh

2011-05-12T15:28:00.000+01:00

Had Katharine Birbalsingh not been thrust into the media spotlight as a result of her speech at a party political conference it is hard to gauge whether her book, “To Miss with Love” would have attracted as much attention and hype. This is not to say that it is not a good or easy read. It is.

Penned as a factually-based depiction of a London secondary schoolteacher’s school year, there is much within the semi-diary format that will resonate with anyone who has taught within a challenging social context, and not necessarily in London, despite the author’s view that the grass may be greener outside the city.

Snippets of exchanges between teachers and pupils or teachers and parents remind you of the often unexpected challenges and frustrations that pepper a school day or week -alongside the extraordinary commitment to education of those who work in schools, determined to raise aspirations and achievements, often giving of their own time voluntarily to extra-curricular activities, in addition to the demands of a time-constrained workload.

Working at Ordinary School, “Snuffy” records her thoughts, frustrations and delights across the year and particularly the challenge of ensuring that students meet their grades in GCSE examinations. This, against the background of a mismatch between teacher /student expectations and repeated comparisons between state and private education opens the debate about who is more concerned about outcomes, students or teachers. An underlying hankering for societal change and its view of education and particularly for the achievement of black students permeates. (This is curiously matched against her experiences from brief visits to schools in Jamaica and India – where she feels that learning is so much better).

In some ways this is a monochrome account of school life from an egotistical standpoint. You never really get to know the characters, fictional composites named in Buynanesqe style: Mr Goodheart, Ms Sensible, Ms Alternative, Ms Magical, Mr Cajole and Mr Hadenough alongside students with names such as Furious, Seething, Deranged, Cavalier, Stoic, Wholesome, Munchkin, Stoic and Beautiful.

If you expect to read the book with a particular political ideology you may end up feeling uncomfortable – because although the author holds strong views – they shift inconsistently across the pendulum of opinion. Indeed the flow of the “story” is often interrupted by this and no real conclusion is achieved at the end of the year. Whilst you become aware of the author’s frustrations with the current educational system, it is obvious that she loves teaching.

A recurrent theme for teachers, even and especially those who are successful and effective in their careers, is the level of anxiety and fear generated through Ofsted inspection, its ever-imminent arrival and the expectations required in preparation. Ofsted grades schools from 1 to 4. To be graded 3 is to be "satisfactory" and, as Hadenough remarks, "Only in teaching is 'satisfactory' unsatisfactory". The positive outcome at the end of the year comes almost as a unexpected surprise.

Threading its way through the diary are anecdotes about Snuffy’s relationship with her husband Liberal and the pressures they face meeting the demands of her job through the choices that she makes. We hear of the long hours, workload, pressure and stress that she experiences and he patiently endures. But these issues are not unique to teachers in inner city schools.

One is left wondering whether many of the staff at Ordinary School would have benefitted from the judicious use of an Employee Assistance Programme like Worklife Support for you. Exchanges between the author and colleagues repeatedly express anxiety about inspection, the frustrations of the long hours culture, time management, supporting colleagues through difficult times under pressure, the continual emotional drain of managing student behaviour and disaffected student attitudes. These run alongside the harsh messages about the realities of some schools – violent fights between pupils, theft of personal property, the bureaucracy around student exclusion and the oft-sensed perception of powerlessness.

An Employee Assistance Programme would offer so much to staff, offering objective support and guidance to help establish a feeling of control, to offer practical strategies and perhaps a different way of managing their own inner voices that seem to eat away at energy levels.

An EAP may not be able to change society but it could help increase capacity to manage the emotional impact of the school year. And at the end of this you have to remember that although this may have been drawn from one teacher’s experiences – it was after all, just a fictional story!

The Architecture of Wellbeing

2010-12-13T16:11:00.004Z

We talk a lot in our work about the interface between the individual and their place of work and the impact that this relationship can have on perceived levels of stress.

If we use an architectural metaphor perhaps we could explore this impact a bit creatively.

Foundations
Building an organisation on firm foundations clearly means that it will be able to withstand external forces much more effectively. Building a new team and sustaining that team will mean that stress from outside (Ofsted as an example) is managed much more pro-actively. Organisations where the foundations are weak – or not deep rooted enough – will be much more susceptible to external conditions.

Making sure that a strong wellbeing culture is deeply embedded in any organisation will ensure that it remains solid and secure. Shallow foundations prove insubstantial in the face of pressure from outside.

Floors and ceilings / Walls and fences
Ceilings can sometimes get in the way of blue-sky thinking and big-picture work, and yet provide shelter and security - it is very much down to each individual how these are perceived.

Walls can hem you in or make you feel secure depending on your personality and your frame of mind, in exactly the same way as floors and ceilings.

Columns and pillars
These prop you up and offer support both to you as an individual and different parts of an organisation – what would the columns and pillars be in your organisation?

Cement
Fixings and bindings hold everything together. We see personal and professional networking as part of the cement of a wellbeing culture, which can provide strong links, informally and formally. You don’t necessarily see these things but if they are not there things can fall apart!

Bridges
For us in Worklife Support, this involves the link between organisational health and individual health. Bridges are seen as strong structures. Providing interventions that pay attention to both of these aspects of workplace health can lead to strong and robust systems and practices i.e. the Well-Being Programme (addressing organisational issues) and Worklife Support for you - the employee assistance programme supporting personal issues.

Doors and windows
These provide us with views of the outside world and give us access to the wider world. However, they also let things, people and ideas in. The Worklife Support Well-Being Programme is a good example of a process which encourages the wider view and provides safe opportunities to identify any distortions.

Locks and keys
Locks – the things that can keep people out – or in – but keys provide the way in or the answer to particular impasses or problems. Sometimes, in our wellbeing work with schools, keys to unlock sometimes intractable problems can be found in very unusual places or with people we may not recognise as possibly having the answers.

Of course, we could go on…

The Well-Being Programme can encourage every individual within an organisation to think about the structure and the architecture of their school not just from the perspective of the school buildings and furnishings, but also from the perspective of the people who make up the human architecture.

It is your people who are the real key to success.

Anti-Social Networking: communication and wellbeing in cyberspace

2010-11-15T13:04:00.008Z

Schools with a culture that supports wellbeing usually have good, open and free communication amongst their staff.

