We know that having a quality teacher in the classroom is the critical factor in student achievement. And we know that the human resource (HR) department is the critical factor in recruiting and selecting those teachers. As demand for teacher quality increases, so does scrutiny of school HR departments.
The HR function is now moving into the accountability spotlight. Human capital management is the new buzz term for strengthening the talent level of our teaching workforce.
Millions of dollars are being pumped into school districts from state and federal sources to encourage change and innovation, and much of it is aimed at stimulating changes in human resource strategies. Texas is now embarking on the second phase of the federal stimulus package through its Texas Steps Up Initiative.
Five out of the 10 targeted reform activities will be focused on reforming HR practices and systems in Texas schools: reward systems, evaluation systems, HR data systems, work schedules, and staff development.
All functions in school districts seem to be moving toward a more performance-oriented approach to the business of education. But performance accountability is more cut and dried for others than it is for HR. Business and finance have accounting standards, annual audit reports, and financial ratings from the state. Curriculum and instruction is measured by state and federal assessment systems with accountability ratings and reports. But who should examine the performance of the HR department, for what results, and how?
Keeping classrooms filled with qualified teachers is the most visible and one of the most important contributions of the HR department. But there are many other ways that HR adds value to the district.
Tamira Griffin, executive director for human resources for Plano ISD, believes that HR is accountable for a broad spectrum of roles and responsibilities. “I look at what we do in two major role categories. One relates to compliance-oriented activities such as investigations, lawsuits, NCLB highly qualified teachers, EEOC complaints, grievances, etc., and the other category is more strategic, such as recruiting and retention, compensation and benefits, diversity, cultivating and maintaining relationships, and so forth. As Plano ISD strives to be a ‘high-reliability organization,’ as discussed in the Marzano and Waters’ book, District Leadership That Works, we recognize that both these roles are necessary and that the HR division is accountable for both the compliance and strategic roles because the stakes for failure are so high.”
There are perhaps as many ways to look at HR’s performance as there are HR departments. Some accountability systems are driven internally by the chief human resource officer and some are externally driven by the superintendent or school board. There are both formal systems and informal systems. Some HR leaders report performance data to the school board, some to the superintendent, and some report to no one but themselves. What really matters is whether the system is purpose-driven and effective in fulfilling its purpose.
The HR department at Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISD (HEB ISD) participates in a continuous improvement system that embraces the entire district. In 2004, Superintendent Gene Buinger led his cabinet to search for the right vehicle to help them maintain high standards of performance during changing times for the district. Inspired by the bestselling book Good to Great by Jim Collins, they chose a continuous improvement model as that vehicle. Performance is continuously measured with data and compared against past performance and other districts. Callie Hearne, assistant superintendent for human resources, says, “It’s just the way we do business here.”
HEB ISD’s five-year district goals address students, operations, staff, safety, and stakeholder relationships. Their staff goal is a lofty one, common to many school district strategic plans: “The district will recruit, employ, and retain a quality teaching, administrative, and support staff to attain excellence in student performance.” The difference in HEB is what comes next—continuous improvement objectives, defined success measures, and the evaluation tools to measure results.
For example, one of their HR quality indicators is an effective employee recruitment program. Related improvement objectives for the current year include increasing the percentage of minority staff; improving the application, interview, and induction process; and working with area colleges to select and place student teachers in critical shortage content areas. Each of these objectives will be measured for performance results.
The HR staff will use Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) data and employee surveys, among other information, to measure progress and report performance data to the board on a quarterly basis. Hearne and her leadership team write a department plan each year based on the results of their assessment. She says, “The data does not always show you what you want to see, but it tells you where you need to go.”
Under the leadership of Neil Dugger, who is now serving as interim superintendent at Irving ISD, the HR department has begun setting measurable performance goals for improvement and compiling data to measure progress.
Following an internal review in 2008, Dugger and his HR staff developed 22 measurable performance goals that tie back to the district mission statement and 10 guiding principles. They had been collecting and tracking various types of data for years but had not put it all together in a consolidated package. Dugger, who was previously the assistant superintendent for HR, recognized that what HR departments do for a school district is not always well understood. “HR’s responsibilities can get a little foggy because we touch so many different things and we are involved with every campus. But there are still things we can take responsibility for even if we don’t control it all,” Dugger says.
Irving’s HR goals are specific, data-driven, and set high standards for which the department must strive and use to measure progress. Examples of their HR performance goals for 2009 include:
Irving’s HR performance goals set a high bar for complex challenges. Teacher attendance and turnover are certainly influenced by factors beyond the control of the HR staff. Yet Dugger understands that teacher attendance and retention are also vital to student achievement and does not believe in sidestepping the hard issues, saying, “If we miss the boat, we just ask ourselves why and try harder. A good goal will always be something that you have to work hard to achieve—or perhaps work differently.” Dugger plans to review performance results at the end of the year and share that information with the IISD board before they tackle district goal-setting for the following year.
Tamira Griffin leads a team of 50 people at Plano ISD and has district-level responsibility for all of the traditional HR functions plus school health services, benefits, and risk management. When Griffin looks at accountability, she sees a variety of customers looking back. “HR has a lot of different customers: applicants, employees, community members, the superintendent, and the school board. I encourage my staff to think about how each thing we do every day will ultimately affect students. This helps us to keep our eye on the ball because when we can do that, we stay focused on what really matters,” Griffin said.
Staying focused for Griffin means keeping track of performance data for all HR-related board goals, plus annual HR department-developed performance goals, and her own personal performance goals. Griffin feels fortunate to have a board and superintendent who understand that the success of students depends on the staff, resulting in a natural interest and concern about what happens in the HR department. She reports to the board several times a year about trends and changes in the workforce, including hiring activity, terminations, resignations, applications, compensation and benefits, and occasional hot topics.
Griffin is currently working on a metrics project to make Plano ISD’s performance data more useful and meaningful. “I think that I know how we are doing, but we need to measure to make sure,” Griffin said. Plano ISD benchmarks data against their own past performance to gauge progress, but the district also uses a comparison group of peer districts to see how they measure up against others.
A report released by the Center on Reinventing Public Education in 2004 points out the effect of the HR department in determining whether qualified teachers make it to the classroom. From Bystander to Ally: Transforming the District Human Resources Department 
, sums up the need to pay more attention to HR departments this way:
“…questions of teacher quality and quantity are very much contingent on what happens in HR. HR departments play a role in recruiting, selecting, and hiring teachers; they help principals evaluate employee performance; they administer benefits. …The bottom line is, if superintendents and school board members care about teacher quality and advancing district-wide reforms, they cannot ignore the quality of their human resource departments.”
In Good to Great, author Collins studied how companies made substantial improvements in their performance. What he discovered was that making the transition from good to great did not result from technology, innovation, or even having the best business strategies. At the heart of moving from good to great was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Strong leaders seek accountability and continuous improvement. If others do not seek it from them, they will seek it for themselves.
Strong HR leaders must be ready to step up to the challenge.
