How HRP software empowers your most valuable assets: teachers & staff

Teachers and administrators are the lifeblood of your school district. Without them, everything falls apart. There would be no organization, lesson plans, schedules, extracurriculars, and guidance for students.

A school without teachers and supporting staff is like a car with no engine. Given how critical teachers and administrators are to the education sector, it goes without saying that you need to ensure they feel respected and appreciated. 

More importantly, you need to arm them with the necessary tools to do their jobs as effectively as possible, without them having to spend too much time dealing with clerical work and other time-consuming tasks. 

Education is a unique sector with its own distinct approach to human resources, from complex union agreements to seniority requirements. Now more than ever, it’s essential that you support your teachers and key staff with the right systems, so they can focus on providing the best possible student experience each and every day.

Unions in Education: A Quick Glimpse

Unions play an important role in creating an equitable experience for all types of staff in modern education. They ensure employees in education have access to safe working conditions and fair wages. And when something goes wrong, they’re on the frontline representing their people.

At the same time, unions layer more complexity atop an already intricate regulatory climate. As anyone who’s ever had to deal with a bargaining agreement will tell you, they’re complex. And once a district has moved past the initial onboarding process, it’s faced with yet more complexity in the form of union regulations and nuances like seniority and pay scales. 

The end result is that even a minor job change may require a mountain of paperwork, the management of which falls squarely on the shoulders of already-overworked administrative staff. 

And it’s exactly the kind of stressful situation that can lead to frustration and disconnect in school districts, creating unnecessary friction between faculty, administrators, and leadership. In these scenarios, it’s the students who suffer—as an unhappy employee cannot effectively do their job, and teachers are no different.

Too Much Paperwork, Not Enough Time

School districts today need to have the right human resources and payroll solutions in place in order to streamline the complexities of union agreements and regulatory compliance.

Let’s look at a few examples of how unoptimized HR processes can increase friction and cause additional frustration. Imagine the following scenarios:

• A teacher who’s trying to qualify for a mortgage needs access to her employee records. She happens to call in during a particularly busy time of day, and ends up being left on hold, growing gradually more frustrated as a result. 
• Because of a mix-up with IT, a newly-hired teacher is not given access to the school’s systems, rendering him unable to teach effectively. 
• A teacher has just returned from a field trip where they paid for a bunch of supplies out of pocket. They need to make an expense claim — which means pages upon pages of paperwork, all while they’re supposed to be grading exams. 
• A school principal spends hours trying to understand the union regulations that apply to her school district so that he might get a better grasp of what a new hire’s bargaining agreement entails. Unfortunately, he is unaware that these regulations have recently changed, and his research is based upon a premise that is now irrelevant.

Each and every one of these scenarios has the potential to be immensely frustrating. Each and every one of these situations will likely create ill will between school faculty. And none of these situations serve the most important interest of all—that of the students.

From Hire to Retire, Employee Management Is Easy with Edsembli

Ultimately, the issues we’ve described so far can all trace back to one thing: relying on manual processes and physical documentation for HR and payroll is a massive bottleneck. Perhaps there was a time in the past when this was not the case—a time when managing one’s teaching staff was less reliant on technology.

But that time is behind us now, and the cracks are increasingly visible when one examines the old way of doing things: 

• Bottlenecks everywhere: Reading, signing, and filing even a single form tends to be a highly involved process, especially with the number of rules and regulations governing teachers. 
• Too many data points, not enough insights: In school districts that manually handle HRP, individual administrators may be aware of potential areas a teacher might improve. But unless they choose to share that information, the teacher is left in the dark until their performance review. 
• Confusion and frustration: As we mentioned earlier, navigating the constantly shifting regulations present within the education sector can be overwhelming for teachers and administrators alike. It’s enough to leave anyone feeling frustrated, which makes for a poor teaching experience. 

Luckily, there’s a better way, and it starts with the right software. Edsembli HRP is the ideal solution for schools looking to eliminate much of the manual labor (and frustration) traditionally involved in HR and payroll.

Edsembli HRP platform is designed to make employee lifecycle management in education simpler than it’s ever been: 

• With built-in compliance and reporting capabilities and seamless connectivity between departments, you can ensure that neither your district nor its schools are ever left in the dark. 
• A self-service portal to ensure that teachers have immediate access to information about their employment whenever they require it, allowing them to generate comprehensive reports on-demand. 
• Automatically track and update seniority, pay scale adjustments, and compensation packages. 
• Automatic creation and population of staff profiles significantly streamlines the onboarding process, eliminating unnecessary paper and email trails. 
• Easily visualize performance data, including absences. 

By cutting out frustrating negotiations and unnecessary busywork, we free teachers to spend more time doing what they’re actually meant to—teaching. 

Are you interested in seeing how Edsembli HRP can empower your staff and keep the focus on the student experience? Book a demo today to get started.