Katie Newell
Head of Content, eTeach
One way schools can significantly cut their recruitment costs is by proactively cultivating a Talent Pool. This process involves leading schools and MATs advertising for teachers to join them year-round, thereby creating a waiting list of teachers. Its value increases over time – NQTs will eventually mature and become more experienced leaders, and be there ready for you to call upon when the right vacancy arises.
Many eTeach member schools have been able to halve their annual headhunting and supply spend by combining their unlimited annual advertising with the Talent Pool software that comes as standard with annual subscriptions to our service. As candidates actively apply to join, you’re covered by the purposes and timescales your privacy policy states for processing data, so add this for GDPR.
You also need to offer the choice of opting out of communications or indeed the Talent Pool altogether. If you want to foster a really effective community with continuous candidate engagement, then you’ll need to nurture your Talent Pool members, perhaps by including them in your social media and email campaigns.
eteach.com / @eteach
Lee Biggins
Managing Director, CV-Library
It’s important to constantly review the tools you’re using to make your hires. Many schools tend to rely on outdated methods of sourcing staff, but with a national teacher shortage across the UK, you can’t afford to make these mistakes.
The best recruitment strategies incorporate the use of a range of platforms, to target candidates in a variety of situations. This means that if one method isn’t working for you, you can quickly turn your focus to another.
For example, advertising your jobs online can be cost-effective, because it can boost exposure. You could then support this with social media posts to promote the vacancy even further. Alternatively, you may prefer to search through a database of relevant candidates, using filtered searches to source the right teachers for your jobs.
Whichever tools you choose to use, your attention should be on making your recruitment process as efficient as possible. It should be easy for teachers to navigate and simple for you to find the top talent.
cv-library.co.uk / @CVLibrary
Emma Woodhall
Educated Recruitment Limited
Schools can’t always predict when they’ll need to arrange supply cover. You should therefore have a procedure in place that will allow you to source a supply teacher quickly and effectively, and seek out a provider that will respond to your needs in a timely manner, ideally at any time of day.
The other big consideration with regards to supply teachers is that they be properly vetted. Safeguarding regulations are obviously there for a reason, but they can be complex and subject to change – and not every agency will be completely up to date. Following on from that is the need to ensure that your supply teachers are up to speed on everything from curriculum requirements to the latest education policies.
At Educated Recruitment we offer schools a 24-hour mobile booking service, as well access to an online teacher vetting tool that schools can use to check up to date records for any supply teachers who have previously taught at their school. We also carry out regular reviews of our safeguarding and vetting procedures, and offer CPD opportunities to the supply teachers we work with.
educatedrecruitment.co.uk / @educated777
Watch your data
Katie Newell of eTeach offers some further advice on how schools can avoid falling foul of the General Data Protection Regulation when recruiting…
More than 50% of the teachers using eteach.com are now completing their job searches and applications via mobile phones Only schools with mobileoptimised job ads (no pinching required) are catching these keen applicants.
According to eTeach’s annual survey, the application process still involves a major mismatch between schools and teachers. 76% of teachers tell us they only want to apply electronically or via CV upload, and simply disregard those schools who ask them to download and post a form. And when those forms take more than two hours to complete, who can blame them?
Schools have many alternative ways of collecting application data, without driving hard-earned candidates away with antiquated methods. In this respect, the new data reporting obligations that will accompany the incoming general data protection regulation is the shock schools need.
Short application forms will increase your advert response in any case, but now they have the added bonus of reducing the amount of data you’re holding in school. Now is the time to consider inviting short ‘initial interest’ forms as the first response to an advert, and only then asking the shortlisted applicants for the unabridged application from.
Storage risks
When it comes to employment application forms these days, less is more. Put simply, reduce your risk by asking less in the first instance. Do you actually need all that information at the first stage? NI number, bank details and so forth can all be asked for on an additional form given at the interview. If challenged, could you justify your lawful reason to ask for each individual piece of data at the outset?
The process of administrators receiving emailed forms, and then sending them to staff who might open them on their phone or PC, will create countless ‘local’ copies of those forms both on paper and electronically, all over your staff’s devices. How could you delete them all if a request is made of you to do so?
Where possible, use an applicant tracking system where the data is cloud-based and securely stored and encrypted. This enables staff to log in, review applications in order to shortlist a candidate and move a record through the onboarding process, but never to create a version that can be forwarded or accidentally saved.
A key factor in schools’ recruitment needs of late has been declining rates of retention. Research by the National Audit Office in September last year found that almost 35,000 teachers, some 8% of the workforce, left their jobs in 2016 for reasons other than retirement. The findings prompted NAO head Amyas Morse to comment that “The trends over time and variation between schools are concerning, and there is a risk that the pressure on teachers will grow.”
It’s fair to say that there have been a number of various pilots, reports and other initiatives aimed at improving teacher recruitment and retention in recent years. Those interested in finding out more about them can refer to an informative House of Commons briefing paper published in January this year, titled ‘Teacher recruitment and retention in England’. Download it via tinyurl.com/hoc-tre