At the same time, many if not most schools ban Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, chat and even YouTube, all of which are about open and free communication. Does this make sense?

One thing is clear: in the internet age bans don't work. Just look up Trafigura or wikileaks on your favourite search engine. When organisations call for sites such as RateMyTeacher to be banned, it is a sure sign that they just don't get it. The world has changed, the horse has bolted, the ship has sailed, the blog has been posted, the tweet tweeted.

Most schools have a website which when managed effectively can represent a real opportunity to show the school engaging with all of those people outside of its gates who are interested in some way in what goes on. Increasing numbers of schools even have VLEs or portals. Yet there are comparatively small numbers of schools on Facebook or Twitter.

Does this matter? We think it does.

The same justifications for banning or ignoring the social web often come up:

It is dangerous or irrelevant to schools
It is distracting
It is a gimmick or a passing fad
We need to keep control of what's said about us
It's all just gossip.

With the exception of the point about gimmickry (and surely no-one now sees the internet as a passing fad?), all of these points can be made about informal communication of any type, including lots of the chatter that goes on in staff rooms up and down the country every day!

The intelligent approach is to learn about how communication works and engage with it. You cannot control the messages, but you can manage them. Lurk for a while on Facebook or Twitter and see how it works. You'll soon find ways opening up to you of how you can use it to your school's advantage.

There will still be a place for guidance on the best way to use these services. For example, you might want to look at your governing body's rules and make sure that they cover postings on social networking sites. It is also probably a good idea that staff do not follow or friend pupils. However, we know that many colleagues find linking with ex-pupils on Facebook rewarding and even useful as they go off into the world.

We are still learning about how these new communication methods will work in the long term. However, much of what seems to be happening is positive. One esoteric but relatively timely example is the community of people who grow pumpkins for competition. This used to be a very private, intensely competitive world. However, with the growth of information sharing on the internet, the growers are friendlier - they share hints and tips with rivals, more people are interested and the growth in the pumpkins themselves has been huge!

Surely understanding the world in which everyone lives, works and plays is essential to a successful school. You don't have to engage if you don't want to, but you should try to understand. You may not agree with all that you hear about your school but at least you'll be listening - which is the first step to effective communication.

And if you do want to get involved, why not follow us on Twitter, look us up on Facebook or even just bookmark our Netvibes page?

And if you'd like to see a collection of Social Learning Tools for the Classroom, check out learning guru Jane Hart's website for a great list.

Go on - give it a go.

What do you mean by wellbeing?

2010-09-30T15:59:00.005+01:00

When we are asked about what Worklife Support does, the word 'wellbeing' will usually come up. And that's where the fun starts as because, as Professor Joad would have said, "it all depends on what you mean by 'wellbeing.'" (A reference for our older readers.)

Searching for 'wellbeing' on the well-known search engines will bring up a wide range of sites. One even brings up an advert for a B&B!

Most results will focus on personal wellness and health. Some search engines will group or cluster results for you and a search on 'wellbeing' in Yippy for example, produces the following clusters:

Education
Mental
Spiritual, Physical
Women
Lifestyle
Children
Coaching
Emotional wellbeing
Yoga

For an organisation like Worklife Support, offering a Well-Being Programme, this produces some difficulty for two reasons. The first is that we are not a healthcare company. Second is that all the ideas represented by those clusters impinge mostly or entirely on the personal and we aim to deal in organisational wellbeing.

So what do we mean by that and what does an organisation with effective organisational wellbeing look like? Here are some personal thoughts that you may want to consider. Why not leave us your comments?

Firstly, it is important to say that, in our view, wellbeing is a process and an organisational culture, rather than a state. You can't point at something and say "that's wellbeing" but you will know an organisation that treats wellbeing seriously when you come across one.

There are some common trends or cultural aspects to such organisations. One such is a focus on the people working for the organisation, not merely as employees or economic units, but as individuals with a real and valuable contribution to make.

A function of this is that the organisation will have stronger and more secure channels of communication than most. We have found that managers often over-estimate the effectiveness of communication in their schools and other organisations. Addressing that issue is hard but vital.

Another aspect of effective organisational wellbeing is how the leadership works. The traditional top-down, follow-the-leader style of leadership that still applies in many schools may well be necessary in certain situations, but it is not a recipe for a successful organisation in the long term.

It is noticeable that schools that have been on our Well-Being Programme for more than five years do not feel that the job is done. The more you invest in wellbeing, the more you realise that embedding it into how the school manages itself is the key aim, and one that needs to be regularly monitored and assessed.

Being on the Well-Being Programme can be tough. It is not about being kind to your staff and offering them massages at lunch time - although that can be a valid way of starting to embed wellbeing in your organisation.

As budgets start to tighten, organisations need to be more effective and efficient. That does not mean hard and uncaring - in fact, we know from our work with hundreds of schools, it means completely the opposite. As one headteacher we have worked with said:

"I don't see Well-Being as a project, but as part of the ethos of the school. I would recommend every school in the country to take part. It isn't about whether they can afford to, it's about whether they can afford not to."

So, consider the wellbeing of your staff – whatever that means to you. You have nothing to lose and lots to gain.

Here we go again…………..

2010-09-07T09:30:00.003+01:00

Another autumn term, another new start!

For some, this brings the excitement of a new job, or a new post within the same organisation.

For many staff in schools, the start of the new school year brings with it a host of new possibilities – perhaps a new or different classroom, and certainly a new class of pupils. New staff will have arrived and new allegiances will be formed.

A whole new set of challenges…
How we deal with any change varies for each of us, driven by our own internal perceptions, values and experiences. And yet you can acknowledge certain “givens” that may help us through new experiences.

These may be thought of as things that support our resilience and our ability to deal effectively with change:

our confidence in our own abilities (based on previous successes),
our sense of fairness and equality,
our sense of “doing the right thing”, and
our sense of perspective.

Our personal and professional networks take on a greater significance during times of change, so it is worth thinking about the key people in our lives who provide the greatest support.

From a Well-Being viewpoint, take the time to consider what you want this year to be, and how you want to work. This is an important way of reminding yourself of your own individual locus of control.

Someone with a strong sense of self and a clear view of where they are heading in life is far more likely to engage positively with change, and proactively shape a set of circumstances to their own advantage.

