People

We appreciate and value our people, prioritising their professional development and providing them with the tools to be able to deliver excellence.

Our Trust People Strategy for 2024/25 will focus on three key areas with the aim of ensuring that employees feel appreciated, supported and see Djanogly Learning Trust as a great place to work.

Innovation: Recruiting and welcoming talented people

We are committed to recruiting talented individuals and we must ensure that they have the best possible start to their journey at Djanogly Learning Trust. Our recruitment process is designed to identify passionate, innovative and dedicated professionals who are eager to contribute towards our vision. We prioritise equity, equality, diversity and inclusion to ensure that our people reflect the backgrounds of the children and communities that we serve. To enable us to do this.

We will ensure the following:

All of our vacancies are accessible and unbiased and consider where we are advertising, including attendance at job fairs within our communities and utilising social media to ensure we are being seen by wider communities.
We will put in place adjustments to ensure all can complete the application process.
All vacancies will be advertised with the option of requesting part time working.
We will go to all lengths to ensure candidates are comfortable and prepared for interviews, including providing interview question in advance where required.

Induction and Belonging

We also know that recruitment is more than just getting talented people through our doors, we are committed to ensuring that all new employees are welcomed to their Academy and the Trust and that they receive a high quality onboarding process, this will include:

A detailed induction where new employees are given time to learn about their new place of employment and complete any required training.
Attendance at a Trust wide Welcome event to allow networking opportunities as well as receiving key information about the Trust including CPD opportunities and Trust benefits.
Entrance interviews – the opportunity for new employees to meet with HR at the end of their first month in role to discuss what has gone well, what could be better and what they need to ensure a successful start to their career with DLT.

Resilience: Commitment to a strong culture of wellbeing where people feel valued and appreciated

We are committed to fostering a proactive culture of wellbeing which is integral to ensuring our people feel valued and appreciated. We believe that a strong culture of wellbeing and appreciation is fundamental to ensuing our children and young people have an exceptional educational experience.

To ensure that we have a strong culture of wellbeing the Trust are committed to the followings:

A review of DLT benefits to ensure that the benefits we have are having a positive impact on our employees and a commitment to introducing new benefits based on employee feedback.
A commitment to flexible working and ensuring that flexible working is seen as an asset in every Djanogly Learning Trust Academy to retain our talented employees.
A commitment to improving work life balance by:

oIncreasing time off for employees who work all year-round

o1 paid personal days per year in term time for term time employees

oIncreasing paternity leave to 3 weeks leave at full pay

Ensuring staff are listened to and have the opportunity to feedback to line managers, Senior Leadership Teams and Trust leaders through our Employee Voice committee, HR drop-in sessions, career development and wellbeing reviews, employee surveys and open door policies, ensuring all groups are represented.
Celebrate select days throughout the academic year to highlight and promote wellbeing and appreciation.
Introduce further opportunities for colleagues to nominate one another for role-modelling excellence, innovation, resilience.

Excellence: Retention and Talent Management

Retaining and managing talent is essential to ensuring that we can deliver our vision. The Trust are dedicated to creating a supportive environment that encourages continuous growth and professional development that is tailored to each individual’s career aspirations.

We have a range of development opportunities from apprenticeships to higher level study sponsorship, options to network with others from across and outside the Trust, secondment opportunities and joint working but we know we can do more.

We are focusing on the following areas

We want to ensure that we are retaining our people and are giving them every opportunity to reach their career goals, therefore we are focusing on the following areas:

Identifying and supporting our talented people through our new appraisal scheme ‘Career Development and Wellbeing Reviews’ that puts employees in the driving seat. We need our people to tell us what their future at DLT looks like so that we can give them the support and mechanisms they need to get there.
Development of a Leadership programme for current and aspiring teaching and support staff leaders to give them the practical skills to be great leaders.
Commitment to promoting vacancies within the Trust first before advertising externally.
Commitment to offering secondment opportunities within the Trust to widen the professional experience of our people.
Automatic pay progression through the pay scales emphasising our appreciation and aiding retention