Mastering the juggle: Why colleges and private schools drop the ball on performance management (and how to fix it)

Institutions of education are a people business. At colleges and universities, staff compensation—salary and benefits—account for 60 to 80 percent of the total budget. At private K-12 schools, it’s common for this number to be above 80 percent. Yet both often struggle with performance management, which impacts performance, enrollment, and morale.

Schools aren’t alone. Performance management is an issue across all sectors of the economy. However, the educational setting can make it a little more complex. Here are just a few of the challenges:

• Subjectivity in defining performance metrics. From administrators to staff to parents, it’s hard to align on what “good performance” is. Student outcomes are hard to quantify, and standardized results do not effectively measure teaching quality or learning experiences.
• Lack of effective feedback systems. Whether student evaluations, peer review, or manager driven, feedback is generally biased and delayed. Most parties giving feedback have not been trained to do so. The result is inaccurate data that cannot be relied upon when making decisions.
• Lack of data infrastructure and support. Many schools don’t have the resources to invest in and maintain the technology to track and analyze performance data. In addition, many schools have privacy and compliance regulations they must adhere to but don’t have the specialized staff to support this.
• Overlooked contributors. In educational settings, it’s easy to have tunnel vision on faculty and academic results. Still, there are many non-academic staff that are critical to school performance. Due to financial limitations, these “background” workers are often de-prioritized, leading to low morale, higher turnover, and inefficient operations.

It doesn’t have to be this way. AI-driven automation is making performance management platforms accessible, affordable, easy-to-use, and highly effective. Better, platforms like Garnet River’s Hindsight365 are customizable and can be tailored to meet each institution’s unique needs.

The benefits of real-time performance management

Let’s imagine a scenario in which new leadership joined an underperforming institution. Under previous leadership, academics were prioritized but the administration struggled with poor performance management. Without clear expectations, ongoing feedback, and data-driven decision-making, the school suffered low morale and high staff turnover. Academics eroded and student and parent confidence waned. As a result, enrollment and donor contributions declined.

Suspecting the issue may be performance management related, the new administration prioritized evaluating staff, recognizing achievement, and creating targeted professional development opportunities. They invested in a modern performance management platform. The outcomes:

• Clear goal alignment and communication
  Using the platform, leadership created goals across departments that aligned with the school’s mission and annual objectives. Real-time dashboards showed progress toward these objectives, fostering collaboration and clarity across the school​.

• Timely feedback and continuous inputs
  Managers, students, and peers used the platform, which features a mobile app, to provide regular, real-time feedback. Performance issues were identified early, and quarterly and/or annual reviews were accurate and unbiased.

• Targeted professional development
  Data analytics identified relevant skill gaps and staff was provided with meaningful development opportunities. Data also highlighted strengths, so appropriate staff were enlisted as mentors.

• Fair and transparent recognition
  By providing regular feedback over time, that aligned to clear goals, evaluations were objective and accurate—removing the recency bias that is a problem with many current models. Both academic and non-academic staff felt appreciated and fairly evaluated, resulting in higher retention rates and improved job satisfaction.
• Reduced administrative burden and cost efficiency
  Automated workflows and real-time reporting streamlined administrative tasks. With fewer manual tasks, administrators focused more on strategic initiatives that bolstered the school’s reputation, strengthened alumni relations, and grew enrollment.

Thriving with a culture of continuous improvement

Continuous improvement is one of today’s organizational buzzwords. Appropriately so. It implies the establishment of a baseline and the setting of benchmarks—a map of where a school is to where it wants to go.

Performance management is a great tool to help accomplish this. Real-time feedback, aligned goals, and tailored development opportunities help staff feel empowered and valued. Automated workflows and transparent evaluations allow administrators to shift focus from reactive problem-solving to proactive planning and strategic growth. It’s a powerful combination—one that promotes flexibility, resiliency, and the strategic allocation of resources needed to achieve long-term sustainability, enrollment, and academic excellence.

Want to learn more about how an AI-powered performance management platform your school? Let’s talk!