So, ask yourself the question “What do I want this new school year to be like?”

Challenging yourself and invite yourself to make the small shifts in behaviour that we at Worklife Support know can make such a difference to how you feel about our work.

End of term blues?

2010-07-20T10:28:00.000+01:00

The end of another academic year is upon us, together with the demands of end of term events and activities that show schools at their very best to parents and local communities.

All staff recognise the supreme effort needed to get through these last few days of the summer term.

In the follow up to recent media reporting over Headteachers’ salaries, the halting of the BSF programme, the Academies Bill, new Free Schools, and a host of other new initiatives, public speculation and sometimes misinformation, perhaps it might be helpful to reflect on the strengths and successes of our schools and those at every level who work so hard to make it so.

The public mindset can be fickle – on the one hand, teachers and others are held up as hero figures, encouraging children and young people to be aspirational and grow beyond their current environs in order to flourish and thrive.

On the other hand, they are often seen as the public face of bureauocracy, chasing targets and harassing families in order to meet those targets and be seen to excel and achieve the “outstanding” label that is seen as so important.

So let’s remember when the schools are closed over the summer break, when in reality many Heads, teachers and other staff will be choosing to work, that we have a system that in the main actually does work, thanks to some really dedicated people who keep things working successfully - sometimes in spite of, rather than because of, government.

It’s so easy to dismiss everything that has gone before in an effort to be seen as the “new broom”. The trick is going to be to build on the successes, while tackling new challenges with what is likely to be a decreasing set of resources.

All staff working in schools should remind themselves of what they do well and then focus on pulling together to face up to what is going to be a very interesting new term.

Managing schools responsibly in a time of cuts

2010-07-05T12:43:00.002+01:00

We are all faced with the prospect of what is euphemistically called 'tightening our belts' over the coming years. Whatever the political arguments over timing, everyone seems agreed on the need for cuts.

When faced with this, there are two common reactions. The first is for special pleading - "I understand the need for cuts but not this." The second such reaction is looking after number one; retreating into a silo, protecting your own and (sometimes) either explicitly or implicitly suggesting others are a better target. Neither attitude helps very much. These responses may be predictable but can lead to division and mistrust at the very time when staff need to pull together.

In schools, there are some signs of the the latter reaction setting in with regard to support staff. There are 200,000 more support staff in schools than there were ten years ago. We've already heard talk of 'weird and wonderful job titles' and 'what do all these people do?"

Some Heads claim not to need a bursar - 'just give me the money, I know what I'm doing.'From a Well-Being perspective, this is not a particularly helpful response as it may deflect from the emphasis in raising standards that is the hub of the Headteachers role, and present them with a whole raft of other management tasks, which may well compromise their own personal, professional effectiveness.

In the current climate, schools have a responsibility to be managed as effectively as possible. This means having systems in place to ensure that the school can continue to function even if the Head teacher is not on site. It means assessing the effectiveness of all staff and ensuring that they are the best they can be. Simplistic solutions will not work in the long run.

in particular, simply slashing the numbers of support staff will not only destabilise many schools, it may well be counter-productive in terms of the main reason for these people being employed: pupil outcomes. Earlier this year Ofsted found that "The wider schools workforce, including teaching assistants and learning mentors, is making a difference to pupils’ learning [but] these staff must be effectively deployed, well managed and properly trained."

In other words, investing effectively in your support staff will reap reward, but it requires good management, planning and implementation. It needs to be done properly through a whole-school approach, not ''I'm alright, Jack' or simply letting the Head do it all - even if the Head thinks they can!

Worklife Support works with organisations in order to develop strategies to manage change effectively. This key element of a wellbeing approach to management involves treating all staff not like sheep to be led, or as potential rivals for the sack, but as true colleagues working together toward a shared and agreed goal.

This approach does not absolve any of us from making tough decisions but we are more likely to make the right decisions if we try to work as an inclusive, effective and efficient organisation.

Leaders and Change – keeping on an even keel through the choppy waters of change

2010-05-18T14:42:00.002+01:00

We understand that of all the changes that can occur to us in our working lives and in wider society, changes in leadership can have a profound and unsettling effect.

If we reflect on the recent change of administration at political level, a number of us will recognise a sense of anticipation about “new brooms sweeping clean” as well as a possible sense of nervousness about the future.

It’s probably not by accident that our language is so littered with metaphors relating to change – not only do we speak of “new brooms” but also “wiping the slate clean.”

However, it might be worth considering certain things that may help us safely navigate these unchartered waters of change.

Firstly, remember what has gone before – be informed by the best of what has previously happened in the history of an organisation – and decide what to hang on to and what to jettison. Praise and celebrate what works well, and ensure that it is invested in in order for it to continue. Equally, use any period of transition to consider what needs to change, and how best to make it happen.

Secondly, give new leaders a fighting chance!

Is it so hard to believe that people actually want to do good and want to succeed? Interestingly, the Press has been full of doom about our new Lib-Con alliance, yet it might be refreshing to actually suggest that our political leaders really do believe in what is best for the national interest rather than party-political interest.

In Worklife Support, we see new leaders going into schools and academies amid staff uncertainty and anxiety – another metaphor “better the devil you know…” – and having to work hard in the early stages to settle nerves and reassure staff that change is a natural developmental process, and that not everything is necessarily going to change straightaway, if at all. Results from our Well-Being survey show that a change in leadership is often perceived as troubling by some staff.

Tim Brighouse has a brilliant take on change in schools in “Essential Pieces” (right-click and 'save target as' to copy this to your desktop) – he says of a successful school - “we understand and welcome change because change is learning and that’s our business”. He talks of the five elements that need to be present in the management of complex change – vision, skills, resources, incentives and action plan.

Finally, understand what has changed and what has stayed the same. A new leader will, of course, want to mould and shape an organisation to their own vision, but at the same time will need to be informed by reliable intelligence as to what shape the organisation is in.

Change is a process where staff engagement and keeping people informed is critical to steadying nerves and keeping staff on board.

Sick and In Work?

2010-05-03T16:42:00.001+01:00

Why do employees come into work when ill is the interesting question raised by a new study for the Work Foundation

The study doesn’t exactly answer the question, but it does highlight many interesting issues.

