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5 Steps to Choosing an Applicant Screening Tool

Why Use an Applicant Screening Tool?

Every person in every district’s HR department wants the same thing: to find the best candidate for each job. And there’s a way to increase the chances of this happening: having an objective, research-based hiring process can do a world of good in finding those high performers.

Luckily for us, researchers have studied both hiring processes and high-performing teachers for a very long time. In fact, the employment interview has been studied for nearly a hundred years, and tells us that the most effective way to choose the right person is through a structured hiring process — especially a structured interview. But although interviews are the most common way of choosing a candidate, they can also be one of the least reliable predictors of performance if left open to interpretation — or if they aren’t consistent between candidates.

A high-quality selection tool takes all of this research into account and uses it to help you bring in the best talent possible. It should springboard off of existing research and offer a way to structure the hiring process, especially when it comes to interviews. In K-12 education in particular, it’s crucial that screening assessments and selection criteria reflect what you expect great teachers to do every day.

How Do You Pick the Right Tool for Your District?

That sounds tempting: the idea that a screening tool could help you find the best possible candidate. Let’s take a look at what every district should take into account when considering an applicant screening tool, and the steps that will lead to finding the right one.

Step 1: Develop a Rationale

This seems like a simple step (“we want the tool to help us find better candidates”), but really needs to be a deliberate conversation across leaders, departments and buildings. There must be an understanding of how people are currently brought into the district, and how a screening tool will fit into that process and provide interpretable data.

Step 2: Do Your Research

We do this with every facet of the work we do in education, and HR is no different. Take the time to really research what you’re looking into. Look up everything you can about the research behind teacher selection and screening assessments. This includes asking every vendor you contact if you can see the research that has gone into developing their product. If they say no, run away.

Your research should understanding legal requirements, such as those enforced by the EEOC. For example, consider following excerpt from the 1978 Uniform Guidelines:

“Under no circumstances will the general reputation of a test or other selection procedures, its author or its publisher, or casual reports of its validity be accepted in lieu of evidence of validity.”

This means that you, as an employer, must be sure that the tool you choose is truly valid and driven by research — you can’t just rely on the product or vendor’s reputation. In other words, you can’t responsibly use a product if you can’t personally vouch for the research that’s been done on it.

Step 3: Consider the Law

This goes hand-in-hand with the previous step, but bears repeating. You must be fully compliant with the EEOC. If your screening tool scores applicants of a protected class as lower than other individuals, you can be held liable for discrimination. Again, ask to see evidence that the screening tool you’re considering is fully EEOC-compliant.

Step 4: Analyze the Costs

You can’t put a price on having great employees, but you don’t have unlimited funding, either. Make sure you know exactly what you will be paying for. Are there start-up costs involved, or a licensing fee? Find out what training is involved and what technical support is available, and know how much it costs before you put pen to paper.

Step 5: Plan Out the Screening Tool’s Role

The last step in this process is to have a plan of how you will use your new selection criteria. Do you plan to use it as part of a holistic hiring process where it’s used alongside other predictive elements to create a mosaic of each candidate? Or will you use it as a way to weed out low-performing candidates, and only consider applicants above a certain score?

Regardless of how you plan to use your screening tool, you need to have a plan in place and discuss this with other leaders in your district.  An interview tool or prescreening assessments can help provide a new dimension to your hiring process and help you bring the best possible candidates into your district, as long as its role is clearly defined.

Welcoming Substitutes Into Your School’s Community

Have you ever been far from home and met someone who grew up in your hometown? You know that sense of connection you get when you walk into a room and see someone else wearing a shirt with your college’s name on it? Ever sat in a stadium with 70,000 strangers and felt at one with them as you cheered for the same team?

Emblems, colors, mascots, cities, flags — these things have a way of drawing us together, of connecting us to something bigger than ourselves. They can be used for good or ill, to draw lines of demarcation, to pull people in or push them out.

Let’s use them to pull people in.

Each school is a community, with mascots and colors, history and lore, quirks and triumphs. These things connect students and employees to that community, and this lends rhythm and familiarity. It gives a sense of belonging.

But for substitute teachers, it can be difficult to connect to this community. The typical substitute teacher faces her First Day at a New Job, every day. It can be daunting (“Where do I go?”), awkward (“Is this the right classroom?”) and lonely (“I don’t know anybody here”). Bringing them into your school’s community will not only help attract more quality substitutes as they see you come alongside them, it naturally empowers them to be more effective educators, more engaged in and committed to their work.

Five ways to bring substitutes into your community

Communicate key information to your substitutes.

If something matters to your school, it probably matters to the substitutes who will be working there that day. Don’t let them be the only people who aren’t dressed for School Spirit Day because they didn’t know about it. Letters from the principal in your substitute management system can be a great way to communicate this kind of information.

Communicate with your other staff.

