1. 15British International Schools • June 2015
Whichever conference you go to, it is impossible to
get away from the statistics that show that there
is a looming teacher shortage crisis for international
schools, indeed schools across the globe. British and other
international schools can no longer rely on their traditional
methods and sources of recruitment: they need to look
at how other industries bridge the shortage of talent in
their companies.
This means moving away from a negative hiring cycle
where employers react to immediate needs, which leads to
a solution that is temporary at best or finding“a square peg
in a round hole”. This cycle continues with firing the wrong
people for the wrong job.
Ideally, all employers want a successful and positive
hiring cycle which reduces time and money in the
recruitment process, increases the longevity of their
employees’time at the school and increases their
productivity/usefulness effect/impact.
Easy does it
It sounds easy, but how do you achieve this? Here are a
few ideas gleaned from other industries into how they
succeed in diversifying their recruitment and become more
efficient in it.
The first step in the process is to deliver a talent
strategy. Stage 1 is to define your long-term team strategy
and look at the competencies, skills and behaviours
needed within your group of teachers and to provide an
organisational assessment and benchmarking process.
Does your school have a tried and tested process for
interviews and is it as comprehensive as the process for a
headteacher, or could aspects of that recruitment be used
in teacher recruitment?
How are you measuring how successful your
recruitment campaign has been? That does not mean have
you filled all your roles before August, but rather whether
you have been efficient in your recruitment, both in terms
of time and resources. Recently, a headteacher at a leading
school told me that he went to a jobs fair, spent three days
there and came back with only three out of 35 jobs filled.
This is not successful, efficient recruitment and yet he did
the same year after year.
Getting worse?
Anecdotal evidence suggests that increasing numbers of
talent pools
schools are getting frustrated by diminishing numbers of
responses from traditional methods of recruitment. Yet
are you on LinkedIn and what should/can you do with the
people who ask to link to you?
Stage 2 is to think about how you can attract the right
people to your school. How are you branding yourself? Is it
successful and how do you know? What are other schools
in your region/peer group doing that sets them apart? For
example, I often find that job descriptions are generic and
do not give an idea of what is required by the successful
teacher or the kind of environment or team that they are
joining. Do you include how successful the department
has been recently, or who is in the team and where their
strengths lie? How about a survey of why your school is a
great place to work?
And once you do have a group of teachers who are
interested in your school and vice versa, what do you do
with them? If you do not maintain a talent pool and keep in
regular touch with its members, you will fail to consistently
provide your school with appropriate candidates.
Last point
Finally, stage 3 is about how to retain great staff. It is always
easier to keep staff for longer if you are able to provide
them with what they need to do a good job. Sounds
simple, doesn’t it? But the same reasons for leaving a job
resurface: a lack of autonomy and appreciation for what
the staff member does. Successful retention requires the
following: promotion from within, coaching and training
of behaviours required, agreed career planning and
development points, along with meaningful professional
development that is recognised universally and not just for
your school.
This is a critical time in talent management. Employers
need to recruit against a long-term strategy, diversify
their routes into the candidate
market, rebrand where necessary
to make sure that they stand out,
understand how their school
recruits, and offer careers not jobs.
Hidden talents
As the numbers of suitable new members of staff appear to keep on
dwindling, new strategies are required to attract, develop and keep staff.
Simon Dweck looks to other sectors for tips on how to succeed
Simon Dweck is head of international
school services at Capita Education
Resourcing.