Crisis creates opportunity to upgrade staff skills

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/04/2020 (1995 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On a Saturday afternoon during the most challenging crisis Canadians have had to face in generations, the Alberta government made the shocking announcement: in response to the immense financial burden of the COVID-19 outbreak, it would cut significant funding from school divisions for the 2019-20 school year.

These clawbacks will force divisions to make massive layoffs, possibly upwards of 20,000 people. There is no doubt that governments, and provincial governments in particular, will take an enormous financial hit during this crisis. But a decision such as this misses a spectacular opportunity for the educational system: mass upgrading of support staff.

We are in uncharted territory. Mass layoffs have already occurred, and their numbers will surely increase. This situation will most likely last for months. But the federal government has taken extreme financial steps to ensure those affected by the crisis will at least be able to scrape by.

Employment insurance has been topped up substantially. This means that any government layoffs will, in effect, save the taxpayer far less money than the Alberta government is implying. This will just shift the financial burden to the federal government which means we, the collective taxpayer, are all still paying these staff members.

It’s just that now we will be paying them EI to watch Netflix, rather than to engage in more productive activities if they were still employed and on the school division’s time.

The more positive alternative is taking place already, but only in some locations. There are teacher leaders who are using their educational expertise to teach support staff new skills, including the use of technology and other professional learnings. Some have been given assignments to help them improve their knowledge and understanding of the practical application of the skills they have learned on the job.

Others still have been assigned readings, or tasked to undertake some supported online education in their fields. Finally, some are working (virtually) alongside the teachers and assisting their online support of students’ learning. These staff members have positions that are absolutely essential to the educational success of many students.

By keeping them on the job but temporarily switching their duties to developmental ones, we can ensure even better educational outcomes in the future. These are the kinds of discussions that should be engaged in by school trustees and divisional leaders. There are clearly a large number of important things to consider at a time like this, but school boards are meant to be the strategic leaders in their divisions.

That is, they are meant to be looking toward the future to provide direction on how their respective divisions should run. The overall focus of hundreds or, in the case of some school divisions across Canada, thousands of staff who are more or less unable to do their assigned jobs needs to be considered. Broad strategies for how to continue to extract and increase value from these staff members should be on the docket for immediate consideration.

To paraphrase Jack Welch, one of the most recognizable and successful business leaders of the 20th century, a good leader cannot always guarantee employment but they can always guarantee employability. Investing in your staff is integral to the success of any organization.

The school system generally does a reasonable job, with several mandated professional development days each year and many different educational opportunities for teachers. Now let’s apply the system’s educational expertise to make support staff even more employable.

Remember, whether these staff are laid off or not, they will almost certainly be employed in our schools after things get back to normal.

Governments are having to make extremely difficult decisions now that no political leader ever imagined they would have to, including cancelling in-person classes at our schools for months. We should all be thankful that governments in Canada almost universally demonstrate the correct level of concern and are making concerted efforts to keep us safe and limit the spread of COVID-19 in our towns and cities.

But they cannot miss out on the opportunities that this unprecedented event may unearth. If governments continue to make myopic decisions such as the recent one in Alberta, and focus exclusively on isolated financial outcomes, our return to normalcy and the preparedness of key workers in our communities will be hindered. We need to hold space for all of our employees.

Kevin Freedman is an instructor in the department of business and administration at the University of Winnipeg.