One such is terminology. The idea of someone being physically in work but mentally elsewhere, for reasons of either physical or mental ill-health, has been commonly described as ‘presenteeism’. The new report prefers ‘sickness presence’ not least because of the link that implies with sickness absence.

The report is clear that sickness presence affects many more employees than sickness absence, up to 45% of staff claimed to be present while ‘sick’ over a four week period.

The study finds sickness absence to be much more closely related to performance that sickness absence, which alone would make it an issue of importance to managers in the present climate.

It identifies three key drivers, including work-related stress, pressure from managers and financial worries. We find this last point interesting as we find take up of debt counselling amongst clients of our EAP generally disappointing.

The study looked at one particular company, AXA-PPP, but the outcomes certainly chime with our experience of schools. It may well be that things are even worse in education. There is enormous personal and vocational pressure amongst all school staff to turn up; even more so with the advent of ‘rarely cover’.

So what does all this mean?

Firstly, anyone thinking about sickness absence alone needs to think again. Organisational effectiveness is impacted more by sickness presence, so things may be worse than many managers realise.

Secondly, it seems likely that many of the organisational developmental strategies, such as our organisational Well-Being programme, can have an even greater impact on performance provided you aware of issues like sickness presence and tailor the interventions accordingly. Ensuring that organisational wellbeing is complemented by individual wellbeing services, such as an EAP and personal health services, can generate even more positive outcomes.

Emphasising access to financial advice and guidance seems, if the report is right, to be particularly important.

It is also clear that training managers to be aware of and the effectively manage staff wellbeing will have enormous benefits for organisations. And given the coming squeeze in the public sector, intelligent staff management is going to be hugely important.

Paying attention to report such as this one from the Work Foundation, and ensuring that you invest in staff wellbeing is looking more and more like a necessity for schools and other organisations everywhere.

Use your EAP to Save Money

2010-03-25T12:33:00.002Z

Staff health and wellbeing programmes are undoubtedly going to be an easy target as cuts in spending start to take effect, even though it is clear that such a move is short-sighted and self-defeating.

However, it is undoubtedly harder to argue the case if staff are not using their employee assistance programme (EAP) or similar service. Low use means the staff aren't interested, so the thinking goes, so it's an easy decision to make.

Our experience says this isn't so and that low use usually masks a range of barriers to wellbeing that the organisation needs to overcome.

Promotion
The most obvious barrier is publicity - if staff don't know about a service or think its not for them, they won't use it! Giving out a leaflet when someone joins and sticking up a poster in the staff room is not going to be enough, especially once your colleague loses the leaflet and the poster in the staff room is covered up by the latest sponsorship form.

We try to promote a range of services and activities to make sure that our EAP (Worklife Support for you) is fresh and relevant to staff. Our customers can contact us to learn more. A key lesson is that promoting staff wellbeing is a year-round activity.

Independence and Confidentiality
Many staff feel that a service like an EAP is a 'bosses spy'. This is not the case for all reputable services: EAPs are impendent, professional and confidential. We do not give the employer details of what its staff call about, nor do we tell the world about issues raised from particular organisations.

Not for me
Thinking the service is someone not for me is often prominent in organisations with a relatively low level of emotional literacy, where organisational wellbeing has not taken root. This shows how an EAP will work even more effectively in conjunction with a service such as the Worklife Support Well-Being programme as organisational as well as personal issues can addressed.

And the simple truth is that everyone has times as you go through life where you need a little help - there should be no shame, stigma or loss of self-esteem in using a service like an EAP.

Problems
The flip side of these issues is that many people see an organisation that has a high level of calls as an organisation with problems. Often, this is simply not the case. It is just that staff know about the service and feel empowered and confident enough to use it.

Milestones and Millstones
PPC, a leading EAP provider, produced some time ago a report based on the idea that as we travel down the road of life, we pass many milestones - birth, childhood, education, marriage, buying a house, work, retirement etc - and using an EAP can help prevent that milestone becoming a millstone.

Even the smallest rural school will have staff who have come up to one of life's milestones in the past year. An EAP can support you with information, advice and counselling, helping you to cope more effectively with the issue and so maintaining your level of contribution at work. That is why it is a workplace benefit to both the staff member and the employer.

So, far from dropping staff wellbeing services, tough times are the best time to invest in supporting your staff so that employer and employee alike can weather the storms ahead.

Now is the time to invest in your staff

2010-02-11T10:00:00.002Z

The new Employee Outlook from the CIPD is out and, not surprisingly, it makes for very gloomy reading.

Press coverage picked up on the warnings it contains for employers that only a third of employees trust or have confidence in their senior managers, and only a quarter of staff are consulted about decisions that affect them.

However, that was not the only bad news. The survey reports job dissatisfaction on the rise, together with fear of unemployment, and accompanying rises in bullying, stress and and conflict. What the survey doesn't ask is: what drives this behaviour?

Many readers will have had conversations with friends recently where the usual "how's work going?" question will be answered with a grimace and an answer something along the lines of "but at least I've got a job." People seem naturally to retreat into a defensive posture in times of uncertainty, re-inforcing silos, and generally building fear and mistrust in the workplace.

And yet, in times of recession, spending on supporting staff through training, development or other services is usually one of the first items of expenditure to be cut, although this is the very time that staff need more and not less support. A simple example: if workloads are growing, don't staff need more support on how to prioritise their time, and on how to manage increased pressure?

The CIPD report recognises this in recommending that employers track job satistfaction and engagement and improve consultation. It also recommends that employers should help their staff cope with stress and, as living standards stagnate at best, provide financial advice.

At Worklife Support, this has long been our view. The Well-Being programme helps deliver organic organisational change while Worklife Support for you, the employee assistance programme, offers individual support, both emotional and practical, including financial guidance. Our Enhanced Well-Being programme, where both services operate in tandem, is proving increasingly popular.

Investing in your staff and promoting whatever support services that you do make available should be seen as central to your continued effectiveness and success. Simple knee-jerk reactions to the current climate of uncertainty does no-one any good, and may end up actually costing organisations more than they may save. A strategic investment in a programme such as the Well-Being programme proactively supporting both organisational effectiveness and individual support should be seen as a key opportunity to demonstrate to your staff a real committment to employees.

