Not Sure How To Grow Your trust?
Not Sure How To Grow Your Trust?
If you have been looking at how to grow your Trust, you’ll undoubtedly be faced with many often-bewildering options. There can be such a thing as too much choice, and maybe the choices you’re presented with do not seem that appealing or appropriate. So, what do you do then?
The Government’s recent white paper on schools and education strongly emphasised the need for a stronger and fairer school system, and we all know that by growing your MAT, they can be stronger together. But it is not as simple as just recruiting any school to join your trust, or your school merging with any MAT.
Here at Glove, we know how important it is for any merger to be the right choice for both the MAT and the school, and we’re here to help you manage your options and develop a growth and merger strategy. Let’s have a look at how!
Marketing
The first step in growing your MAT or school is to ensure you are an attractive proposition to any potential partners, and for that, you need to develop a marketing strategy to help your organisation stand out from the crowd.
We’re experts at marketing within the education sector, and we know how to develop a strategy that will demonstrate to potential partners the many benefits of partnering with your trust or school. We can build on the already amazing reputation you have built, as well as communicate what future partners will gain from a merger.
It is important to establish what makes your school or MAT unique, and what you can contribute to a potential partnership. This may include gaining from the glowing reputation of your brand from previous and current successes, shared resources such as branding, centralised communications, or existing marketing.
We can revisit your branding to make sure it presents a professional and high-quality message throughout all your existing assets, including all your marketing materials, social media, websites, presentations, and logos.
We also know that your marketing strategy needs to be more than fancy packaging, and we will make sure that your brand is showcased with integrity and honesty. Your marketing strategy will include the shared vision and goals of your brand, and how that is shared and shaped by all members of the organisation, from the board room to support staff.
Organisational and leadership reviews
It is important that to ensure a successful and sustainable merger, you need to look at all the available resources and expertise that can be leveraged. The merger strategy will require a committed and dedicated team to manage the project.
We can help you review your organisational framework to make sure that your brand, trust, or school is being led in the right direction towards common goals with the School Leadership team.
Communication
For any organisation to be a success, effective communication is essential, and never more so than when looking to grow through a merger.
At Glove, we know that communication is the first and most important consideration during the recruitment stage of a merger as well as during the merger process. This applies to both internal and external communications.
Even before any potential partners have been found, you must ensure that all members of your trust and employees are kept appropriately informed about not only what you are planning, but why and when. We strongly recommend that you implement an ‘open door’ policy that maintains transparency and ensures that employees hear about the merger first, and not via rumours.
Maintaining transparency in your internal communications means you will avoid any misunderstandings, confusion and anxiety caused by rumours, and ensuring that staff are kept in the loop and free to ask any questions will mean that they will be on board and supportive of the merger.
We can help you develop a strategy that will clearly communicate why a merger is being sought, and how it will benefit the brand, the employees, and the students. This might include sorted resources and best practice methods, exciting new opportunities arising from collaboration, and improved teaching and learning via enhanced teaching skills and new mentoring programmes.
We can help you develop a knowledge base that can help answer most anticipated questions and enquiries to provide reassurance, as well as further maintaining transparency and ensuring staff feel their concerns are being heard, addressed, and valued.
We can also help with engagement and consulting with the local community, who will also have concerns about how a merger will affect them. This will certainly include the parents of current and future students and maintaining effective communications will help encourage parents to enroll their children in the school after a successful merger.
With our help, a robust communications strategy will further demonstrate to potential partners the culture and relationship that your brand has with its members, employees, and the wider community.
An effective communications strategy will help quickly mitigate any harmful rumors, which could otherwise impact the performance and motivation of employees, and help emphasise the positive aspects of a merger to everyone affected.
Get expert help and advice when you need it
As mentioned, for a successful merger, it makes sense to ensure you have all the resources and expertise available to hand. As well as your own dedicated and committed team to manage the project, seek expert help from an outside source with experience in MAT mergers and growth.
At Glove, we can help with:
MAT growth and merger strategies
Organisational and leadership reviews
Strategic communications and marketing
Brand development and implementation
Stakeholder engagement and communications
Community consultation
Vision and values development
Crisis PR and media management advice and training
And much more!
If you neglect to leverage all the resources available to you, then you risk failing to achieve sustainable growth or finding a suitable and successful merger that benefits your stakeholders, employees, and students.
If you’re looking for growth strategies for your school or MAT that fit like a Glove, then come and have a chat with us today!