Keep Good Teachers by Noticing the Work That Never Reaches a Notice Board
Understand how teachers, administrators and support staff experience the year, and act on it. Our employee engagement and experience service sets up ways to listen, recognise the work done beyond the timetable, share changes before they arrive as circulars and keep workload visible. It is for institutions where faculty, office and support staff work on three different clocks.
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Share your requirementsThe starting point
Do You Know How It Feels to Work Here?
Teachers give years to an institution for modest pay and little thanks. Clubs, remedial sessions and projects are done in free periods and do not appear in any review. Recognition goes to what parents see, such as results and events, while the quiet work goes unseen.
We help you find out what staff think and act in ways they can see.
You may be experiencing:
- Effort outside the timetable, such as clubs, remedial classes and projects, never recorded or acknowledged.
- Timetable and duty changes arriving as circulars, not as conversations with the teachers they affect.
- Uneven and unspoken workload, with some teachers carrying extra classes and duties while others carry fewer.
- Recognition aimed at what parents and visitors notice, such as board results, sports and the annual day.
- Support staff, such as drivers, attendants and housekeepers, who are rarely thanked and never asked for views.
- Three groups, faculty, office and support, who experience the year differently and are addressed as one.
- Tension between the academic and administrative sides that surfaces in the staff room and not in a meeting.
- Long examination and admissions periods with no acknowledgement of the strain they place on staff.
What we can help with
Our Employee Engagement and Experience Services for Educational Institutions
Staff Communication Plan
Decide what is communicated, by whom, when and through which channel: timetable changes, duty rosters, policy updates, calendar shifts and decisions of the management committee.
Listening Routines
Set up simple ways to hear from staff: short surveys at fixed points in the year, small group conversations with the principal, and a way to raise something without going through a head of department.
Recognition That Covers Unseen Work
Design recognition that includes remedial teaching, mentoring, club leadership, examination duty and support work, along with results and events. Keep it modest, regular and fair.
Workload Visibility
Show how periods, duties, supervision, examination work and co-curricular responsibilities are shared. Agree norms and a way to correct imbalance without a dispute.
Manager and Head Check-Ins
Give heads of department and coordinators a simple format for short, regular conversations with each team member about workload, concerns and development.
Support Staff Engagement
Plan separate touchpoints for drivers, attendants, housekeeping, security and office staff, including meetings at times that fit their shifts and a clear way to raise problems.
Wellbeing Provisions
Look at the practical things that affect teachers' days: voice strain, long hours on feet, workspace, rest periods during examinations, and access to counselling or support.
Experience Improvement Actions
Turn what you hear into a short list of actions with owners and dates, and report back to staff on what was done and what was not, with reasons.
The deliverables
What You Receive
Depending on scope, the engagement can include:
- A staff communication plan.
- A listening calendar with short survey formats.
- A recognition framework covering unseen work.
- A workload view and fairness norms.
- A check-in format for heads and coordinators.
- A support staff engagement plan.
- A wellbeing provisions checklist.
- An action list with owners and a feedback-to-staff note.
Step by step
How We Work
Listen First
We speak with a cross-section of teachers, office and support staff, individually and in small groups, to hear what the year feels like.
Read the Picture
We combine what we hear with records you hold, such as leave patterns, exits and attendance, and show where staff experience differs between departments.
Agree Priorities
We take the findings to the principal and management committee and agree the few things to change first.
Design the Routines
We build the communication, recognition, check-in and survey routines, and train heads of department and coordinators on them.
Report Back and Repeat
We agree dates to ask again and to tell staff what changed. Before work begins we record what staff say today and what routines already exist, and report against it.
The difference
Know More About Your Team's Year
A deliberate engagement approach helps your institution:
We do not promise outcomes. We record a baseline before work starts, covering what staff report about workload, communication and recognition, and which routines exist today, and report against it, so you can see what changed and what did not.
- Recognise work that has no line in the timetable.
- Give staff notice and an explanation when a change affects them.
- Make workload visible and discuss it openly.
- Include support staff in communication and recognition.
- Hear concerns before they become exits.
- Report back so staff see the result of speaking up.
Find your fit
Who This Service Is For
Schools
Strengthen how teachers, office and support staff feel heard across the year.
Colleges and Universities
Hear from faculty and non-teaching staff across departments.
Coaching Centres and Training Institutes
Engage faculty and counsellors on batch pressure, timings and recognition.
EdTech Companies
Build routines for remote tutors and support staff who rarely meet.
Institutions After a Period of Change
Rebuild trust after a change of leadership, a restructuring or an expansion.
