Highly Effective Talent

Attract and retain highly skilled, compassionate, diverse, and committed team members by providing personalized and differentiated pathways for professional growth, improvement, and advancement.

Areas of Focus

Compensation Package: The combination of salaries and various benefits, such as insurance, leave, retirement plans and career advancement opportunities, offered to employees.

Recruitment: An intentional approach to attracting a targeted number of qualified applicants, selecting the candidate best fit for the position, offering them employment and onboarding the new employee.

Retention: Preserving the integrity of the workforce through approaches to reduce employee turnover rates.

Professional Growth: A deliberate and personalized approach to the development of individual skills, traits and competencies, which supports furthering team member's professional goals as well as the division's needs.

Theory of Action

If we provide competitive pay and benefits, attract the most effective talent, continue to employ a skilled and compassionate workforce while providing opportunities for growth and advancement, then we will be positioned to continue supporting high-quality learning experiences leading to student success.

Why this is Important

  • National teacher shortages are expected to exceed 100,000 each year beyond 2019 (Sutcher, Darling-Hammond, & Carver-Thomas, 2019).
  • Employee compensation and fringe benefits increase employee job satisfaction and reduce employee turnover (Dale-Olsen, 2006).
  • Teachers are more satisfied and plan to stay longer in schools that have a positive work context, independent of the school's demographic characteristics (Johnson, Kraft, & Papay, 2012).
  • If a student has a high performing teacher for just one year, the student will remain ahead of peers for up to three years. If a student has an ineffective teacher, without remediation, the influence on achievement will extend up to three years (Grant, Stronge, & Popp, 2008).

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The key data and metrics identified most impactful in demonstrating meaningful progress towards the division's vision, mission and priorities.

Employment Retention and Vacancies

Employee retention refers to the division's ability to prevent employee turnover. Stability in our workforce fosters a collaborative environment in which team members work together to advance student achievement. Recruiting and filling a vacant position requires significant time, money and effort. Research shows it can take one to two years for a new hire to match the productivity of the employee who left.

The division monitors overall and new hire retention rates, as well as the reasons employees separate from the division. These Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are updated annually and can be filtered by fiscal year, separation type and 3-year retention rates.

Licensed New Hires and Lateral Moves

Recruiting and retaining highly effective teachers is directly linked to student success. Over the past decade, data demonstrates the number of teacher applicants entering the field of education has declined significantly, while there has been an increase in teachers moving from one school system to another.

The division takes an intentional approach to attracting qualified applicants, selecting the candidate best fit for the position, offering them employment, and onboarding the new employee. The division monitors the number of employees on the Teacher Salary Schedule hired annually and their average years of experience when hired, as well as regional employment trends.

These Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are updated annually and can be filtered by fiscal year, years of experience, and school division.

Staff Working Conditions

In conjunction with the Virginia Department of Education, the division offers all employees the opportunity to participate in a Staff Working Conditions Survey annually. The survey measures teacher/staff perceptions of school rules and discipline, teacher-student relationships, student engagement in school and the extent of bullying and teasing at school. The division has identified 10 questions from the state survey to use to evaluate school and office environments.

This Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is updated annually and can be filtered by school year, school/level, department and years of service.

Year One Strategies (FY23)

A green circle with a white check mark in it Convene a workgroup to review the staff compensation package, to include health, dental, and fringe benefits, across the comparator market and make recommendations.
A green circle with a white check mark in it YCSD will enhance its recruitment program to effectively staff schools and departments. This will include the implementation of a comprehensive Human Resource Management System (HRMS) that will improve the efficacy of hiring managers to recruit and hire highly skilled and diverse staff.
A green circle with a white check mark in it Use the Working Conditions Survey results and the Personnel Exit Collection data to develop site-based and targeted plans designed to improve employee satisfaction and commitment.
A blue and white circle with arrows in it Establish a stakeholder process to define and develop professional growth strategies for each employee work group.
A green circle with a white check mark in it A green circle with a white check mark in it A blue and white circle with arrows in it A yellow circle with white lines in it A purple circle with a white x in it
Implemented Implemented/
Ongoing		 In Progress Pending Discontinued

Year Two Strategies (FY24)

A green circle with a white check mark in it Improve recruiting and hiring processes through effective use of the comprehensive HR management system.
A blue and white circle with arrows in it Develop a comprehensive recruiting plan, to include a marketing video, website presence, and marketing materials.
A green circle with a white check mark in it Expand employees’ growth opportunities and fill vacancies through intentional Professional Development opportunities targeting staff advancement.
A green circle with a white check mark in it A green circle with a white check mark in it A blue and white circle with arrows in it A yellow circle with white lines in it A purple circle with a white x in it
Implemented Implemented/
Ongoing		 In Progress Pending Discontinued

Year Three Strategies (FY25)

Identify and implement actionable steps for improving workplace satisfaction and performance.
Implement targeted methods to hire highly-qualified candidates for hard-to-fill vacancies across all departments.
Educate employees on the comprehensive compensation package, including salary determination processes and all available benefits.
Improve benefits enrollment and change processes to reduce potential errors.
Provide employees with intentional and strategic high-quality professional development opportunities.
Enhance retention, morale, engagement, productivity, and employee attendance by developing effective employee relations.

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