Hiring 101: Recruitment Strategy Tips for Schools
Quick look: With the increasing competition in the educational job market, many schools are rethinking their recruitment strategies. In this blog, our experts provide proven tips to help schools attract top talent and hold more meaningful interviews with the right candidates.
Teachers, administrators, and staff are the backbone of any great school community. They help create safe, supporting learning environments, and open the door to new academic opportunities. But as the job market shifts, schools are finding it increasingly challenging to attract and hire passionate, education-focused professionals.
However, a strong recruitment strategy can make all the difference when it comes to building an outstanding team. Use the following tips to personalize and improve your hiring process.
Adopt diverse sourcing strategies
The wider your candidate pool, the better your chances of finding top-tier talent. Still, standing out takes more than just posting a job online; it requires a creative approach. Try these sourcing strategies to expand your reach and attract a more diverse range of applicants.
Leverage online job boards and social media
With so many online platforms available, it’s easier than ever to share job openings. Make the most of sites like Indeed and ZipRecruiter by turning open roles into sponsored posts. Including a thorough job description highlighting experience, key skills, salary ranges, and other details helps set expectations and build trust with applicants.
Social media is another valuable recruitment tool, with 79% of job seekers stating they’re likely to use it to search for new roles. Platforms like LinkedIn offer great opportunities to connect by joining or creating groups focused on education, teaching communities, and hiring. It’s an effective way for recruiting teams to reach experts and enthusiasts who are either actively job searching or can refer someone who is.
Schools may also consider engaging with emerging talent on Handshake, a career platform and job search tool primarily for college students and recent graduates. Gain their attention by advertising career events, student teaching openings, and other opportunities on the platform.
Utilize an applicant tracking system (ATS)
A comprehensive recruitment strategy builds connections with all candidates, not just those chosen for an open position. An ATS like iCIMS, Greenhouse, Bamboo, and Bullhorn supports this approach by monitoring each applicant’s journey throughout the hiring cycle. With this software, your school can:
- Keep a database of past hires, current talent networks, and potential candidates for future roles
- Develop automated drip campaigns centered on high-level information like internal opportunities, culture spotlights, and introductory details
- Streamline the application process to maximize engagement
- Measure recruiting insights to review hiring trends, timelines, and personas
- Improve internal collaboration by reviewing resumes, coordinating interviews, and providing candidate feedback in one centralized platform
Conduct outreach to alumni and your local communities
Find talented individuals right in your neighborhood by partnering with local universities, trade programs, and other professional businesses. Alumni programs are also a great way to bring graduates into your talent pool, a networking tactic that can help teams generate up to 17% of all hires. These relationships can create a steady stream of candidates while enhancing your school’s reputation in the community.
Encourage employee referrals
Your best recruitment resources are already on staff. An employee referral program invites current team members to recommend professionals in their personal network for open roles. Motivate participation with referral acceptance reminders and generous incentives like bonuses or gift cards.
Well-executed referrals can lead to more successful candidate pooling and hiring. Stronger talent retention is also possible since 45% of referred hires stay longer than four years.
Host on-site job fairs
On-site job fairs are a convenient way to connect with potential candidates and showcase your school’s culture. These events provide a forum for applicants to interact with staff members, attend discussion panels, experience the community, and meet with management and leadership teams. Additionally, hiring managers can kickstart the process by having face-to-face interviews with willing participants right on the spot!
Improve candidate quality and retention-focused hiring
After refining your sourcing channels, it’s time to select the hires to remain long-term employees. Keep the following tips in mind to help you weigh both the applicant’s quality and retention potential.
Define the “right fit”
A standout candidate brings more to the table than just handling day-to-day classroom responsibilities. They are interested in maturing within their role, boosting productivity for fellow staff, and contributing to big picture goals.
That’s why it’s so important to think beyond qualifications and ask: Is this person the right fit for our school community?
Here are some traits many schools look for:
- Adaptability and resilience when facing shifting responsibilities and challenges
- Collaborative with others
- Strong problem-solving skills
- Prioritizes student growth, learning, and well-being
- Commitment to equity and inclusion
Customize your hiring criteria to ensure candidates’ experience and mindsets match your school’s mission, vision, and culture. Here are a few tips to help you better select new hires.
Create a hiring scorecard
When multiple people are involved in interviews, having a shared performance baseline is key. A hiring scorecard helps everyone stay aligned and focused on what really matters for the role.
Tailor your scorecard to reflect the specific technical skills and behavioral traits needed for each position. Here are a few examples to get started:
- Teachers: Innovative teaching practices, classroom management proficiency, cultural awareness, student engagement methods, and a passion for lifelong learning
- Administrators: Strong leadership qualities, trust-building, policy implementation and maintenance, regulatory compliance, budgeting efficiency, and team collaboration
- Support staff: Multitasking abilities, dependability, interpersonal skills, and familiarity with school operations and protocols
Standardize the interview process
A clear interview structure helps hiring managers reduce bias, encourage candidate engagement, and save time.
Start by outlining who’s involved at each step of the hiring process, from application review to final decision-making. As you define these roles, assign focus areas so each team member knows what they’re evaluating.
Next, develop a set of standardized questions based on the role’s responsibilities and your school’s definition of the “right fit.” This consistency helps make interview feedback more cohesive.
And don’t forget to bring the open role to life. Use real-world scenarios, mock situations, and behavioral questions to spark conversations and give candidates a sense of what to expect on the job.
Optimize assessment tools
Skills matter—and assessment tools, which are resources used during the hiring process to objectively measure a candidate’s skills, knowledge, and behavioral traits, can provide extra clarity about an applicant’s strengths beyond just what’s on their resume. In fact, 79% of HR professionals say that scores on skills assessments are just as or more important than traditional criteria for hiring decisions.
These tools can help you spot top talent, reduce employee turnover, and build a team equipped to meet your school’s unique needs.
Here are two popular options in the education space:
- The Predictive Index (PI): Measures cognitive and behavioral traits to predict on-the-job performance. Schools can use its insights during the screening process to evaluate an individual’s working styles, critical thinking skills, and other abilities.
- Haberman Star Teacher Pre-Screener: Identifies educators who are most likely to succeed in challenging, diverse, and high-need school environments. Its data helps improve retention and better outcomes for schools with underserved communities.
Empower your talent with SchoolCloud™
Hiring the right people is just the beginning. The real magic happens when you give them the tools and resources they need to succeed.
ExtensisHR’s SchoolCloud™ makes that possible. Designed specifically for schools, it combines expert HR support with powerful technology to help your team thrive.
With SchoolCloud™, your school benefits from:
- A smart, automated platform for managing tasks, documents, communication, and workflows
- A dedicated School Account Manager and single point of contact support team that understands your school’s needs, challenges, and goals
- Full-service HR, including payroll, benefits, compliance, and risk management
- Competitive benefits packages, including medical, life insurance, and family-forming support
- Access to 200+ professional development training modules from Vector Solutions
Whether you’re supporting a brand-new hire or a seasoned team member, SchoolCloud™ takes the pressure off so your staff can focus on brightening students’ educational futures.
Contact us today to learn how ExtensisHR helps resolve the unique HR challenges impacting your school staff.
