The Paradox of School Workforce Leadership.
01.
Leaders are upbeat about their schools - less so about their own roles
Most leaders in our sample feel positive about their school’s culture (73%) and workforce (67%), but fewer feel positive about their own role (59%). They’re proud of the teams they lead and the environments they’ve built, yet they’re less confident about what it’s costing them personally to keep things afloat. This gap between how leaders feel about their school and how they feel about their job is an important signal for the sector.
02.
“Valued and important” but also overworked and under pressure
When leaders describe their role in one word, the most common theme is feeling valued or that their work is important (15% of responses). At the same time, equally strong themes are feeling overworked/under pressure (13%) and experiencing the work as difficult or complex (13%). This mix of pride and strain helps explain why leaders are pushing so hard to keep serving their school communities, and why some are questioning how long they can keep going.
03.
Workload and work intensity are high almost across the board
Over three-quarters of leaders (77%) rate both their workload and work intensity in the “high” range (8–10 out of 10), with only 3% reporting low or very low workload. Those who have been in leadership the longest, are most likely to report the highest levels on both measures. Experience isn’t insulating leaders from pressure - it may actually be compounding it.
04.
Leaders’ top learning priorities are all about people and culture
Four of the top five professional learning priorities named by leaders relate to growing people and culture: teacher growth and development (17%), building positive cultures (14%), coaching and mentoring (13%), and staff resilience/wellbeing (10%). Leaders are telling us that the heart of their work is creating conditions where staff can thrive, not just improving processes or programs. That has big implications for the kind of leadership development that will actually help them.
05.
Workforce strategy is a recognised priority, especially for experienced leaders
When asked to rank strategic priorities, 53.8% of respondents place Teaching & Learning Strategy as their number one, and 29% nominate Workforce Strategy as their top priority. The more experienced the leader, the more likely they are to put Workforce Strategy in the #1 spot. The idea that you need a deliberate long-term approach to staffing and capability is firmly on leaders’ radar, even if practice hasn’t fully caught up yet.
06.
Short-medium term planning dominates how schools manage their workforce
Most leaders and HR/business managers report using annual improvement plans and short-term workforce planning, but far fewer say they have a genuine long-term workforce strategy in place. This means a lot of effort goes into making the next term or year work, while bigger questions about the workforce they’ll need in three to five years remain under-explored. It’s a missed opportunity to get in front of the challenges everyone can already see coming.
07.
Workforce data is under-used fuel for better decisions
Just over a quarter of respondents say they use workforce data to inform leadership decisions and workforce development, and only 11% use it as a core part of school improvement or workforce strategy; almost as many (9%) don’t use workforce data at all. Yet when asked which metrics matter most, turnover and organisational culture/climate clearly dominate leaders’ top-three lists. The interest is there; what’s missing is turning those numbers into a routine part of planning, not just an annual snapshot.
Mike Hennessy
Chief Research & Insights Officer
Jessica Ross
Data Scientist
Authored & researched by the PeopleBench Research Team
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