Evaluation of the Golden Hello Initiative - York Consulting

The Evaluation of the Golden Hello InitiativeCollege Use5.6 In most colleges visited the Golden Hello initiative is operated as adiscrete initiative and there is no evidence of variance in approach fordifferent subject shortage areas.5.7 In a small number of cases, colleges are ‘selling’ FE through a package ofincentives by highlighting the pension scheme, training provision and thepotential of a Golden Hello within recruitment advertising;5.8 There is evidence from one case study of a college increasing contractedteaching hours in a shortage subject area in order to make a member of staffeligible for a Golden Hello. This was undertaken because of concern that themember of staff concerned would leave the sector.5.9 Therefore, in most colleges the Golden Hello initiative is being delivered as aseparate entity and there is little evidence that it is being used as part of amore general college strategy for recruitment and retention. This is perhapsbecause the framework of the initiative and its eligibility requirements meanthere is little scope for flexibility.Supplementary Approaches5.10 Several colleges are operating their own separate approaches to tacklerecruitment and retention issues including:• offering a relocation package to attract teachers in shortage subjectareas such as construction;• accelerating the pay scale for staff recruited into shortage subjectareas as a reward for good performance over the first two years of theiremployment;• developing staff from within – one college strategy is to ‘grow its ownstaff’ by encouraging instructors to progress into teaching;• negotiation of salaries – one college attempts to attract staff intoshortage subject areas by endeavouring to match an applicant’s current(industry) salary wherever possible.38 York Consulting Limited