Change Resolution

2010-01-14T15:58:00.003Z

We're now two weeks into the New Year and, if usual practice is anything to go by, almost everyone you know will have given up on their New Year's resolutions.
This is a cliche, of course, but many cliches do contain a kernel of truth and this is no exception. The question is just why are we so bad at keeping such resolutions? Does this reflect a more general difficulty when faced with change?

And just as important is what happens when we fail at making change or keeping resolutions. A recent article in The Guardian highlights work from Richard Wiseman at the University of Hertfordshire which suggests that we become dispirited at the collapse of our New Year resolutions and end up feeling even worse than before.

The way to achieve change - and successful resolutions - first involves planning - work out a plan and some smaller steps that you can easily measure, which will help you stick to it. Don't worry about the odd lapse and, ideally, stick to one plan at a time.

Anyone trying to make lasting and successful change without a plan, whether in personal affairs or in their organisation, is more likely than not doomed to fail.

Other general tips for ensuring a change process works, whether personal or organisational, include making sure that the goals you set are challenging but achievable, make sure that you can monitor progress, and concentrating on the benefits of change. This relates to the appreciative inquiry method we recommend when developing plans as part of the Well-Being programme.

You might also want to take a look at the website 6Changes which emphasises the tiny steps approach to building new habits.

You can follow Richard Wiseman's useful and informative Twitter feed (@richardwiseman).

2009-11-04T09:49:00.003Z

Today is National Stress Awareness Day.

When thinking about stress, it is useful to think first about what stress actually is: stress is the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them.

Here are simple indicators of our ability to handle stress. You might want to think about each one and how some simple improvements will help build your ability to cope with stress:

Getting enough sleep Research shows a small reduction in sleep time can have an impact on how we think, behave and make decisions.
Regular exercise is good for the mind, as well as the body.
Eat sensibly with a balanced diet.
Think positive - negative thoughts can act as self fulfilling prophecies.
Try not to smoke or drink to excess
Switch off: time spent on ourselves helps develop self-esteem and a sense of identity.
Social interaction People benefit from involvement in something greater than themselves, such as doing things for a church or charity, and from simply spending time with friends
Manage your life Plan a schedule which you manage, rather than one which manages you.

Don't forget all the support networks that are out there for you: your employee assistance programme, trade union, occupational health, friends and family.

You might not be able to stop stress but you can improve your ability to cope with it when it comes along.

Happiness is catching

2009-10-13T08:34:00.002+01:00

If the joys of the summer are now a distant memory, you may want to consider spending time with your ‘happy’ colleagues, as according to Professor Richard Wiseman, happiness is catching.

The psychologist led a unique mass-participation “happiness experiment” aimed at putting a smile on people’s faces. Recent research suggests that only 36% of Britons are ‘very happy’ so Professor Wiseman set about fnding the best ways to banish the blues.

More than 26,000 people went online to join in the research and try out a selection of recognised mood-boosting techniques. The idea was that, since happiness is thought to be contagious, they would send ripples of cheerfulness across the UK.

According to the results, it seems to have worked. The sample showed they were 7% happier after the experiment. “The fgure is statistically signifcant,” said Professor Wiseman, “I thought we wouldn’t see a change, but we got a 7% rise.”

"Thinking about one positive thing that had happened the day before appears to have been by far the most effective technique.”

“There was no big improvement in the weather or anything in the news that could have accounted for it”, he says. “Who knows, but I like to think we might have cheered up the nation!” “Everyday may not be good, but there is something good in every day.”

Why not see if the techniques used by Professor Wiseman in his ‘Happiness Experiment’ can have a positive impact on your own happiness? He suggests:

Starting the day by thinking about the things that made you happy from the previous day
Remembering to smile whilst carrying out everyday tasks such as making a cup of tea
Carrying out small acts of kindness, such as paying someone a compliment or holding the door open for someone
Expressing gratitude for the lucky aspects of your life, for example being in good health

You can learn more about Prof. Wiseman on his website or follow him on Twitter.

In a similar vein, you could also follow Dr Happy - we hope you are already following Worklife Support...

The National Agreement - Making a Difference?

2009-09-06T15:57:00.004+01:00

Last week, a comprehensive (500 plus pages!) review of the national workforce agreement covering English schools was published.

Aspects of School Workforce Remodelling; Strategies used and Impact on Workload and Standards - to give it's full title - attracted some headlines because of the conclusion that any gains in teachers' workloads made by the agreement have been wiped out by new initiatives.

There were other interesting points made, however, that have not been publicised so heavily, such as:

Heads are consistently more positive about what is happening in their schools than teachers - for example 97% of heads say their teachers have PPA time, considerably fewer teachers agree.
While teacher workload may go down, support staff's goes up. 75% of administrative staff feel their workload is excessive.
At the same time, there is still reluctance, especially in primary school, to involve non-teachers in the senior leadership of schools.
Between a fifth and a third of all teachers claim to have been consulted on changes made in schools. Only 40% of support staff are consulted about changes in their role.
Several aspects of the agreement are being ignored in practice, particularly in special schools.

There is lots more in the report but perhaps the most worrying conclusion is this: there is no relationship between the re-modelling strategies that heads reported and the actual change in attainment in each school.

We know from the Birkbeck report that the Worklife Support Well-Being Programme can have an effect on attainment - it would be interesting to know where the discontinuities between remodelling and Well-Being are...

Rarely Cover

2009-08-22T19:39:00.002+01:00

The new 'rarely cover' regulations come into force on 1st September and WAMG has issued guidance on how to implement them.

Rarely cover means that teachers may only be asked to cover rarely for absent colleagues. As WAMG says, this means that schools need to have 'robust systems' in place to manage this new reality. It notes that only 30% of teacher absences are related to sickness - which implies there is plenty of absence to manage.

The immediate focus is going to be on how heads are going to cover for those absences that teachers will cover no longer , but undoubtedly in the longer term, there will be some assessment made of the amount of time teachers are spending outside the classroom.

Heads will need to consult with all their staff on managing the new situation. They will also need to make sure that when a teacher is covering a colleague that it is teaching cover and not merely supervision.

In the longer term, schools are bound to need to know more about what exactly their staff are doing and when: for some, there could be some surprises!

And while only 30% of absences are sickness related, that is still a substantial amount of time being lost to schools.

