Recruiting teachers and teaching staff can be costly. And after having read this article in TES on the increasing number of students and decreasing number of pupils, we thought it would be good to share some great ways of recruiting teachers
***STOP the press – July 2018. The long promised free website for advertising teacher vacancies is being piloted in the north east and Cambridgeshire. So if your school is in these areas or you are a teacher looking for a job, this should be the first place to go!***
1. Tell Everyone about it!
The more people hear about your vacancy, the more candidates you will have applying. The strength of a school relies on the brilliant teachers working away. Get the wrong teacher to join your staff and you can upset the whole dynamic of a school.
So the number 1 tip is tell everyone….your family, friends, neighbours, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn,…
2. Don’t hire some that might do – get the right one for your school.
This is the biggest and hardest thing to do.
When you have a vacancy to fill and very few have applied, don’t accept someone that might be okay.
The success of your students, the work life of your colleagues, depends on a cohesive team. The wrong teacher can upset a lot of work and generate a whole load of issues. Better to wait and be sure.
3. Job Ad
Make sure you sell your school.
Sell your school
– What makes your school unique?
– What has been achieved in the last 5 years?
– Don’t avoid a bad Ofsted review, meet it straight on and declare why you’re now an Outstanding school.
– Why its good to be a member of your staff?
Some great Job Adverts are divided into: School, Culture, Person, Responsibilities, Application Process (inc job start date and application closing date) and Salary
Make it easy to apply – post and email addresses.
4. Referrals
Teachers know teachers.
You know teachers. Your family members may be teachers. Your friends might be teachers. You might even be married to a teacher. So might all your staff.
If you are a single form entry primary school, this could be a 1st network of over 20 and a 3rd contact of over 180 teachers!
Why not offer a referral scheme to staff? It doesn’t need to be massively rewarding (how about a £50 Amazon voucher under the new “Trivial Benefits Exemption”).
5. Approach a Supply Teacher
You know them. They have been working with your and other schools for years. Why not have a chat and see if they are interested in becoming a full-time member of your team?
6. Social Media
Facebook is a buzz with Primary Teacher Groups and Twitter has teachers with hundreds and thousands of followers.
Post & Tweet about your vacancy. Ask others to share or pass on to anyone they know that might be interested. You might be surprised who sees the Job and gets in touch!
7. Free Listing Boards
You’ve done the hard work, writing the job specification, now post it everywhere!
Indeed.com is now the most visited job site in the world and listing there is free. There’s no excuse for not advertising any job there. From our experience you particularly reach a global audience of teachers.
Linkedin. It’s free and hundreds of thousands of teachers are on there. Take a look and post your vacancy in a matter of minutes!
All Universities have Job Boards. They are usually free and the best place to find fresh faced graduates and NQTs. Take a look at your local university and see what’s available for free.
8. Application Process
Make the Application Process transparent. No one likes surprises!
Always remember it’s a two-way street. The best candidate may have a number of opportunities at different schools. Your friendliness and professionalism during the application process gives a strong indication as to how your school is run.
9. Advertise
Facebook ad – We think Facebook ads are great once they are up and running. They are also easy enough to setup and get running. You decide what the advert looks like, who to target and how you would like to be charged. The worry comes from all the options.
All the options mean lots more control on who sees your advert and how much it costs!
Facebook allows you to target people who call list their job as “teacher”, or who follow “TES”, within 20 miles of your school. How good is that? So for only £50 over a month you could have your advert shown to 1,000 teachers in your area. Before spending on recruitment agents, be brave – Facebook ads can be great!
Here is a great simple guide with screenshots.
TES and Guardian are good. Everyone knows them. Everyone looks at them. But they cost.
10. Recruitment Agents
This we think is a problem. £75 million per year is leaving education to pay recruitment agents. It’s such a problem the Government have got involved!
We avoid recruitment agents and can’t wait until the officially endorsed portal is up and running.
Remember the portal will only be a success if everyone uses it!
11. Finally the best form of Recruitment is RETENTION.
Recruiting is time consuming, expensive and a pain. Keep your good staff at all costs! Be flexible, build a community and help look after their work life balance!