Could you imagine showing up at a school to substitute teach, only to be refused entry by a custodian who was never told you’d be coming? Enlist teachers, secretaries, custodians, cafeteria staff — everyone — into welcoming substitutes.

Make substitutes visibly part of the team.

Asking them to wear big yellow VISITOR badges and treating them like strangers in your building is not too far from putting a sign on them saying, “I don’t belong.” Give them badges that look like the rest of your employees’. Make sure they have access to keys, lesson plans and anything else they may need. Make them part of the team, and make sure your team sees it.

Raise students’ view of substitutes.

Do your students see substitute teachers as full team members as well? The more they do, and the more they realize that substitutes are there to teach and not to babysit, the better. Maybe this means a morning announcement: “A special thanks to Miss Jones for the great work she did while Mr. Smith was out this week.” Maybe it means including substitutes in the group of teachers who welcome students at the beginning of the day. Maybe it’s an assembly where substitutes are recognized.

Celebrate the unique culture of substitutes in your school.

When I was the HR Director at the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System in Tennessee, a pair of flip-flops served as our substitute teachers’ unofficial symbol. It was a way for the school to acknowledge the fact that substitutes flip-flop between buildings, working in a new place each day. It may seem like a small thing, but that simple image, whether on stickers, lanyards or something else, connected substitutes to each other and was a nod to that challenging part of their job.

Substitute teaching is often difficult work. To do it well, substitutes need to build near-instant rapport and trust. Making them part of the team doesn’t have to be difficult, time-consuming or expensive. It does require caring and thoughtfulness — but that’s something any school can afford, and the results will be well worth it.

Connecting Your Substitutes to Mission and Vision

Why do you go to work in the morning? What puts the wind in your sails each day?

Your school or district surely has a mission and vision, relayed as both high ideals and manageable goals — from “empowering all students equitably” to “increase the graduation rate to 100% in the following school year.” Good leaders know that staff members need the chance to connect to that mission to strive towards it in their work. Full-time teachers are most often given that chance — but what about substitute teachers?

In your district, have substitute teachers been invited to learn, internalize and buy into the school’s mission?

Share your mission-driven goals with substitutes

If a goal is to “increase graduation rate to 100% in the following school year,” every substitute teacher on staff should know this goal and understand how their work contributes to the school’s success — or failure —towards it. When teachers are absent and substitutes enter the classroom, are they prepared and motivated to work toward that goal? Or does your district simply see them as a way to keep students out of trouble until the teacher returns? On average, a teacher is absent for more than 10 days each year, leaving substitutes to take over for at least two weeks of class time. When you help substitutes connect to the goals that have been set, they’ll be able to more meaningfully contribute.

Communicate your milestones for each goal with substitutes

Some goals might be smaller and more immediate than others. For instance, where “empower students equitably” is a lofty ideal, equitable preparation towards student assessment might be a granular method of reaching that goal. In this example:

  • How might substitutes be able to help teachers carry out this method?
  • Do substitutes know to which accountability measures the teachers they’re supporting are held?
  • Do substitutes understand how the lesson plans they’re carrying out support this method?

When you communicate this information to your substitutes, they can do the work across classrooms, subjects, and grades throughout the year with understanding — and feel good about it.

Offer confidence through high expectations

You might think that expecting substitutes to take ownership of your school’s mission could be asking too much — that it would keep them from wanting to work in your district. But in practice, this isn’t the case.

People respond to a challenge. A job with low expectations may be “easy,” but it’s not fulfilling. Substitutes are educators. They want to come alongside the mission of your school. They want purpose in what they do every day. If you bring them onto the team and help them believe in the vision for your school and its students, they’ll rise to the task.

Solving the Teacher Shortage: Recruiting Is Just One Piece of the Puzzle

The Shortage Stats

District HR departments and school administrators across the country have all been seeing applicant pools shrink. The teacher shortage is a very real problem: 62% of districts surveyed have a problem finding enough applicants for open positions. Some struggle to find qualified candidates only in specific areas — namely special education and secondary math and science. Others have difficulty finding any applicants at all.

“The applicants just don’t exist. We can’t even get applicants for elementary ed positions.”
— Survey Respondent

With such severe shortages, how can districts find enough candidates — let alone the right candidates? Dale Fisher, the Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources at Deerfield Public Schools District 109, shared some of his district’s strategies.

Deerfield’s Strategy: It’s Not Just About Recruiting

Dale is quick to point out that what he has done for Deerfield isn’t a magic bullet — their strategy has worked wonderfully for them, but there is simply no panacea for every district’s shortage. Here’s what has worked for his district.

#1: Expanding their recruitment efforts.

Finding more applicants means looking in more places, whether that’s K12JobSpot or other national job boards or professional networks. They advertise positions in education magazines, as well, to reach a broader audience of educators — especially teachers that engage with the latest news in education.

