Do you have an effective People Strategy in place?

Developing a people strategy provides a framework that outlines how you will attract, develop, engage, and retain your employees to meet business objectives, in line with your vision, whilst maintaining and promoting your core values.  It involves engaging the workforce and empowering them to contribute and benefit to the organisation’s future. When developing a people strategy we would look at aspects like organisation culture, recruitment, training and development, performance management, employee engagement, and retention. 

Having a people strategy is particularly important for several reasons: 

  • Culture and Values Alignment: Having a people strategy ensures that all staff, regardless of which school or office they work in, are aligned with these values and contribute to a unified culture that fosters collaboration, innovation, and high standards. 
  • Consistency Across Schools:  A clear people strategy ensures consistent recruitment, development, and retention practices across all schools in your organisation, helping to maintain a cohesive and effective workforce. 
  • Attracting and Retaining Talent: Attracting high-quality staff (teachers, support staff, and leaders) is crucial. Competition for talented professionals means it is vital to have a strong people strategy in place that attracts top talent. It is also important that you focus on retaining staff by ensuring they feel valued and supported. 
  • Professional Development: Offering more extensive opportunities for professional development by providing opportunities across multiple schools. A people strategy ensures that staff have access to comprehensive continuous professional development, learning and growth. 
  • Addressing Workforce Challenges: Schools often face challenges like teacher shortages, staff turnover, or underperformance. A people strategy helps organisations identify these issues early and take steps to address them, whether through targeted recruitment, improved staff welfare, or new leadership approaches. 
  • Improving Pupil Outcomes: The ultimate aim of any people strategy is to ensure that the people working within the organisation are able to perform at their best. High-quality teaching and effective leadership are directly correlated with improved pupil outcomes, making the people strategy a key lever for raising educational standards across your organisation. 
  • Succession Planning: A well-crafted people strategy allows you to proactively succession plan, ensuring that there are clear pathways for leadership development within your trust. This helps ensure that your trust is prepared for the future, with a pipeline of leaders who understand the trust’s culture and objectives. 
What will developing a People Strategy involve?
Identifying your objectives. 

Utilising independent advice and support to offer external input and guidance. 

Gathering information about what you do currently and evaluating this information.  

  • Focus Groups / Engagement with employees 
  • Talent Management Survey 
  • Wellbeing audit 
  • Diversity, equality and Inclusion audit 
  • HR policies, procedures and metrics 
  • HR team skills audit 
  • Trade Union engagement 
  • Staff surveys 
  • National picture of Employment law changes 

Identifying key themes that arise from the findings. 

Development of a strategy to deliver the objectives based on the key themes and findings. 

Our Packages

We offer a couple of different packages: 

Option 1 

  • GKA will work alongside existing HR Lead / personnel and provide tools for engagement 
  • GKA will provide quality assurance of the final output 

  

Option 2: 

  • GKA will work independently and engage those at all levels of the organisation. Directors and Governors, Leaders, staff, Unions etc 
  • GKA will collate feedback, analyse and draft the final report 
  • GKA will produce a presentation of findings  
  • GKA will provide an implementation plan 
  • GKA will work with you to provide communications tools for year one of implementation 

  

Our Clients
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Solent Academies Trust

GKA is currently supporting Solent Academies Trust to develop and implement a comprehensive People Strategy that aligns with the Trust’s growth trajectory and evolving workforce needs. With five existing special schools and two further schools due to open by 2028, the Trust identified the need to strengthen its approach to workforce planning, staff development, and organisational culture. GKA was commissioned in 2024 to gather feedback from all Trust staff and to work closely with the executive team to co-design a strategy that supports the recruitment, retention, and development of a high-quality, collaborative and values-driven workforce across all schools.

Since the project commenced in 2024, GKA has:  

  • Conducted stakeholder engagement sessions with staff across all five existing schools, the Trust central team and Governors and Trustees to capture views on current strengths and challenges relating to people, culture, and workforce development.  
  • Facilitated strategic workshops with the Trust’s executive leadership and HR leads to define core priorities for the People Strategy.  
  • Reviewed existing HR policies, CPD frameworks, workforce data and anonymous staff survey results to identify opportunities for alignment and improvement.  
  • Mapped workforce trends and challenges specific to specialist education, including recruitment pipelines and retention risks.  
  • Co-developed a Trust-wide 3-year People Strategy structured around key themes such as talent attraction, wellbeing, leadership development, equity and inclusion, and succession planning.  
  • Produced an implementation roadmap with clear milestones, defined responsibilities, and performance indicators to support effective delivery, communications and ongoing evaluation of the strategy.  

GKA continues to act as a strategic partner to the Trust, providing additional capacity during the planning and delivery phase of the strategy, and aligning people priorities with the Trust’s wider organisational goals. 

Impact:

  • Informed and unified workforce strategy: Through extensive staff engagement and collaboration with the leadership team, the People Strategy has provided a clear, unified approach to managing the Trust’s growing workforce, aligning HR practices with the Trust’s strategic objectives.  
  • Enhanced staff satisfaction and retention: Early initiatives aimed at improving staff wellbeing, professional development, and career progression have led to improved morale and engagement across the Trust. Early feedback suggests a stronger sense of belonging and purpose within the workforce.  
  • Long-term strategic alignment: The Trust now has a robust and scalable People Strategy in place, supporting its expansion plans while ensuring that the culture and values of the Trust remain at the forefront as it grows.  

Sharon Burt, Chief Executive Officer, Solent Academies Trust

“Our partnership with GKA has been transformative. Their insight and collaborative approach have enabled us to co-create a People Strategy that not only reflects who we are as a Trust, but also supports who we aspire to be as we grow. It’s given us the clarity and momentum to build a workforce culture that is inclusive, supportive and truly aligned with our values.”   

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