Improving the wellbeing of staff and providing effective employee assistance programmes for all staff will become even more important for tools, especially as financial pressures grow over the next few years.

Starting the School Year - Working Positively with Your Staff

2009-07-24T14:12:00.002+01:00

In her recent article Take your staff with you, Margaret Adams of CIPD reflects on the significance of the start of a new school year and suggests a few hints and tips that school leaders might like to be mindful of, alongside school development plans and the formal elements of moving a school forward.

She considers how to motivate staff and, even within a context of budget and resource limitations, she stresses the importance of the “softer” elements of motivating staff to support leaders in making plans actually happen!

Focusing on 4 key aspects of working positively with staff, she suggests the following:

tell the world how well your staff do – managing the press & pro-actively promoting the positive achievements of the school
pay attention to 'welfare' issues – ensuring that all staff feel respected and nurtured
send people home – recognising that we all need to work hard, but that a long-hours culture can become counter-productive
Offer everyone, not just NQTs, support with the management of workload, including encouraging delegation and prioritisation – recognising what is within our control to change and take control of

The work of Worklife Support, through our national Well-Being programme for staff in schools, confirms the her view that recognition for staff – developing and supporting a sense of self-worth – and promoting a staff culture where everyone is valued, is key to school success.

How to Survive the Summer

2009-07-17T11:51:00.002+01:00

You've almost made it to the end of term!

Most schools break up this week (although we know some have done so already and others go into next week).

While the prospect of a rest is likely to fill you with a sense of joy and relief, the run-up to the summer break can sometimes be a source of additional tension. And the realities of returning to work in the new academic year can bring you back down to earth with a bang…

With this in mind, we’ve put together a few hints and tips to help you make the most of your break and survive your return to school..

1) Tie off any loose ends – a sense of closure will help you to switch off.

2) Why not draw up a ‘to do’ list for your return before you leave – this will help you to clear your mind and will also help you settle back in in the autumn.

3) Don’t expect too much of yourself in the first few days - people are often struck down by minor illness when they let themselves relax after a long, hard term.

4) Try not to set unrealistic goals for the summer break – make the most of the opportunity to lie in and do the things you most enjoy, but try to avoid a really hectic schedule.

5) Set a specific time for any work you need to do either at the beginning or the end of the holiday and enjoy the rest of the break without it hanging over you. If you need to go in when the results are published, it may be worth using the time you’re on the premises to carry out some other work-related activity.

6) If you do think about work, think about how you plan or organise your work before you think about specific tasks. This is a chance to take the time to re-organise yourself so that you work better when you do go back.

7) Avoid thinking about responsibilities, tasks or concerns awaiting you back at school – this is your chance to forget about all of that.

8) But do think! Thinking time is as important as doing time - and you can do it anywhere!

9) Try to plan a day or two of ‘transition time’ on returning in the autumn term in order to catch up on paperwork, check e-mails and so on – throwing yourself in headfirst on your first day back can be a real shock to the system!

10) Make some plans for the next holiday period soon after you return to work – it’s important to have something to look forward to in order to avoid those autumn blues.

The Impact of School Leadership

2009-06-21T08:29:00.003+01:00

The DCSF has published the results of an extensive research report into the effects of school leadership on pupil outcomes.

Researchers from 3 institutions aimed to establish the how much variation in pupil outcomes can be accounted for by the leadership of the schools, by looking at schools that had achieved a significant improvement in a relatively short time.

The findings emphasised the importance of the "educational values, qualities and ...strategic actions" of the headteacher.

Interestingly, while the broader leadership team will have a similar effect, this is greater in primary than in secondary schools.

The findings also emphasise that a 'one size fits all' approach does not work as schools will be at different stages academically and socially. Anyone hoping to read the 200-odd pages of the report to find a neat checklist of attributes required for school improvement will be disappointed.

That is not to say that there are not clear messages: about improved teaching practices and the effective use of data, for example.

Once again, a report looking at leading change in schools emphasises the importance of the headteacher, even as the rise of the leadership team ideal now means there are, for the first time, more assistant heads than deputy heads in schools.

One of the report's conclusions is:

"The sustainable transformation of a school is the outcome of effective leadership [which] results in the improvement of physical, psychological and social conditions for teaching and learning..."

Statements like this can sound obvious, but they are worth repeating to those school leaders who still do not see the relevance of addressing staff wellbeing.

Teacher Wellbeing Week

2009-06-05T13:48:00.003+01:00

Next week is Teacher Wellbeing Week on Teachers TV and, to help raise awareness, TTV has carried out a survey into stress amongst teachers. This has also been reported in today's TES.

Nearly 44% of teachers say that they think they have suffered from stress related illness, with just over a quarter of those surveyed saying that they took at least a day off as a result.

Government figures suggest that 58% of teachers take at least one day's absence a year, but they don't record the reasons.

The TES does not report some of the other outcomes of the survey, such as over 70% of teachers feeling that the 'long holidays' for teachers were a compensation for the stress that teachers face.

Perhaps the most interesting figure in the survey is that over 80% of teachers is "more stressful than work in other fields."

Whether or not this is true, it does at least show how the perceptions as well of the reality of stress need to be tackled. It would also be useful if someone surveyed the stress of the increasing numbers of support staff in schools.

Interestingly, the same issue of the TES reports that Sefton Council is to introduce a more active absence management policy, something common in the private sector, but not something that school staff are used to. Let's watch what happens

Job Satisfaction on the Rise?

2009-05-06T10:47:00.004+01:00

Can this be right? a new survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) reports that 46% more staff surveyed are satisfied with their jobs than are dissatisfied. The gap has widened from 26% in 2006.

As often with such surveys, there is plenty of intriguing detail hidden behind a simple headline.

The same survey reports more than half of employees are more stressed than they were a year ago, and over a third are living in fear of redundancy. This suggests that there may be an element of 'frying pan and fire' in people's views of their job.

The report does also re-emphasise the need to address staff wellbeing during the recession, as stressed and fearful staff are going to be less effective.

Depression Awareness Week

2009-04-20T08:51:00.002+01:00

Everyone feels low sometimes.

Feeling upset or sad is a normal response to difficult experiences, and these feelings will usually pass. But if they don't, feeling this way can sometimes lead to depression.

