Four ways MATs can rebuild staff engagement
Ask most people who work in a school why they stay, and the answer is usually the pupils. Ask whether they feel connected to the trust that employs them, and the answer is often less certain.
At Reward Gateway Edenred, our research has confirmed this reality by finding that 64% of employees feel more committed to their work than to their employer. For Multi-Academy Trusts, that gap is costly. Replacing an employee earning £25,000 or more can cost upwards of £30,000 (Oxford Economics), and 42% of teachers have left the state sector within ten years of qualifying (DfE).
Here are four practical ways HR teams can start to build engagement that sticks to drive both retention and performance.
1. Make recognition personal – and make it scale
Our research shows 93% of employees in schools say feeling appreciated matters, and 69% say recognition makes them more loyal. The most meaningful recognition is tied to what staff actually influence: a pupil's progress, a safeguarding concern handled well, a site kept running through a difficult week. Those outcomes rarely belong to one person, so celebrate the teamwork across teaching, pastoral, admin and operations.
Recognise sustained effort under pressure, such as an inspection or a merger, not just results. For trusts spread across many sites, digital and peer-to-peer recognition lets colleagues thank each other across schools without a roadshow or extra budget.
2. Rethink benefits: centralise and personalise
Consolidation and acquisition by trusts often leaves them with a patchwork of legacy employee engagement and recognition and reward schemes that staff don't know about or don't use. Those employees also have individual needs that need to be recognised. Early-career teachers managing student debt, mid-career teachers with a young family and support colleagues nearing retirement will all want different things.
Shaping benefits around those groups, and bringing them into one place staff can actually find, raises their perceived value without raising spend.
3. Treat cost-of-living support as retention
Financial stress is now one of the biggest reasons people leave schools. Low-cost measures go further than you might expect: salary sacrifice for cycle to work, electric vehicles or home tech and everyday discounts that can save staff 10–15%. They cost the trust little and matter most to early-career staff, who are the most likely to leave.
4. Build wellbeing into how the trust runs
The Confederation of School Trusts' 2025 report ranks staff wellbeing as MAT leaders' second workforce priority, behind professional development. Our own research reflects the value of this focus: 77% of employees say support and recognition improve their performance.
In practice, that means wellbeing support that covers financial, physical and mental health. It also means listening more often than one annual survey then visibly acting on what you hear.
The bigger picture
None of this replaces fair pay or a manageable workload. But when staff feel appreciated and supported in ways that fit their lives, the commitment they already feel to their pupils is far more likely to extend to the trust and to keep them there.
Come and talk to us at the show
Reward Gateway|Edenred works with more than 70 MATs and 60,000 education employees on recognition, benefits and wellbeing. We'll be at the Schools & Academies Show, NEC Birmingham, on 18–19 November 2026 (Stand M5). Come and find us to talk through what you're seeing in your trust
Read the research behind this article: Public Sector Engagement: A Reality Check.