In this episode of Tuesday Tips, Jennifer Svendsen from Edgility Talent Partners joined us to discuss building compensation systems that attract talent and support sustainable school growth.
Here are this session’s top 3 tips:
- Build compensation systems for your future self, not your current reality. If you’re going from $8M in revenue with 80 staff to $20M with 160 staff in three years, build a compensation program that meets the future you. When you’re proactive rather than reactive, you avoid making exceptions that erode staff trust and break down culture. Schools that grow without updating their systems quickly find they have no place for new roles, unclear job levels, and no structure for recognizing additional duties—forcing reactive decisions that create inequity.
- Listen to staff through both surveys and listening sessions. Surveys give you the “black and white”—quantitative data about what’s working and what isn’t. Listening sessions add the “color”—the why behind those scores. If compensation scores come in low, listening sessions might reveal: “A lot of exceptions have been made in the last two years as we’ve grown, and that has eroded trust.” Synthesize both, create an action plan, and critically—share it back with staff so they feel heard and understand how you’ll address their concerns.
- Balance three levers: market competitiveness, internal equity, and financial sustainability. Pushing hard on one lever shifts where others fall. Being more market competitive might strain financial sustainability. Bringing in new staff at higher rates than experienced current staff destroys internal equity and trust. The painful reality: “New folks are coming in and they’re paid more than I am, and I’ve been here longer.” This erodes trust and drives attrition of your most valuable long-tenured staff. Find the right balance for your organization across all three levers.
Watch the Full Conversation Here