One in five people will suffer from varying degrees of depression at some point in their lives, and more than 80% of people who have depression can be helped with the appropriate support.

So, it's fairly common to suffer with depression, and with the right help the vast majority of people recover from it.

If you have been, or are being affected by stress or depression, the Worklife Support Employee Assistance Programme can offer emotional support to help you through difficult times. If you don't subscribe to our programme, check out alternatives with your employer - you may have access to other services...

You might be having trouble adjusting to change, experiencing a loss or bereavement, or don't know which direction to take in your life and who to talk to. Perhaps you have been affected by the current economic downturn. We can offer a range of advice and information on a wealth of different issues, or alternatively refer you to the most appropriate type of support.

Don't deal with depression alone. Call your EAP and see how they can help you.

More about Depression Awareness Week...

GovernorLine - an incredibly useful service

2009-04-14T16:36:00.003+01:00

A recent centre-page spread in the TES noted that the Burden of responsibility weighs heavily on governors' heads.

This is where GovernorLine comes in. The free helpline is available on 08000 722 181 or e-mail from the website www.governorline.info/

The service is managed by Worklife Support and we are pleased to say that we have won the contract from the DCSF to continue supplying the service for at least another three years from this April.

Please do make sure that all your governors know about GovernorLine - and don't just take our word for it - here are some recent comments from Governors who have actually used the service:

I am very impressed and pleased there is this service for Governors
[The adviser] sounded reassuringly well informed and was a sympathetic listener
It was very reassuring to have an opportunity to speak impartially to someone that had such a wide range of knowledge and experience
I received clear guidance on where to find answers to my questions... I will certainly use the service again

Be Grateful for Wellbeing

2009-03-22T17:29:00.002Z

It's your birthday, or it's Mothers' Day like today, and you've received lots of Nice presents. Make sure that you feel grateful - it's better for you!

Research from Todd Kashdan of George Mason University says that gratitude, the emotion of thankfulness and joy in response to receiving a gift, is one of the essential ingredients for living a good life.

He has conducted several studies in this area and his most recent throws light on an interesting gender difference: he found that men are much less likely to feel and express gratitude than women. It seems that the implied obligation adversely affects men.

Kashdan's three keys to happiness?

meaningful relationships;
gratitude; and
living in the present moment with an attitude of openness and curiosity.

EAPs show their value

2009-03-19T13:07:00.001Z

Presenteeism - or being in work when you are too ill or otherwise distracted to work effectively and productively - has long been recognised as a key issue facing employers. With staff worried about their jobs and so more likely to struggle in to work, this is only likely to get worse.

A recent study in the US looked at the effects on work productivity when an organisation has an employee assistance programme (EAP). The results indicated that 80% of costs associated with lost productivity was associated with presenteeism, with absenteeism accounting for the remainder. Characteristics associated with lost productivity were energy level, concentration, and work quantity or quality.

A return on investment calculated using these data in a typical EAP indicated that for every dollar spent for the program, there is an expected return of between $5.17 and $6.47.

For more see: EAP Treatment Impact on Presenteeism and Absenteeism: Implications for Return on Investment Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, Volume 23, Issue 3 August 2008 , pages 283 - 293

Try not to get stressed about cash

2009-02-05T10:34:00.005Z

As we've noted before in this blog, the credit crunch is affecting the take up of guidance and advice services, like the Worklife Support employee assistance programme.

Nothing surprising there, of course, but it is undoubtedly true also that people will be stressed by the worsening financial situation. You should try to deal with this stress and not ignore it - that will only make the situation worse in the long run.

This year's Samaritan's Stress Down Day urges anyone with work or financial concerns to seek support rather than letting problems get out of control.

If you have an EAP - use it!

You might also look at some practical steps:

Review your income and expenditure: do you have enough money coming in each month to cover your expenditure? What do you spend your money on.

Deals: are you getting the best deals on products and services, such as mobile phones, broadband, gas and electric? Should you re-mortgage?

Try budgeting: give yourself a very small budget for a week or two, to see what you really miss and what you could easily cut out to save yourself some extra money each week.

Planning: looking to go on holiday or fit a new kitchen? Putting aside money each month will be much easier on the wallet than paying for it out of one month's salary, which may result in the use of credit cards or the need to take out a loan.
Increase your income: consider such as taking in a lodger, or ensuring that you are receiving all the benefits to which you are entitled.

ITs a challenge - technology and schools

2009-01-30T14:23:00.003Z

As a company that uses e-mail heavily when communicating with schools, we are keenly aware of the challenges that provision and support of IT present for schools, particularly in smaller schools.

Recently there has been a slew of stories demonstrating just how challenging IT is for schools:

Ofsted described the provision of virtual learning environments (VLEs) in schools as a 'cottage industry".
A speaker at BETT told of interviewing prospective teachers in a school with heavy use of IT, where candidates would walk out rather than trying to work with a laptop
The TES reports that schools' logos are appearing on pornographic website because the schools have not upgraded systems as advised.

The TES report quotes Moodle founder Martin Dougimas as saying "Schools often don't have very good IT support and neglect this kind of maintenance..."

Working on the Darwinian principle that 'The species that survives...is the one that is most adaptable to change', schools will need to change.

Perhaps NCSL could help? They have had success promoting the uptake of school bursars so should they now turn to the management of IT within schools?

Lots more teachers to choose from - a good thing?

2009-01-07T19:23:00.004Z

According to the BBC, the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) has reported a 40% increase in recruitment enquiries to its website since last December.

The figures are helped by a deliberate effort by the TDA to recruit from the financial services sector, with special recruitment fairs in London and Birmingham.The BBC story says that teaching is a 'more reliable alternative' to banking - not perhaps a hard sell in the present climate.

Job security has traditionally made teaching an attractive option during recessions. This,taken with the general improvement in recruitment to the teaching profession, may well mean that the teaching recruitment crisis of a few years ago is now over. Certainly, the demographic spread is now more even, with the GTC reporting "just under one third (32 per cent) of in service teachers were aged 50 or over. Slightly more (35 per cent) were aged 35 to 49, and just under one third (32 per cent) were aged 34 or less."

