The Do’s and Don’ts of Staff Recruitment

The recruitment and retention of staff has always posed a significant challenge for any organisation, and education is no different. Yet today, the UK’s education sector continues to face long-standing issues and pressures that are further exacerbating the difficulty that recruitment can present. Many teachers and education staff have voiced concerns in recent years over low salaries and heavy workloads, an issue that recently culminated in a number of strikes throughout the UK. Eduprise are here to offer some valuable school recruitment tips.

While this issue has been debated for several years, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been significant; not only have education staff shouldered a huge responsibility to ensure the continuous delivery of high-quality education to our children, but school closures and disrupted teacher training have resulted in increased stress and burnout, leading some teachers to leave the profession altogether.

There are, however, signs of change. Planned strike action has been called off in recent weeks as pay negotiations were resumed between government and unions, with proposals for increased pay already agreed in Scotland.

Moreover, the Education Committee has now launched a new inquiry into teacher recruitment, training and retention, which will look into the main factors causing difficulties and assess the impact of financial incentives, attempts to reduce workloads, and mental health support.

And while the wider education context remains uncertain, there are many things that schools and educational institutions can do to tackle the challenges they face, and attract and retain the best staff possible. By implementing effective recruitment strategies and creating a positive working environment for their employees, schools can improve staff retention rates and build a team of dedicated educators.

School Recruitment Tips

In this blog post, we will explore the do’s and don’ts of staff recruitment in education, taking a look at some of the top tips and insights for schools and educational institutions on how to attract the best talent, foster a positive work environment, and retain staff.

Do: Promote your school or Trust’s working environment and ethos

Before you even start to think about recruiting for specific vacancies, make sure you are clearly advertising how wonderful your school is. Highlight the positive environment you create for staff, including the support that is available to them, and the environment and culture that your school promotes. Potential recruits are far more likely to be interested in your school if you’re able to showcase a positive working environment.

Next, make sure potential new staff members are aware of how you can support their career development. Continuous professional development is a huge area of interest to most candidates, and they’ll want to know what the future could look like for them at your school.

Plus, don’t forget to include information about staff wellbeing! There is a growing awareness of the impact that wellbeing in the workplace can have on our overall health and mental wellness, so make sure your staff understand the value that you place on this.

Don’t: Neglect your website

Your website is a central repository of information, and not just for parents and students. Make sure that all the information you need to make potential new recruits aware of is given on the website, and is clearly signposted.

What’s more, new staff members will want to know about the school they are going to be working in, so make sure to shout about everything that makes your school great! Talk about how staff work together to support pupils in achieving their best, and the ways they can contribute to the positive development of soft skills and wellbeing in pupils too.

Do: Use multiple channels to advertise your vacancies

There are many channels that spring to mind when you think about applying for a new job. Perhaps the first are the big-name job sites, such as Reed, Indeed and Monster. Then, of course, there are specialist education recruitment sites, such as Tes and eTeach that are proven to be well-liked by teachers searching for jobs.

However, it’s important to realise the potential of social media. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook can be great in getting the news of your vacancy out on widely-used networks, and LinkedIn is a powerful tool for careers information and professional networking.

While so many different channels can feel a bit like a minefield, accessing as many as possible will help to spread your vacancy far and wide to a much larger audience – giving you the best possible chance to find the perfect candidate!

Don’t: Leave it to the last minute

It’s critical to give yourself plenty of time to attract the right applicant(s). The recruitment process can be lengthy, and you want to give yourself the best chance of one of the candidates in this process being the right one for the job.

If you limit the timescale you give to promoting the vacancy too much, you’re limiting yourself to a smaller pool of candidates, which in turn increases the risk of missing the best people.

Do: Keep up consistent, positive communication

It can seem like a huge undertaking to commit to delivering communications to a regular schedule throughout the school year, particularly if staff already have a large workload. However, doing so can be critical to the success of your marketing campaigns.

Think about how you can keep your website updated throughout the year. In particular, keep it brimming with good news stories from staff and students alike, and make sure that everything you publish accurately and clearly reflects the environment and culture of your school.

The next step is the most important part – don’t leave all that great news on your website for people to stumble on by chance, talk about it! Use your social media platforms and local community press to boost the positive reputation of your school and make sure everyone knows just how fantastic you are.

Don’t: Forget about the impact of year-round communication

We know it could be tough to find the time to keep communication consistent throughout the year, but the impact can be incredible.

A commonly overlooked school recruitment tip is creating and maintaining the positive reputation of your school. You have the foundations for any effective campaign in the future – including recruitment, admissions, income generation, parental engagement and beyond.

If you’re struggling to find the time and capacity to maintain consistent communications, consider outsourcing. Using an external team of experts can have a wide range of benefits; you can access a much wider breadth of specialist knowledge and diversify what is possible to achieve within your communications plan, gain an important external perspective, shorten turnaround times, and massively reduce the burden on your own staff.

Make Your Recruitment Campaign Top of the Class

When faced with the many teacher recruitment challenges, you need experienced heads. At Eduprise, we excel at creating school recruitment campaigns that attract the most talented candidates. Our team uses the best school marketing strategies to give schools a real competitive advantage.

To boost your school’s teacher recruitment plan, contact the Eduprise team today.