When you have school teacher vacancies to fill, understandably you want to get the right person for the job – but all too often, it can be difficult to find any talented, enthusiastic candidates with the right qualifications and experience.
There can be any number of reasons for this, but the important thing to remember is that with a well constructed and well-managed teacher recruitment campaign, these obstacles can be overcome.
Some questions to ask yourself include:
How niche is the role?
If you’re trying to recruit into a very narrow discipline or you require a specific type of experience, your candidate pool will be much smaller as a result.
This makes it a matter of ensuring your vacancy stands out as the best opportunity in the area, presenting your school in the best light and targeting the right candidates wherever they may be.
How is the role advertised?
Again, it’s important to stand out among other education recruitment adverts, so put the extra effort into your advertisement.
That doesn’t just include the wording of the ad, although that’s a good start, but also where you advertise – from general job sites to teaching-specific jobs boards and education sector publications.
Have I timed the advert right?
Timing is everything in teacher recruitment campaigns. Those already in the profession have very specific deadlines to resign from their existing role, in order to work their notice period and be available to start a new job at the beginning of the relevant academic year, semester or term.
Recruitment doesn’t happen overnight; it takes time to find the best teaching candidates, from advertising, to shortlisting applicants, to telephone and in-person interviews, to choosing the successful applicant.
Even then you need to allow some contingency time to make sure your chosen candidate is fully secure for the role, or to offer the job to your second choice if the first-choice applicant withdraws.
Bringing talented teachers on-board
Successful candidates need support even after being told they have the job – keeping them informed and up to date helps to keep them engaged and prevent any unnecessary worries.
MAT Recruitment work closely with all of our candidates and employers so that everyone involved knows exactly what stage the application is at.
If you have faced insurmountable challenges with educational recruitment campaigns, speak to MAT about our recruitment health check service and how you can benefit from our advice tailored to your school, teaching staff and current campaigns.
