In a vignette survey, teachers in primary, secondary and post-secondary vocational education were asked whether they would like to work more hours − with and without incentives. The survey shows that their willingness to do so can be increased to varying degrees by offering them bonuses, additional employee benefits and a combination of both.

Why this experiment was conducted: teacher shortages
The government has identified significant staff shortages in primary and secondary education. It is prepared to do everything possible to reduce these shortages. One way to address this issue is to encourage teachers to work more hours by offering them a bonus. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science wanted to find out relatively quickly which additional hours bonus options were expected to be more or less effective, including in terms of cost. And to what extent this relates to the effectiveness of certain additional employee benefits, or a combination of bonus plus employee benefits.

Types of intervention: bonuses, employee benefits and a combination of both
Various additional hours bonus options were presented, both separately and in combination with one or more employee benefits (see image 21). The interventions were as follows:
• a net bonus of 150, 250 or 400 euros per month for one extra day's work per week, on top of the additional salary that is normal for working more hours
• a bonus lasting for one, three or five years
• employee benefit 1: teachers can flexibly schedule the extra hours to suit their private needs and obligations, e.g. starting a little later or taking days of outside school holidays
• employee benefit 2: free childcare is available for the extra hours
• employee benefit 3: there is opportunity to use the extra hours for activities other than teaching-related duties, e.g. school development, coordination or fulfilling an expert role

Method used: vignette survey
The survey asked 11,000 primary, secondary and post-secondary vocational education teachers about their intentions with regard to working more hours (the baseline condition). They were then presented with several vignettes asking: in this case, how likely is it that you would decide to work half a day or one day more? Each teacher was randomly presented with 6 out of a total of 40 different vignettes.

Result obtained: additional hours bonus can significantly enhance the intention to work more hours
A significant proportion of teachers are responsive to a bonus as an incentive to work more hours. The higher the bonus, the greater the intention to work additional hours. Bonuses have a significant effect in particular in the subgroup of teachers who initially do not show this intention (70.5% of all surveyed teachers working up to 4 days a week). If a bonus of 400 euros a month is offered, 33-40% of them are willing to work one day more a week; the exact percentage depends on how long the bonus lasts for (1, 3 or 5 years). If a 250 euro bonus is offered, the figure is between 18% and 26%. If a 150 euro bonus is offered, the figure drops to between 7% and 14%. Therefore, the length of the bonus has less effect than the bonus amount. See figure 24. In terms of employee benefits, being able to flexibly schedule work to suit personal commitments has the greatest effect: 33% of teachers then are willing to work one day more. This is followed by the opportunity to perform non-teaching duties (27%) and free childcare (18%, since this only appeals to teachers caring for children). It can therefore be concluded that additional employee benefits are also effective in motivating teachers to work more hours.

Impact: working document for schools
The results of the vignette survey are included in a working document for schools/school boards wishing to experiment with an additional hours bonus. This is expected to be useful to them, enabling them to shape optimum policies, including in terms of cost, in line with the teacher shortage they are experiencing, the size of their budget and their level of support.

Source: https://www.binnl.nl/home+-+en/knowledge/publications/bin+nl+publications/HandlerDownloadFiles.ashx?idnv=2719979