Sharing staff members across schools

Learn how to employ a staff member who is to be shared across schools.

Level of compliance Main audience Other

Recommended
  • Principals and Tumuaki
  • Staff responsible for buying on behalf of their school
  • Boards

Sharing a staff member across schools can enable schools to access expertise that otherwise may not have been attainable.

Overview

Schools may want to employ a specialist staff member, such as a business manager or facilities manager, but are unable to, because of a lack of staffing entitlement, funding, or may not need to employ a person full-time.

In these situations, two or more schools who share this circumstance might employ a person to work for the group. Then, all schools in the group can benefit from the expertise of the shared staff member.

Establishing a shared position might also provide current school staff with a new professional development pathway.

When agreeing to hire a shared staff member, it is crucial that all participating schools understand the access that they will have to them and how they will benefit from that access.

All schools must also be fully informed about their financial obligation to support the position.

Case study: Sharing a property manager in Wellington

A property manager in Wellington is shared by seven schools, including primaries and colleges.

One secondary school employs the property manager, while the six other schools contribute part of the property manager salary financial resources to that school in return for his time. Equipment is also shared with financial contribution by the schools to cover part of the costs.

Sharing the property manager has enabled all of the schools to benefit from his operational and advisory skills.

  • All schools can access the property manager’s labour and equipment. Instead of paying for scheduled lawn-mowing, the schools together purchased a lawn mower, so that he and his team could mow lawns as part of their regular tasks.
  • The property manager knows who the best local tradespeople are and can group tasks together for them to complete in fewer call-outs.
  • When the property manager learns a lesson in one school, that lesson can be applied in all schools.
  • The property manager advises the caretakers who are employed by each of the schools.

How to appoint to an across-schools position

Step Action

1

Communicate with other local schools

 

Identify what role there is a shared need for (if there is one).

 

Also, confirm each school’s ability/preference for facilitating the hiring.

 

For example, School A may wish to employ a Facilities Manager as a 0.5 FTE, School B may wish to access 0.25 FTE and School C may take the opportunity to access the remaining 0.25 FTE.

 

2

Develop a position description

 

A position description will define the key roles and responsibilities of the employee. It must also state a manager for the shared employee.

 

All participating schools must agree to the final position description.

 

3

Finalise an agreement between all participating schools

 

The agreement made between all schools should state the:

  • school board that is employing the staff member
  • schools that are party to the agreement
  • start and end dates of the agreement and all review points
  • purpose and scope of the services agreed to for each school
  • allocation of the employee’s time across schools
  • roles and responsibilities of each school, including financial contribution
  • method for managing financial contributions
  • issue resolution process
  • process for managing a school wishing to conclude the agreement, including the required notice period.

 

This agreement might take the form of a Memorandum of Understanding. See our MoU template below.

 

Shared staff member MoU template [DOCX, 31 KB]

 

4

Complete the hiring process

 

Follow your standard process for appointing a person to the role.

 

Key resource sharing considerations

Equipment sharing

When a staff member is shared, participating schools might also be able to share that staff member’s equipment.

The purchase of this equipment might also be cooperative, with each school contributing to the cost up-front.

For example, by sharing a property manager, all schools may gain access to their tools, such as lawnmowers and specialist gutter cleaning equipment.

If all schools contribute to the purchase of the equipment up-front, there is no need for any school to make scheduled payments for an external supplier to complete these services in the future.

Financial contributions

Use the calculator below to establish what each participating school’s financial contribution towards employing the specialist staff member should be. The calculator also estimates how much time each school should be allocated, as based on their needs and financial contribution.

Shared resource calculator [XLSX, 28 KB]

The group will also need to consider how participating schools will pay their contribution to the board who is employing the shared staff member.

Payment might be made monthly, quarterly, or annually.

It will also need to be confirmed how the employing board will invoice the other participating schools. It is essential that both parties have a record of the transaction.

Employment implications

The employment implications of hiring a shared staff member should be investigated.

Contact the NZSTA employment advisors to learn more.

NZSTA — Advisory & Support Centre(external link)

Further information

Forms

Shared resource calculator [XLSX, 28 KB]
Shared staff member MoU template [DOCX, 31 KB]

Links

NZSTA — Advisory & Support Centre(external link)

Contact

To learn more about sharing staff members, email school.buying@education.govt.nz.

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