10 ways school leaders can prove they care about their teachers

The thing that many employees complain about is the fact that bosses usually view their employees as machines – and as long as their work is done as expected, the rest is up to the employee. Here’s a few reasons why bosses behave like that;

• It’s considered expensive to care about employees as people
• Empathy is perceived as weakness
• Caring could make them lazy
• Everything is good as long as they receive their salary

However, showing that you care about your employees has even more benefits these days, because;

• Your employees become empathetic about you and the business
• You don’t have to yell at anyone
• They get even more work done
• Caring keeps the in good health
• Accidents and other misfortunes are averted

In the professional world, teachers want to be treated like the important professional they are. In this article, we discuss 10 ways that you as an administrator can prove to your teachers that you care about them as people:

1. Finding out

Once you find out a problem, you’re on the way to solving it. So many times, your teachers will keep their emotions bottled up. For them to speak out, you have to be the one to take initial action. Here’s how;

• Asking how they are in person
• Conducting minor surveys
• Urging them to speak out when something is amiss

By finding out what exactly is troubling them, you can use that as a basis to devise possible solutions.

2. Providing psychological assistance

Providing psychological assistance is one of the best ways to show one that you care. If you’re mindful of the effects that mental problems can have on their career, you can help them as follows;

• Lecturing them on mental health
• Providing a therapist when they need one
• Engaging them in mental health activities
• Help them through burnout

These strategies, if implemented, can reverse the effects of stress and other mental heath issues.

3. Proper feeding

Teachers, just like anyone else, need to be fed well. This is because proper feeding does a lot to influence their attitude in the classroom and within the school premises. Here are some tips

• Balanced diet
• Interchanging meals
• Desserts after meals

It is scientifically proven that the food you eat can have a great impact on your attitude and pace of work. This is more reason to care a lot about teachers as people.

Also, this is one of the things that can prove to teachers that you care about them.

4. Allowing them resting time

Taking some time to rest is as important to the teachers as it is to you. Resting is one way to let the brain recoil and gain enough strength to do more work, and it relieves stress. Here’s how;

• Discourage them from working overtime
• Teach them to be efficient with their time
• Designating special time where working isn’t allowed
• Availing sources of entertainment

When you show your teachers that you care about their resting time as much as they do, it proves to them that you care.

5. Financial benefits

One of the commonest problems that teachers face is low salary. As a result, they face some of the worst financial problems. One of the ways to show you care about them is care about their financial life by;

• Proper salary
• Training about good financial habits
• Offering financial advice
• Encouraging them to save and invest
• Helping them create an investment club with them

Most employers don’t care about the finances of their employees. This is because they believe they’ll lose their employees if they are financially literate.

6. Health benefits

Caring about the physical health of your teachers is one of the best ways that you can show you care about them. Some of the health benefits include;

• Health insurance
• Medical checkups
• Health-related advice
• Encouraging physical fitness by creating fitness challenges, etcetera

Doing this will also help you reduce the chances of losing employees due to health or because they’ve seen better conditions in other schools.

7. Creating holiday programs

Holidays are usually the time when teachers sit at home, stay dormant and pray and wish for schools to reopen so they can cut costs and increase the money flow into their pockets. However, you can put their holiday time to the best of use. Here’s how;

• Giving the teachers a little pay
• Training them in particular skills during the holidays
• Encouraging holiday entrepreneurship
• Holiday trips

By putting their worst time to great use, it shows the teachers that you care a lot about them, and in turn, they trust you even more.

8. Rewarding hard work and creativity

Many of your teachers are creative and some even work a little harder than the rest. Unfortunately, a lot of effort in those areas goes unnoticed or underappreciated. Here are a few things you can do to show that kind of teachers that you care.

• Giving extra cash for extra responsibilities
• Give room for mild creative mistakes
• Praise the creative ones

By rewarding the teachers for extra effort, it gives them a more positive attitude towards work, and in the end, you gain even more.

9. Make the place lively

How many places are just boring, and the mood is so freezing cold? It’s almost everywhere. However, you as an administrator can change the situation even though you’re not always there with your students. Here’s how;

• Crack jokes with your teachers
• Make teachers feel comfortable cracking jokes
• Provide entertainment
• Hang out some time
• Throw up work parties

By making the place lively, your teachers’ happiness levels don’t usually fluctuate, which reflects into their attitude towards their job and students.

10. Settling differences between them

The workplace is just another place where teachers have to tolerate one another, even despite the fact that all teachers are from different backgrounds. Sometimes, some of them will cross one another and it could cause bad blood. Here’s how to make it right;

• Discouraging conflict at work
• Calling the teachers with disputes
• Giving them reason to cooperate

When you settle differences between teachers, it proves that you care a lot about their wellbeing.

Conclusion;

Of course, all teachers aren’t alike, even though they have a lot of similarities. Implementing these measures isn’t going to be the panacea to all negativity at your workplace. However, it takes you a long way to solve the main problems that your teachers face.