How it usually shows up in education
Teachers give years to a school for modest pay and little thanks. Work done outside the timetable, such as clubs, projects and remedial sessions, is rarely recorded or thanked. Timetable and duty changes arrive as notices rather than conversations. Workload is uneven and unspoken, with some teachers carrying extra classes and duties and others not. Recognition goes to what parents see, such as results, sport and events, and the quiet work is not seen.
Common challenges
Where it goes wrong in education
Effort that is not on a list goes unseen
Clubs, remedial sessions and projects are done in free time and do not appear in any review.
Decisions arrive as notices
Timetable changes and duty rosters reach teachers without a conversation.
Workload is uneven and unspoken
Some teachers carry extra classes, duties and events, and others do not, with no discussion.
Recognition goes to what parents see
Results, events and sport are praised, and the quiet work is not.
A better process
What a working version looks like
- 01
Notice the unlisted work
A short record of clubs, projects and remedial work, and a thank-you for it each term. The engagement and culture work builds the routine.
- 02
Consult before deciding
Ask the people affected before a timetable or duty change, and explain the decision.
- 03
Make workload visible
Publish a simple summary of periods and duties, so unevenness can be discussed.
- 04
Recognise broadly
Thank the quiet contributors in the same forum as the visible ones.
What to check this week
- Ask a teacher what she does outside her timetable that nobody has thanked.
- Look at the last timetable change and ask whether affected teachers were consulted.
- Compare the workload of two teachers in the same department.
- List the people named at the last staff event and note what they were thanked for.
- Ask a long-serving teacher why she stays.
What this looks like in education
The parts of employee engagement and experience that are specific to this sector, rather than general.
Engagement Across an Academic Year
Faculty, administration and support on three different clocks.
What this coversHide
Engagement Across an Academic Year
Faculty, administration and support on three different clocks.
What this coversHideAn institution's engagement rhythm is set by the academic calendar. Asking teaching staff for input during examinations produces nothing useful and signals that nobody thought about it.
Academic staff
- Timetable fairness and workload transparency
- Academic freedom within the curriculum
- Research and development time where relevant
- Student feedback handled constructively, not punitively
Administration and support
- Admission-season workload recognised
- Career route within the institution
- Parity of facilities with teaching staff
- Voice in decisions that change their work
Parity is the recurring theme in institutional engagement. Support and administrative staff consistently report feeling second-tier, and it is usually visible in small things - facilities, communication, whose meetings get scheduled around whom.
Questions on this, in education
No. A survey is one way to listen. Engagement also covers how changes are communicated, how work is recognised, how workload is shared and how concerns are raised. We often start with conversations before any survey.
Often not in the first round, which is why we speak with staff in groups and report themes and not names. We agree with you in advance what is shared and with whom.
We hold separate conversations at times that suit their shifts, in the language they use at work, and we design recognition and communication that reach them directly and not through a supervisor alone.
Plenty is within reach: clearer communication, fair workload, recognition of unseen work, flexibility around caring duties and timely feedback. Pay is one part of the picture, and often not the first thing staff mention.
We usually suggest a short check at the start of term, a fuller survey once a year away from examinations, and regular, informal check-ins by heads of department. The rhythm is adjusted to your size.
No. We record a baseline and report against it so you can see what changed. Satisfaction depends on many things outside our work, including pay and your own decisions.
Respect, a say in decisions that affect them, fair workload and a sense that their work is noticed. Pay matters, but these are what separate a school people stay in from one they leave.
Keep a record of clubs, projects and remedial work and thank people for it. What is recorded is noticed.
On the principles and the impact on them, yes, even if the final decision is the principal's. Being told after the fact is what causes resentment.
Make them visible, discuss them and adjust. An uneven load that is spoken about causes less resentment than one that is hidden.
Yes. A thank-you from the principal that names the work does more than a general announcement.
Listen Before the Resignations Arrive
If staff experience is only visible through exit conversations, an engagement process can bring it forward by a term or more.
Prefer to talk first? Call +91 80958 58589 or write to hello@gullyhr.com.
Book an Engagement Consultation
Tell us about your institution and what you hear from staff today.
The general method — what employee engagement and experience covers, the questions it answers and what an engagement produces — is the same whatever the sector, and is set out on the employee engagement and culture page. What is above is the part that differs for education.
To run this in a system rather than on paper, see engagement and employee relations software.
Other HR topics for education
Where to start
Most engagements begin with a review of how this runs in your business today, then a written process and the sequence to implement it.