The traditional model of talent management suggests that school leaders find as much talent as they can get their hands on and squeeze tight to keep them.

This approach is understandable. There is a global teacher shortage and, increasingly, talent is hard to find, particularly in specialist subjects.

As such, it not surprising that school leaders often do whatever they can to retain staff: it is often cheaper to allow a teacher to move through the threshold, to award (or create) a teaching and learning responsibility or additional non-contact time, or simply make a recruitment and retention payment.

However, an alternative model recognises the millennials and Generation Z who come into the profession knowing their market value and are more proactive in wanting to progress their careers.

As such we need to evolve from placating these teachers and instead harness their drive and ambition to benefit them and the school. One way to frame this is as a “tour of duty” - a concept borrowed from the military.

A teacher joins the school as a subject leader, for instance, and commits to a “tour of duty” of developing some aspects of that department for a period of, say, three years. At the end of that time, the school and teacher renegotiate a new tour of duty in school.

Teacher retention: Keeping talented staff in your school

This might be in the same role but focusing on new challenges or moving into a different role in the school entirely, perhaps as a faculty lead or heading up a new teaching and learning initiative or other key area of school development.

This approach helps develop the school into a talent pipeline that is constantly attracting dynamic middle and senior leaders who are driving school improvement - rather than staff who feel there are no onward progression opportunities.

This also allows schools to develop their next generation of leaders. At Kellett, we are in the process of restructuring the school’s senior leadership team. As part of this process, we are creating four assistant head roles: academic, data and exams, co-curricular and professional development.

These positions are great training roles in which the incumbents can learn different aspects of senior leadership by completing two-year “tours of duty” in different roles before moving on to a deputy headship, either in the school or elsewhere. This also brings greater resilience and knowledge to the senior leadership team.

This approach also helps schools to avoid the “dead man’s shoes” scenario by moving leaders aside who have had a good run in a role, thus creating opportunities for new teachers to be promoted.

Of course, schools need to strike a balance. Not every teacher wants to rise up the ranks and there will always be teachers who just want to teach - and there is nothing wrong with that.

However, in a world where moving job is commonplace, the most effective schools will be the ones that strike a balance to create a working environment that keeps both types of teachers happy for the longer term.

Mark Steed is the principal and CEO of Kellett School, the British International School in Hong Kong; he previously ran schools in Devon, Hertfordshire and Dubai. He tweets @independenthead

This article originally appeared in the 29 October 2021 issue under the headline “A bold new approach to teacher talent management”