Jul 21, 2021
Education Perfect Response
4yI must say I’m pretty taken back and disappointed with this review. In my nine years as a CEO (including two years at Education Perfect) I have not ever had anyone call me out on my own personal values or portray me as a bully. I’m a people leader and I will always remain professional and respectful to all.
At the beginning of 2021 we kicked off a review to reimagine the way the firm produces learning resources. Development of world-class resources continues to be a top priority for Education Perfect, but a new approach is required in line with the firm’s global growth ambitions.
Education Perfect trialed a new delivery model over the last 5 months, as well as looked at other successful EdTech companies. Based on the findings, a new team structure was proposed to the existing Content Team members at the beginning of July, 2021 and a confidential 2-week consultation process was followed to gather feedback on the initial proposal. This concluded last week. This review was posted on the day we announced a restructure of our content team. It was an emotional response to a business decision.
It is always unsettling when these things are announced in a business, but I think it is important I respond to each point in this review just so there is a balanced view/perspective:
This review indicates there have been many large redundancies across multiple departments recently. This isn’t factually correct. EP has hired 100+ people in the last 12-months and we now have 200 EPeeps in the team. We are constantly evolving and growing across the business, and with this comes changes within teams as we continuously improve the way we do things. The only department impacted in this recent restructure is the Content Team and this restructure only impacts 7 of the team, with 3 brand new roles being created and overall a higher investment in this area of the business.
According to NZ law you need to keep any restructure consultation confidential. To state that I or the management team were not being supportive or open and transparent is not accurate. It was important for us to respect the process and ensure we listened to feedback from the impacted team before making a decision and communicating more broadly. I stand by this as we need to be respectful to all the team through the process. We are also being very supportive and generous to anyone being impacted. Far exceeding the government minimum.
Since joining EP I have championed various initiatives including our annual wellness benefit, annual team All Staff event in Dunedin HQ, professional development budget per EPeep, flexible work from home policy, climate club, Ngā Pou Whirinaki (our internal Pillars of Support group), B Corp certification and our recent Rainbow Tick accreditation. I’m passionate about creating change and as we take the journey we need to celebrate the milestones. All my comms were open in our Slack channels for all our EPeeps to see. To be called out as a bully and discriminating is just unfair and I'm being personally targeted when my name is being called out specifically.
Change isn't easy, but you need to do it. Our focus hasn't changed. EP is continually looking to improve the business and set foundations for future growth. We're working in an ever changing education market with COVID and we must continuously improve to stay a market leader. We will continue to invest in the team and hire more during 2021 and 2022. And we will continue to focus on getting the right people in the right roles.
Onwards and upwards, Alex