NAPPS

STAFF WELFARE MATTERS: IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT MONEY.

Introduction.
In our last chapter, we were talking about how dangerous some staffers could be. In this edition, we are going the other way round. Yes, some staff can be treacherous, but we must not treat every staffer as if he or she is an agent of the devil sent to destroy us. We must remember that some of them are spending the most active years of their lives to work in our institution. We must also not forget that as much as there are treacherous staff, there are also inconsiderate proprietors. Consequently, we must imagine ourselves or our children in their shoes: We must imagine what it would look like to work for someone for such a prolonged period of time with nothing significant to show for it. We must therefore think about their welfare within the available resources. That is what this chapter is all about.
As a proprietor, you must pay attention to the needs of your staff. As you do it however, don’t expect payback. If you are expecting payback, you may be grossly disappointed later. To have your peace of mind, do it as unto God. If you do so, from our own experience God pays back in diverse ways.

IT IS NOT ALL ABOUT MONEY.
Often, when we as proprietors hear about staff welfare, our mind quickly goes to money, we have the erroneous feeling that staff welfare is all about money. Let me share an experience with you;
One day, our school nurse came to me that she wanted to be transferred to our school in Togo. When she made the request, I immediately concluded that there must be challenges in her marriage, a lady that was under thirty years of age with only one child with a good relationship with her husband could not have made such request under normal circumstances.
I consequently requested that she should see me later. When she arrived, I told her that we actually needed a nurse over there, but I wanted her to share with me a little bit about her marital life. She then went into a long story of how irresponsible the young man had been. The man according to her doesn’t care about her and her daughter, so she felt that it was better to go somewhere far away so that they would not be seeing each other. She had actually been staying alone with her daughter for over two years without any concrete effort on the part of the husband to restore the relationship. When I probed further, I discovered that the guy was a worker in his church, I also discovered that since the two years that they have been apart, he had not taken another wife. After hearing it all, I told her that though she was needed in Togo, I would prefer to intervene in her family and get the family restored rather than send her to Togo. She was disappointed but she couldn’t do anything about it. Sometimes a staffer may not know what is best for himself or herself, it may take someone like you to help to behold the proper perspective.
I got the contact of the husband’s pastor and that of her husband and asked her to leave. After a lot of efforts which took a considerable chunk out of my time, to the glory of God, the family was restored and God has added to the family. Today, the lady and her husband sees me as an instrument that God used to save their home and are so grateful for it. There are so many things you may do to better the lot of your staff which may or may not actually involve money.

ACADEMIC WELFARE.
What of their academic welfare? There are certain things you can do which will advance them academically without hurting your school. I used to tell them that if you are with me for three years and you don’t improve your qualifications, I’ll send you away. Consequently, many of them came in, in those days with school certificate but became graduates after some years with our encouragement. You can do it too.
There was a lady that came in as a nursery helper / bus conductor, it was in our school that we arranged for her to rewrite her school certificate examination, she subsequently went on to obtain NCE and later degree. She grew over the years from being a teaching assistant to nursery teacher to nursery coordinator, assistant Headteacher and eventually the Headteacher of our Nursery and Primary School. When she was leaving to establish her school years later, she did not even give us appropriate notice. In fact she left with fourteen other teachers on the same day! during the period of the worst crisis we have ever experienced as a school. However, it doesn’t really matter, there are many of them that are so grateful for the impact that we had upon their lives so much that even long after they left our school, they are still endeared to us.

EMOTIONAL WELFARE.
Some of them are wounded emotionally, it may be through your interactions with them that you will discover, and be of help. Many of us, because we know that some staff can be treacherous, also become unfriendly, indifferent, and sometimes callous (if I may use that word) Some of them are going through tough times, but kind words may help them to pass through such tough times, especially when it comes from someone like you.
I was discussing with one of our female staff recently in the presence of my wife, and asked her what she was going through. My wife was surprised at such a question but I told her that I noticed that for several days, she had not been her usual self, I perceived that she was going through something. She told us that I was right and started crying, she was almost forty years of age and not yet married. According to her, she saw one of those that they were in school together recently. While she kept herself in those days, the lady was so promiscuous and underwent abortions severally, yet she is now happily married with her own children, whereas she that kept herself is still without even any serious man who is wooing her. We allowed her to pour out her heart before saying anything. I then called her attention to the following scripture

'For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.' (1Cor.13:9)

I made her to realize that I don’t actually know how to console her but a careful look at the scripture above makes us to realize that however knowledgeable you are about your life, you don’t know it all. There are questions about your life or about the life of others that as much as you may try, you may not be able to explain certain things. It takes God to know the whole story.
Secondly I told her that though it is not a desirable situation, there are worse situations. I gave her an example of a vibrant female proprietor who got married, and for several years without any child. The doctors then said she would need to undergo an operation to remove fibroid which she submitted herself for. In the process of the operation, something went wrong which consequently affected her sight as well as made her to become a shadow of her former self as she could not really coordinate herself properly any longer. At the end of the day, the husband eventually married another lady that later had children for him and separated from his wife. Really, nobody would blame him for doing so because of some circumstances surrounding the case. Now, I asked her the question; ‘Would you like to exchange your position with hers?’ In response, she shook her head that she wouldn’t. Yet the woman to which it happened is grateful to God for being alive. She still runs her school with the help of those around her. To demonstrate her appreciation to God, she even has a non governmental organization that takes care of widows. Finally, I pointed her attention to what Job said:

'Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him:..'(Job 13:15)

I used it to encourage her that what is happening to her must not be allowed to affect her spiritual life. If she could continued to trust God despite everything, one day all that are happening to her would become testimony. By then she had brightened up. I then prayed for her and she left with a joyful countenance. (To the glory of God, she is happily married today. Dear proprietor, that could be more than giving out money. There are people who committed su***de because they did not have someone to give them hope through the right words.
Be friendly with your staff, but be firm. They must know the boundary line between your being nice to them and their call to duty.