Heads and Governors might now find themselves facing a new challenge - how to recruit the best teacher. A recent article by Malcom Gladwell looks at what he calls 'the quarterback problem': "There are certain jobs where almost nothing you can learn about candidates before they start predicts how they’ll do once they’re hired".

Teaching is one such job. Gladwell reports the difference between good and poor teachers to be 'vast'. Predicting who will make a good teacher is fraught with difficulty - paper qualifications it seems are of little help - it is more to do with classroom skills. Many of the potential recruits to the profession will have plenty of post-nominals - but will they be able to teach?

Credit crunch creates counselling boom

2008-12-04T15:36:00.003Z

Employee Assistance companies are reporting a significant rise in the number of calls they receive caused by the economic downturn. One reports a 15% rise in worker stress compared to the same period last year.

It is important in hard times to use all the help you can get, and to avoid the temptation of pulling in your horns and hiding at home.

Most full EAPs will offer debt counselling and financial guidance to staff - our own programme certainly does! - but you can also get support if you are, for example, stressed by the threat of redundancy, or need to know more about the legal rules around employment.

Now is a good time for managers to be reminding their staff about the programme to which their organisation subscribes. If you don't have an EAP, perhaps you should, now more than ever. Christmas is coming, with all that entails...

What follows is an extract from our latest newsletter sent to our EAP customers. We hope that you find it useful:

Managing the Costs of Christmas
Christmas can be a very expensive time, with many of us falling into debt in the pursuit of the "perfect Christmas". In the current climate it is more important than ever to ensure that you are not still paying for this Christmas when next Christmas comes along.

If you need to borrow to cover the costs of Christmas, make sure that you only borrow what you can afford to pay back. If you are already struggling with financial commitments it is not advisable to take on further debt.

If you do choose to borrow money to pay for Christmas, work out what you can realistically afford to repay. Ideally you would not want to be paying off Christmas debts more than three months after Christmas. Therefore calculate how much you can afford to pay back each month. This will give you an idea of the maximum that you should borrow. Once you know how much you can afford to borrow you can decide which method of borrowing is right for you.

It can be difficult to start thinking about saving for next Christmas when we are working out how to avoid Christmas debt this year! But the best way to reduce the financial impact of Christmas is to start putting money aside early; if you start putting a little away each month from January it can have a big impact on reducing the financial pressures of Christmas.

Use the amount that you spend this year as a guide to how much you need to save for next year and build this into your monthly budget.

Can't buy me love - but what about happiness?

2008-11-10T09:42:00.004Z

Being richer makes you happier, but economists found that once a relatively basic level of wealth had been achieved by a country, further increases don't seem to make the citizens happier.

This is the basis of the Easterlin Paradox and naturally it has implications for how we measure the success of nations and how we measure wellbeing.

Now, two economists from Wharton Business School have found that the Easterlin Paradox does not hold true. They've looked at the data and found "a clear positive link between average levels of subjective well-being and GDP per capita across countries."

So - does this mean all we need to do is pay teachers and school staff more and everyone will be happier?

No. First of all, what holds good at the macro level might not at the micro, or organisational level. Secondly, the link between pay and happiness is not necessarily direct or exclusive: there are all sorts of other values we place on our life and work. Thirdly, all the new paper has done is threaten the consensus amongst economists on this issue - it has not been overturned.

This is not a simple equation: managing wellbeing personally or organisationally requires time and effort - you can't just push a button marked 'happy' and expect it to work.

Tempting though it may be to throw more money at the issue, wellbeing would not necessarily increase as a result, although I'm sure most of us would like this proposition to be tested, just in case!

Counselling in the Workplace - who uses it and why?

2008-10-06T13:50:00.002+01:00

Nearly two-thirds of employee assistance programme clients who access counselling are women, according to some research from earlier this year. Since it seems unlikely that women have two-thirds of the need for counselling, there must be something about men holding them back.

Nothing new in that, you would think, but exactly why are men more reluctant to access counselling? Macho cultures, peer pressure or a higher EQ amongst women all might play a part.

Now new research has highlighted the possibility that this reluctance could adversly affect the benefit of counselling once it is taken up. Anyone who waits until they are desperate before calling their EAP and arranging the free counselling they offer, their situation is likely to be more serious, and so require deeper intervention and require longer periods off work.

The research also shows that only about 10% of counselling cases are caused directly by work, although this will vary between professions and industries.

We know that 'presenteeism' - being in work while being too sick to work productively - is a real issue for many people, particularly in education. However, this is not an 'either/or' situation.

The large majority of people getting counselling via their EAP are still in work. You can do both.

But don't delay - you might only make things worse.

Teacher Quality

2008-09-03T19:37:00.001+01:00

More Good Teachers, a new report from the Policy Exchange, argues that we should reject the ‘command and control approach’ to recruitment and “resist calls to further ‘professionalise’ teaching in ways which only make it less appealing to the high performing graduates whom we need in our schools.” It goes on to argue for an ‘earn while you learn’ approach to teacher training and the phasing out the of the B Ed. Degree.

The head of Ofsted, Christine Gilbert, added to this debate in the Sunday Telegraph by saying that “schools had no excuse for failing to improve the standard of education for the children in their care.” She covered the by now common ground of ‘inadequate’ teachers being too difficult to sack, said there is too much ‘satisfactory’ teaching and that parents should be putting more pressure on schools to improve the quality of their teaching.

The GTCE said, in response, that it will be preparing research “to understand why a low number of cases of possible serious professional incompetence are currently referred by employers, why some local authorities have so far referred no cases at all and the steps needed to improve the process.”

Workload Survey

2008-09-03T19:21:00.002+01:00

The latest outcomes from the School Teachers’ Review Body research on teacher workloads came out in the middle of August. It showed that the number of hours worked by teacher is creeping back up, which is in line with other surveys, such as the NAHT survey reported here.

The most statistically significant rise were for secondary deputy heads and for heads of faculty/department heads in secondary schools. Deputy heads’ hours average at 58 hours a week, up from 53.6 in 2007!

Primary school heads and deputy heads, on the other hand are both working fewer hours than last year (although they still work nearly 53 hours a week).

The survey doesn’t go into reasons, although small sample sizes might affect the volatility of the data.

The most commonly mentioned activity that teachers would like to be reduced is administration and clerical work. The survey does not cover non-teaching staff.