You have multiple candidates that have applied to your job posting. Now what?
It’s time to learn how to manage your applicant talent pipeline.
After all, hiring the best teachers for the role will impact the stability and well-being of your school and students’ learning.
The key is to hire smarter, ensuring that recruitment is made smoother and easier for everyone involved.
The 2022 International Recruitment Report was created to help international schools better understand the market and what today’s job-seeking candidates are searching for.
Did you know that poor communication is one of the top reasons why candidates will say no to working for you?
Today’s generations are used to the fast communication processes of social media, which results in instantaneous responses.
A process that involves multiple interviews, lengthy assessments, and missed phone calls could hinder the recruitment experience!
Here are 4 of the best practices to consider when sorting through your teacher applicant pipeline, ensuring you hire the best candidate for the role.
- Re-examining the hiring process
- Speeding it up
- Communicating next steps
- Re-evaluating the onboarding experience
1. Re-examining the hiring process
It’s time to re-examine your entire interview process.
Do you have established protocol and steps to follow once a qualified candidate has applied to your job posting?
The report findings suggest that 62% of candidates expect an interview to be set up within two weeks of their application.
When asked what the ideal interview process was, 66% preferred online interviews versus in-person.
Pay attention to what candidates desire, and remember that as much as you are interviewing them, they are also interviewing you.
How are you ‘selling’ the job opportunity to work with your school? This can include building rapport with prospective candidates and maintaining consistent communication (before and after the interview stage).
2. Speeding it up
Time efficiency is integral to this entire process.
How long does it take from the moment that a candidate sends their resume to the point that they are hired?
With too many delays and misinformation, teachers will become bored and get recruited by another school that has a smoother hiring process.
And so, here are three tips to ensure that you are properly managing your applicant talent pool:
- Eliminate phone screens and replace them with pre-recorded video interviews. This will also cut back on time spent meeting with unqualified candidates.
- Implement an interview scheduling software. This will offer selected candidates the ability to self-schedule their interviews, online.
- Create easy access to candidate data. It’s important that the recruitment team can access all online candidate data with ease.
3. Communicating the next steps
When your communication is off, candidates can begin to feel alienated from the hiring process.
This will lead them to become disinterested in you as a potential school and you will lose out on a potentially wonderful teacher.
International schools can work to improve their quality of communication with candidates by proactively reaching out to them about how the hiring process is proceeding and informing them of any potential delays.
Remember, you don’t want to wait too long to communicate these next steps!
Poor communication is the top reason why a candidate will say no to working with you.
As soon as a teacher has sent a job application, create an automated email that acknowledges their application has been received and what the next steps are.
Be sure to personalize the standardized email with their name and keep them updated at least once a week about the process.
This will ensure candidates are engaged, helping them better understand the hiring process, where they stand and what they can expect.
The 2022 report disclosed that 67% of respondents chose email as their source of communication from a job application.
Make sure that your school is communicative, even if it means sending a rejection email.
The last thing you want to do is “ghost” a prospective candidate.
Teaching candidates are spending countless hours filling out the applications, polishing their resumes, and writing custom cover letters. Putting yourself in their shoes, how frustrated would you feel if you never hear back at any stage of the hiring process?
Mindfulness and responsiveness will create a better reputation for your school, in the grand scheme of things.
And turning candidates down is a natural part of the recruitment and hiring process.
It could even be done through an automated email to all candidates who were not qualified for this particular position.
The internet is full of comments from job applicants that felt they were treated poorly, don’t allow your school’s name to be thrown into the mix.
4. Re-evaluating the onboarding experience
Is your onboarding process engaging to new teachers?
The onboarding is the time gap between a teacher having accepted the offer and their first day at the school.
Don’t underestimate the importance of this period.
You want to ensure that onboarding is positive, easy, and informative.
This is an orientation period, as opposed to overwhelming the new hire with every last piece of paperwork.
Show that you care and are excited about the new employees that are joining the team! Stay in contact with them before their start date, whether it’s through email or another form of quick message.
Check-in with their needs, as they are setting themselves up for a new position with your school.
Hiring the best candidates
Creating the perfect job posting and enticing candidates to apply is a small part of the process.
To hire and retain the best teachers, you must manage your talent applicant pipeline with a lot of ease and communication.
What processes do you currently have set up in order to do this?
The tips and practices mentioned here are a great place to start.
You can read more from the International Education Recruitment Report, here.
Remember, there isn’t one cookie-cutter solution for everyone. Contact us at Teach Away today and let a specialist tailor the perfect recruitment strategy for your school’s specific needs.