The last few weeks have seen Teach Away across the globe, at events from Santo Domingo to Bangkok.
To anyone who wasn’t able to attend one of our speaking sessions, here is the short version. It’s a plan to help schools find and keep their best teachers, taken from the data of thousands of teachers across our network. It’s three sections, three numbers each, and one action per section that you could do this week.
Recruit: they are researching you before you ever see their CV
Two thirds of teachers (67%) start their search on a job board, and they use it to research schools as much as to find roles. By the time an application lands, they have already read your careers page, your posts and whatever else turns up. Three quarters are now using some kind of AI tool to do that research for them, which is worth sitting with for a moment.
The number I keep coming back to is the tie-breaker. Two schools, same city, same package. What tips it? A school’s approach to professional development and career growth (23%), ahead of academic reputation (18%). When everyone can match on salary, how you grow your teachers is the thing that separates you.
And then the unglamorous bit: the job post itself. 82% say qualification expectations are crucial, 74% want the actual salary figure, and 63% treat flights, housing and leave as deciding factors. Plenty of schools still post “competitive salary” with no number. That is a one-line change that moves applications.
One more. Teachers are fine with AI in the hiring process, as long as a human stays visible. Tell them you use it, and make sure a person is reachable at every stage.
This week: open your current job post. Does it answer those four questions without the candidate having to email you? If not, that is the fix.
Develop: it used to be a cost line, now it’s a powerful incentive
Development has quietly become the strongest recruitment lever a school has, and the cheapest retention one. 91% of teachers would consider a school that offers an in-person licensure or development pathway, and the most common reason they haven’t got licensed yet is cost. PD and career growth is also a top-four reason teachers stay in the profession at all, behind only purpose and the kids.
The candidate pool backs this up. 35% of the teachers on our platform have 11 or more years’ experience, and 17% are brand new. You can hire for stability and for fresh ideas at the same time, but both groups are asking the same question at interview: how will I grow here?
The example I keep coming back to is JFK, the American School of Querétaro in Mexico. Their local hires knew their subjects inside out and weren’t going anywhere, which is the dream. What they didn’t have was formal teacher training, and hiring alone couldn’t fix that. So they ran our Teacher Development Programme with two groups of local teachers.
What I like most is how it spreads. One teacher finishes a unit, tries it in her own classroom, then presents it at the monthly staff workshop. After the flipped-classroom unit, Claudia restructured her Grade 7 classes and is now mentoring two colleagues who want to do the same. One cohort, and the whole department moves.
A small aside from the data: more than half of teachers are already using AI in their work with no training at all. If you are building a PD programme this year, that is a sensible first module.
This week: can you describe how a teacher grows at your school in one paragraph? If not, that paragraph is the job. Then put it in the job post and say it at interview.
Retain: keeping good teachers is the best recruitment tool you have
60% of teachers have seriously thought about taking their skills to another industry. The reasons they give are low salaries, burnout, limited career progression, not enough support from leadership and ongoing classroom challenges. Four of those five are within a school’s control.
Here is the bit that surprises most heads. When teachers rank what keeps them at a particular school, pay comes third. Safe, healthy, sustainable working conditions come first, and adequate support and staffing second. The school down the road is not only winning on salary, whatever it feels like.
On money, the headline is that the package decides, not the number. 80% say salary is very or extremely important, but 75% would give up some salary for a better benefits package. Health insurance, housing, relocation support and flights are what they weigh up, and a lot of them will trade cash for stability. Show the whole offer in one place at offer stage, including the development you fund. Half your competitors still hide it.
And onboarding starts long before August. Visa help is the single most useful thing you can do before arrival (48% put it first), and 84% would like some kind of virtual onboarding before they land. After arrival, a proper school orientation and a named mentor are what they value most. The silent weeks between offer and visa are where good hires quietly get cold feet.
This week: give every new hire a named mentor, and share the onboarding plan at offer stage rather than in August.
If you take one sentence back with you: the schools that develop their teachers find it easier to hire great ones, and keep them. Hiring gets them in the door. Development and support keep them there, and make the next hire easier.
I’d love to know which of the three is your gap right now. Recruit, develop or retain? Drop it in the comments or send me a message.
Teach Away will be at EARCOS in Bangkok, IB in Lyon and AISA in Nairobi over the next few weeks. Come and find us, tell me where I’ve got this wrong, or drop me an email.