Too many early career teachers (ECTs) leave the profession too early because they feel not enough prepared for their jobs or receive too little support and guidance during the first years of their careers (HelmsLorenz et al., 2013). This is problematic, especially in the light of the continuously increasing teachers shortages schools are facing worldwide (OECD, 2018).

Educational institutes thus increasingly implement induction programs, referring to bundles of activities and remedies aimed at accelerating teachers’ professional development and enculturation in their schools (Green, 2015). These remedies comprise optimal working conditions (like workload reduction) as well as rich learning opportunities (e.g. availability of a personal coach).
Induction programs appear effective; these indeed accelerate ECTs’ competence development, increase their self-efficacy and job satisfaction (Harmsen et al., 2019).

However, support and guidance are not the only factors that guarantee a ‘smooth landing’. That is, the way ECTs experience their jobs is, for example, also influenced by the recruitment and selection procedures, offered career opportunities and payment. Hence, retaining ECTs is also a matter of good personnel policy (Kutsyuruba et al., 2019). The current paper therefore explores how induction can be embedded in HRM (human resources management) policies and practices which are explicitly targeted at attracting, retaining, developing and rewarding teachers in such a way that it results in optimal teacher and school performance (Runhaar, 2017). 

During the presentation, we will first explain how induction can be conceptualized as part of HRM. We hereto base ourselves on the AMO theory of performance (Appelbaum et al., 2001), which states that employee performance is a function of: their abilities (A); their motivation (M) and the opportunities they are offered to exert their expertise (O). We will present a set of thirteen indicators schools should take into account in the appointment of ECTs, such as: a timely recruitment and selection; strict distinction among their guidance and performance assessment; differentiation among ECTs. The underlying assumption is that HRM is only effective in case different HRM practices are aligned to each other (see, for example, Boselie et al., 2021).

Secondly, we will present data gathered by means of an online reflection instrument (called the Startwijzer; see Runhaar et al., 2024) containing the above mentioned set of indicators. This instrument was spread across primary, secondary and vocational schools in The Netherlands and filled out by different actors: e.g. the ECT’s themselves, their coaches, team leaders, HR officers etc. The instrument thus not only enables schools to get an insight into how the landing of their ECTs can be smoothened by improving and aligning certain HRM- and induction-related aspects, but also into how these aspects are perceived by different actor groups.

The latter is important given that HRM is only effective if the perceived HRM (in our case ECTs' and their coaches' experiences with induction and other HRM practices) aligns with the intended HRM (referring to the induction programs and other relevant HRM practices such as recruitment and selection as developed by HRM officers) and the implemented HRM (i.e. the execution of HRM practices, often done by school-  or team leaders) (cf. Nishii et al., 2018). 

The  paper focuses on the following research questions:

1. How do respondents rate the thirteen indicators of a smooth landing of ECTs?

2. What explanations do respondents provide for their ratings?

3. To what degree (a) and how (b) do different actors differ in their ratings and explanations?

The reflection instrument ‘Startwijzer’ was filled out by 941 respondents working in Dutch schools for primary (n=44), secondary (n=822) and vocational (n=75) education. first invites respondents to choose their role (with 1 = starting teacher; 2 = coach; 3 = HRM officer; 4 = team leader; 5 = school leader) and fill in the name of their school, to allow aggregating results at school level. For our analyses, the names of schools were anonymized by replacing the names with numbers. No personal data were gathered. In the reflection instrument respondents were informed about our usage of the instrument and gave their consent for that. The instrument devotes one page to each indicator. First a short description is provided, accompanied with some concrete suggestions and a fictitious example of how to implement it. After reading all this information for the specific indicator, respondents can give a score (on a three-point-Likert-scale where 1 = ‘not in order’, 2 = ‘doubt’ and 3 = ‘in order’) to indicate to what extent the particular indicator has been realized in their school (i.e. quantitative value) and provide an explanation for their score (i.e. qualitative explanation). During the presentation, an example of how indicators and related questions were presented will be provided. Quantitative data (to answer research questions 1 and 3a) were processed in SPSS: the average scores on indicators were calculated by means of frequencies and descriptives. To explore possible differences among actors, non-parametric tests were done because of the ordinal nature of the variables (Kruskall Wallis and Mann Whitney test). Qualitative data (related to research questions 2 and 3b) were used to analyze the explanations respondents gave related to their scores. This was done in a narrative and thematic way (Riessman, 2008).

In line with earlier findings of comparable data we derived from the Startwijzer (Runhaar e.a. 2024), we expect to find differences across actors' ratings, with school leaders and team leaders showing relatively higher ratings compared to other actors and with HRM officers showing relatively lower ratings. How actors differ in their explanations is to be explored. Based on the above mentioned former study it is to be expected that differences will exist among the informal and the formal ways of doing, for example when policy is not put into practice as intended due to practical issues, such as workload or scheduling/ planning problems, or due to the fact that certain practices do not meet starting teachers' or their coaches' needs. We expect to formulate concrete recommendations for practice. In addition, the analyses and the theoretical foundation of the Startwijzer reflection instrument will demonstrate that advancing the field of early career teachers’ guidance benefits from integrating induction theory with HRM theory.

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