While it may be summer, there’s no better time to start thinking about the upcoming school year. Being prepared with all the teachers and staff you’ll need is crucial to having a successful school year. Here are some helpful tips you’ll want to know on how to better recruit talented teachers:
- Use social media (Facebook & Instagram primarily) to reach passive job seekers in an area. Most job seekers are passive, so one must be aggressive and proactive to reach them.
- Social media is key to fostering a “community feel” between teachers, students, and parents. Some teachers say they stay at a job because they enjoy the real connection they have with the students. The best type of social media content is showing pictures of your students, daily events/activities at your school, tips for helping students and parents, etc. This shows how much a school values its community. It also helps candidates envision themselves at the school before applying.
- Offer detailed job descriptions to tell candidates exactly what they’ll be doing and what you’re looking for.
- Explain to candidates why their current teachers love working there. Promote any reason why people like working there, such as benefits packages, salary, community, etc. Sell candidates on your school.
- Focus on recruiting throughout the year, even if you have no open positions. This way you don’t have to scramble to find someone when something does open up. Keep a healthy pipeline of candidates at the ready.
- Go to colleges where soon-to-be graduating teachers will be leaving and looking for work. This is a good place to find talent.
- Start the recruitment/hiring process as early as possible. Studies show that schools that start earlier often receive more qualified candidates.
- While digital recruitment is growing, teachers still appreciate in-person material. For example, handing out flyers and pamphlets at teacher fairs or giving them to career advisors at universities can help boost recruitment efforts. Make sure the flyers are detailed enough and have all the key information a candidate will need to know, such as your website, social media handles, where to apply, etc.
- Make sure you're using search engine optimization. Increase your rankings to appear on more search pages and increase traffic on the school website.
- Tools like Google Ads can help you target specific demographics or people who are searching using specific terms, such as "teaching jobs in New Jersey". This will allow you to bring them to your website ahead of others.
- Job boards are a great way to attract candidates who wouldn’t normally be able to attend the local job fair.
- Reach out to old teachers who may have left for a specific reason, and see if they would be interested in coming back. Sometimes teachers leave for a very specific reason, such as having a conflict with a certain administrator. Check-in on them and see how they’re doing. Even if they’re not interested in coming back, they may have friends who are looking for work.
- Don’t get too hung up on the resume. Sometimes the best, most enthusiastic teachers are younger ones who don’t have the most experience yet. If you feel a younger teacher could add a positive experience to your school, you might want to take a chance on them. The resume doesn’t always show the positive impact a teacher can have on students.
Education Jobs NJ.com is a jobs platform that assists New Jersey schools in finding quality talent to fill their open positions as well as help educational professionals looking for a new job. You can register for a free employer account to start finding that perfect candidate today or register for job alerts to be notified of any new open positions.
