Page 8 - The EDGE Fall 2024

WORKFORCE

BY RYAN FRENCH
Organizational Culture: How important Is It?

Ryan French

School districts spend roughly 85% of their budgets people? They’ll leave anyway. Or, worse, they’ll
on salaries and benefits. Like it or not, we are in mentally quit, and stay.”
the people business, and unlike other businesses,
school districts have a limited ‘earning capacity’. If you haven’t had the chance to read it, I highly
This means we can’t just raise prices to deal with recommend it because I couldn’t agree more with
inflation or compete with other businesses that that quote. The hardest part of being a leader is
want our employees. So, if we can’t pay more, how seeing that employee who has mentally checked
can we compete? out, just collecting a paycheck, and how that attitude
can send ripples throughout the organization.
The answer is giving your employees the things
that money can’t buy! Investing your time, effort, So how do you combat this? For starters, giving your
and money in creating an organizational culture employees clarity around roles and responsibilities.
that makes your employees love coming to work I like to use the phrase, clear is kind, when I’m
might be the most effective way to compete for helping my staff with their communication to other
today’s workforce. staff members. It is extremely important to let
others know exactly what your expectations are.
According to The Society for Human Resource Being able to communicate the who, what, where,
Management (SHRM), replacing an employee when, and why, gives employees an understanding
can cost anywhere between 50%-60% of that of what is being communicated. Leaving a gray
employee’s salary, with overall costs to the area or question about expectations can lead to
organization ranging anywhere from 90%-200%. anxiety, confusion, and ultimately, disengagement.
Unplanned employee turnover is the silent killer If you are trying to make a change in the
of organizations and school districts cannot organization or how people do things, this is even
afford this when it is so difficult to compete for more important. I’ve found that change is easier
employees with higher wages. I’d like to spend for employees when the change is being done
some time in this article to talk about the managers with them instead of to them. Allowing them the
and leadership in school districts and what they opportunity to provide feedback and be part of the
can do to create culture. process is key to this. In my tenure at Littleton
Elementary with Dr. Roger Freeman, I’ve learned
How are you growing your staff? many things, including the “3 letter rule”. What is
I’ve recently had the pleasure of reading, “I Love this rule, you ask?
it Here” by Clint Pulver (our keynote speaker from
the 2024 Annual Conference. Clint makes a point Simply put, if you are making a change, you
in his book around growing your staff and says, should communicate with anyone you think could
“What will happen if you don’t invest in your
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8 THE EDGE FALL 2024