School HR Professionals add value to the recruitment process

International Schools face a challenging task each year in recruiting new teachers.

The recruitment process itself includes various people and processes and many intangibles. Invariably School HR will be involved but how can schools best make use of this resource to add value to the process.

Often, the extent of School HR’s involvement might be to share CVs, collate names, arrange interviews and send out/chase contracts and other documents.

School HR should really play a pivotal role in the recruitment process and can spend time adding immense value, if given the opportunity.

Here’s how:

·        Give School HR the responsibility to assess CVs. This includes research on teachers’ backgrounds and experience and their ‘fit’ for the role.

·        School HR can make the initial call to a prospective candidate and assess their suitability to be considered, their knowledge about moving overseas and get a basic understanding of teaching background and expectations.

·        After formal interviews, School HR can contact candidates to receive feedback about the interview and their level of interest in a role at the school. At this point School HR can also answer any key questions that the candidate may have forgotten or not wanted to ask in the formal interview.

·        If an offer is made, School HR can either deliver the message or make a follow-up call to go through contracts, documentation or any other processes that will reassure a candidate that they should accept the role.

By allowing your School HR to oversee and be involved in the process they often build initial relationships with candidates that allow them to play a pivotal role in supporting the process at all points. The main advantages are:

·        That school leadership do not need to spend as much time going through CVs. When a shortlist of CVs is presented, they know these candidates have an appropriate background, qualifications and experience and that they have already passed an initial informal interview.

·        The candidates feel that they are being ‘looked after’ right from the beginning of the process. The process is more personal and makes candidates feel valued.

·        School HR can speak to candidates honestly and answer questions that might help candidates make decisions. School HR can spend more time going through details with candidates and explaining where they might live, the cost of living and other important details that aren’t covered during the interview. The importance of this should not be underestimated especially during Covid when applications to teach internationally are down and people feel understandably nervous about making a big move to a different country.

·        By playing an important role in the recruitment process it makes School HR even more impactful during onboarding and induction.

School HR professionals can add a lot of value. They should be involved in recruitment discussions and understand specifically what schools are looking for.

They can then celebrate the schools’ success in hiring top quality ‘new’ teachers and every year they will add even more value to the process. You are also much more likely to retain your HR staff if they feel they are not just performing an admin function but actually playing a key role in the school’s strategy and success.