Are Colleges Underpaying Their Most Difficult to Recruit Leaders?

Much has been written about pay in Further Education over recent years. It remains a contentious subject, with most discussions focusing on Principal remuneration or the salaries of frontline staff. But there is another issue that deserves greater attention: whether colleges are paying enough to attract and retain the senior leaders who keep their organisations running.

Over the last few years, Principal salaries have generally increased as boards sought to attract and retain high-calibre leaders during a period of unprecedented challenge. At the same time, colleges have rightly prioritised pay increases for wider staff groups wherever budgets have allowed – yet somewhere in the middle, a gap appears to have emerged.

Across the sector, colleges are increasingly finding it difficult to recruit and retain senior leaders in areas such as finance, estates, HR and IT. These are critical leadership roles, often carrying significant organisational responsibility, but in many cases, salaries have not kept pace with the wider market.

Part of this challenge can be traced back to the Covid period. During a time of uncertainty, many senior leaders accepted pay restraint while institutions focused understandably on protecting jobs and supporting the wider workforce. As pay awards gradually returned, priority was often given to broader staff groups, which while entirely understandable, the result may have been the creation of a salary lag that is now becoming more apparent. Unlike Principals and CEOs, these appointments are rarely subject to the same level of scrutiny by governing boards – pay decisions are often shaped by historic structures and internal precedents rather than external market realities.

The challenge is that FE is a relatively small sector and relies heavily on attracting talented professionals from elsewhere. A Director of Finance may be comparing opportunities with a university, NHS trust, local authority, MAT or private sector employer. The same applies to leaders in estates, HR and technology, when equivalent roles elsewhere can command £10,000, £15,000 or even £20,000 more, colleges inevitably face a smaller pool of candidates. This is not simply a recruitment issue, it is also a retention issue.

Salary benchmarking, pay structures and internal pay ratios all have an important role to play. Financial constraints are real, and colleges cannot always match salaries offered elsewhere, but they do need a clear understanding of the market in which they are competing, the risks associated with losing key people and the cost of struggling to replace them.

FE is only as strong as the people it can attract and retain, and a Principal or CEO can only be as effective as the leadership team around them, so it may be time for more colleges to take a closer look at whether their senior leadership pay structures reflect the responsibilities these roles carry and the realities of today’s recruitment market.

If your college is finding it difficult to recruit or retain senior leaders, or you want to understand how your pay compares with the wider market, contact Paul Aristides at Anderson Quigley for an informal conversation and insight into current sector trends: paul.aristides@andersonquigley.com or visit our stand at the AoC conference, main hall.