Districts find many advantages in expanding employee benefits

So she started to think about low-cost ways for the district to show appreciation for its 1,200 teachers, administrators, and other staff -- benefits aside from their salaries that might help make their jobs and lives a little easier or more enjoyable.

“I was trying to find a way for us to create a compensation package that looked at other things, and one of the things I appreciated about work in corporate America was the more comprehensive approach,” says Morstad.

Since she had enjoyed a gym at her previous job, Morstad worked with a local university professor and his graduate students to offer district employees a fitness consultation and personal training sessions.

The response was so overwhelming that the district recently has opened its own fitness center for employees and their spouses. In addition to personal training, it offers consultations with dieticians and a variety of classes, such as yoga, weight training, and salsa dancing.

Morstad’s efforts in creating this program helped her become this year’s winner of the Association of School Business Officials International’s (ASBO) Pinnacle Award for innovative school programs.

Extra benefits can have a big impact on employees’ morale and their retention rates.

School business administrators often handle both budgets and human resources, and they see the results of using perks to attract and keep employees, says John Musso, the executive director of ASBO International.

“We see the whole piece of attracting the best and the brightest, and once you attract them you have to hold them,” says Musso. “These intangibles -- which really shouldn’t even be called intangibles -- are even more attractive when you have to hire teachers, because we’re seeing a lot more competition with NCLB’s highly qualified requirements.”

Teachers appreciate such gestures, and some teachers contracts even include them, says Bill Raabe, director of collective bargaining and member advocacy at the National Education Association.

“These benefits are important because they can improve the morale of the staff,” he says. “I don’t think we should view those ‘in lieu of’ something else, but as a way to enhance the working conditions and environment.”

For districts that have to compete to attract employees, such gestures are not new. When Musso worked as a business administrator in a district near Colorado Springs, Colo., officials there advertised housing assistance and child care programs to prospective employees, who could choose from about a dozen districts in the area to find work.

Knowing which issues were important to prospective employees helped his district recruit and retain employees, Musso says.

“Child care is huge -- in some cases it makes the difference between whether a young mother works or not -- and in that area, housing was very expensive,” he says. “When you go to career fairs, those kinds of things bring people to you.”

In Fayetteville, teachers’ salaries average about $5,000 less than neighboring districts, which have property tax wealth from the corporate headquarters of Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods.

Once the wellness program was implemented, Morstad came up with more new ideas.

She asked local businesses to participate in an employee discount card -- similar to those given to college students -- that offered at least 10 percent off their products and services. To date, more than 200 businesses have signed on.

Morstad also worked with department stores, including Dillards, JC Penney, and Toys R Us, to set up private shopping events for district employees during the back-to-school and Christmas shopping seasons. And she asked dry cleaners to offer a pick-up and delivery service to schools and administrative offices.

Building on the success of the fitness program, Fayette­ville’s business staff created an eight-week program called “Get Financially Fit,” which offered sessions on investing, buying a home, and retirement planning. Employees were paired with local financial counselors who volunteered their time.

More than 330 staff members belong to the district’s fitness center, which opened in May, and the district is planning a marketing campaign this fall to recruit a total of 500 members.

One “perk” for the district has been the new connections it has made with local businesses through the discount card and other perks for employees.

Morstad says many businesses have contacted her office about ways to get more involved in the schools.

And local retailers that offer employee discounts often display an advertisement for the card in their stores, which boosts the visibility of the public schools and in turn helps market the school district.