How to Hire: 5 tips for teacher recruitment

School’s in session! If you’re involved in teacher recruitment, you have your work cut out for you – after all, these roles are vital for the future of an educational institution and its students. (Fun fact: the education role most commonly posted by Workable users globally is “English Teacher” for work abroad in China or Korea.)

But how do you go about looking for teachers? We offer advice to find, attract and hire the best educators:

5 tips for teacher recruitment

1. Post job openings on relevant job boards

When recruiting new teachers, you could use mainstream job boards such as Monster, Indeed and more to target large numbers of candidates, but try niche teacher job boards (such as SchoolSpring and TopSchoolsJobs), too. This will bring your job ad in front of more qualified and specialized candidates and perhaps reduce irrelevant applications.

2. Look for recent graduates

Graduates in teaching jobs, or even other school support disciplines, want the experience – and you can train them to be excellent professionals early on. Offer graduate programs and paid internships, and connect with college career offices and alumni organizations.

3. Attend teacher job fairs

Job fairs are a chance to meet teachers in person and answer all their questions on the spot while promoting your school. Ask your existing staff to come with you so they can connect with fellow teachers and describe their workplace. This will make it easier to attract and evaluate teachers who are a good fit for your institution.

4. Assess soft skills

It’s good to include assessments in your teacher recruiting process. Evaluate required soft skills (e.g. patience and love for learning) via assessment tools (e.g. Indeed Assessments) or the right interview questions (e.g. “Tell us about a time you had to deal with a difficult student.”). Also, educators are more effective when they put their heart into their job. Ask them: What are their preferred teaching methods? Why are they educators in the first place? Enthusiastic, detailed, and well-thought-out answers will tell you a lot.

5. Offer attractive benefits

School staff are notoriously underpaid – such is the reality of working with a board-approved or public budget – but you can make the difference and beat your competition to the punch with engaging benefit packages. For example, you could create mentorship programs, sponsor certifications, and build individual career paths.

If you follow these tips for teacher recruitment, your hiring process can become much easier. Ensure you also provide candidates with positive candidate experience. And, take a look at our sample education job descriptions to start your hiring with an informative and comprehensive job ad.