ASSET ACQUISITION.
Before I talk about salary which is the ultimate source of welfare financially for your staff, let me share some experience of some of the other things we have done to help them which you also may do. In most schools, you may not be able to compete with the government as far as salary is concerned, but there are some ways in which you may help them to ensure that they also achieve what their friends in the public service are achieving. Take for instance land, some years ago, we announced that any member of staff who had spent at least five years was entitled to either a land or car loan. It may appear big to you, but a good percentage of us can do it conveniently. We achieved the land loan by getting land on the outskirts of the town where land was not yet so expensive and giving out plots to the staff who were qualified, to be paid back through their salaries. For several of them, when they were ready to lay the foundation, we donated 500 blocks, one tipper each of granite, sharp and soft sand, just to encourage them to do it. We were also able to get cars for some of the senior officers which they paid back in installments. At your own level, it may not be car but motorcycle or any other equipment that may enhance their lives. The land or vehicle was purchased in the name of the school, to be paid back in some years. It was when they completed the payment that it became their own legally. I noticed that it helped them a lot.
Don’t worry that some will still be ungrateful. There was a particular staff that we were paying full salary while on a full time course for first degree at Tai Solarin University of Education, we bought the land on which he built his residence, we were the one that bought his first car for him on which he paid interest free ridiculously low installments. Can you believe that when he was going to leave, he did not give us one month notice? Apart from leaving unceremoniously, he was still saying ridiculous things about us! Despite all such, you must still think about how to put smile on their faces.

STAFF COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES.
Another way of helping them which we have successfully done is the issue of staff cooperative society, which you must ensure is registered with the government. When we were going to start, I called for a staff meeting and explained to them the advantages of having it. I made them to realize that often when they go to the Bursary to ask for IOU, it is often not convenient for the school, but if we have the cooperative society, it would help everyone. I made it mandatory for every member to contribute a minimum of N2,000 which would be deducted at source from their salary monthly. That was where problem started, with many saying that it should be voluntary, some said they had other cooperative societies while some gave other reasons. At the end of the day, I realized that for the plan to work, I had to make it mandatory so that the funds would grow at a fast rate and secondly so that there wouldn’t be sabotage. I therefore put my feet down that it had become a school policy and that anyone that was not ready to go along with us should consider resigning his or her position. That was how we were able to take off effectively. To encourage them, my wife and I also joined and we made our own contribution so high that there were immediate funds. The staff cooperative reduced the request for IOU and it helped them to be able to achieve quite a number of things including the payment of school fees for those on different courses for which many appreciated us. The assets of the society grew to almost N10 million before the bank loan crisis came and we were initially not able to remit deductions from salaries. I later asked the bursary unit to stop all deductions and we were only doing skeletal services. Recently, it was fully restored to normalcy to the glory of God, and the financial assets growing at a very fast pace.

SALARIES.
Basically, salary is the first consideration of staff anywhere. Once salary is delayed or unpaid, most staff will forget every other good thing which you have done for them. Unfortunately, many of us owe salaries. As proprietors, there are a lot of situations in which we find ourselves which often make salaries to come late;
• Low enrollment.
• Debtors.
• Infrastructural developments.
• Other important school expenses.
• Over staffing.
• Loan repayments.
• Low income during holidays
• Unforeseen circumstances etc.

However, you just need to know that nothing gives your school bad publicity more than unpaid salaries. When you don’t pay salaries, your staff will expose you by buying things on credit and promising their creditors that they will get paid when salaries are paid. You can just multiply the number of your staff with the people that would have inadvertently been told that you are not paying salaries when due! Apart from buying things on credit, they will also complain to one or two people that they are under one form of difficulty or the other because you are owing. Some of those that hear about it from your staff will help to spread it all over. Because those who are speaking ill of your school are not in your shoes, they can open up their mouth and say terrible things about the school probably out of envy. The negative publicity will definitely affect your enrollment and give your competitors an occasion to reduce you. We have been there before, as there was a time that we were owing as much as six months salaries due to complications arising from loan repayments. It was a terrible situation which we could not do anything about at that time. My advice to you will be; DON’T OWE STAFF SALARIES. It’s effect on the image of your school and consequently, the enrollment is devastating. I don’t know how you will achieve it, but please plan and pray towards it. It is better for your salaries to be low than for you to owe.

CONCLUSION.
When you consider all that I have shared above, you will agree with me that staff welfare is not just all about money. It is not just paying salaries and spending money to make staffers happy, but goes much beyond that. However, the payment of salaries must be given prime place because you will actually lose more than you gain, due to the bad publicity that non payment of salaries attract to your school.
God bless you with the idea and resources to pay as at when due in Jesus name!

(Culled from LESSONS IN SCHOOL PROPRIETORSHIP by Dr. Mike Oluniyi)