But just reaching out to applicant pools isn’t enough: Deerfield has to stand head and shoulders above other districts vying for qualified candidates. That’s why their recruiting efforts are centered on what Deerfield can offer its applicants.

 #2: Showing off what the district offers.

Like any employee, teachers want to work somewhere they are valued and given room to grow. There’s no way to create new applicants, but there are ways to attract existing applicants. So, Dale has focused on showing how Deerfield is the best place for educators to work.

He makes sure that the district’s extensive mentoring and Deerfield University program are highlighted in all of their recruiting efforts, and embedded throughout the hiring process. The Deerfield Public Schools website was completely overhauled, and the Employment Opportunities page now features videos about each school.

 #3: Making the hiring process easy.

Applicant don’t want to wade through a paper-based application process, or an unwieldy online system full of bugs. Deerfield Public Schools makes it easy to apply online with Frontline Recruiting & Hiring — which also helps them hire fantastic candidates quickly. They also began a new induction program for new hires to make them feel welcomed and valued.

What Next?

Deerfield Public Schools is managing the teacher shortage by expanding their strategy to be about more than recruiting: after all, that’s only a small piece of the puzzle, and only a small step in the employee’s tenure.

The causes of the teacher shortage are legion, and there’s more than one way to approach the problem. But it’s important that we all do our part by changing the story of what a career in education is like: we need to show that teaching is a viable (and rewarding) career.

Are teachers really apathetic when it comes to professional learning?

If you survey school districts and ask them what is their biggest challenge in professional learning, sooner or later (and probably sooner) you’re almost certainly going to hear something like the following:

“We struggle with teacher apathy when it comes to professional learning.”
“Teachers don’t like to take professional development.”
“We have to twist their arms to get them to attend.”

This extends beyond education — when it comes to professional development, many industries across corporate America have the same impression of their employees.

Perception vs. Reality

This widespread perception — that because workers don’t leap at every chance to engage in professional learning, they must be disengaged — is damaging. It leads to tension between supervisors and employees, it undermines employee trust. And the worst thing about it? It’s simply untrue. This perception persists because we operate with faulty expectations

This widespread perception that workers are disengaged is damaging. And the worst thing about it? It’s simply untrue.

It’s no secret that as we grow up, leave college, perhaps get married, have kids, pursue careers, purchase houses and care for families, time becomes scarce. Adults spend so much of our lives working, either at full-time jobs or simply taking care of all of life’s other responsibilities. It costs us to spend time on learning, work-related or otherwise. That we’re willing to pay that cost to learn something new — like how to make a new recipe, do home repairs or swaddle a baby — shows that we’re hardly apathetic. It’s a matter of motivation.

Motivation is an enormous factor in how effective professional learning will be.

Setting a realistic bar

Your teachers are educators. In a myriad of reasons why they entered this profession, “I care about students” probably ranks near the top. Helping your teachers succeed in this goal while setting realistic demands on their time is key. As with elsewhere in education, districts and teachers engaged in highly effective professional learning have found it’s helpful to map backward from desired outcomes.

Outcome #1, of course, is student growth. Although specific teacher capabilities may not have a 1:1 causal relationship with student achievement, when teachers perform at a high level it does set the stage for student achievement. It makes sense to focus the desired outcomes of professional learning on teachers developing specific capabilities that will support student growth.

No doubt your district has goals as well, and in addition to those outcomes you have in mind, also remember that teachers desire certain “outcomes” such as those required for recertification. They’ll be motivated to engage in professional learning when it helps them complete those requirements. Be sure to create a professional learning plan that sets a realistic, achievable bar for how much time is needed and meets both the district’s and teachers’ desired outcomes — recertification, support in areas of identified need, choice and flexibility.

The next time you’re tempted to view your teachers as apathetic, step back for a moment. Consider the demands on their time, and how you can structure learning that’s not only realistic, but that also helps your educators along in their own journey. Challenges in professional learning are far more often an issue of alignment, not apathy.

Supporting Your Support Staff

Have We Forgotten Our Non-Instructional Staff?

In education, much of the focus is on teachers, as it should be — but it’s important to give credit to the classified staff that keep all of our schools running. Custodians keep the school buildings clean and healthy. HVAC employees ensure that children are comfortable and breathing clean air. Cafeteria staff keep students well-fed, so that learning isn’t interrupted by a rumbly tummy. Secretaries serve on the front lines, helping parents and administrators alike.

All of these individuals play an instrumental role in student growth — after all, a sick, cold or hungry student is not learning effectively. That’s why it’s so important to support classified staff in their work and show respect for what they do. Providing them with professional development can go a long way in making them feel valued and engaged — which, in turn, reduces turnover.

Read on and watch the videos to see how other districts are supporting this important group of people!

The Difference Professional Development Can Make

 

Meriden Public Schools provides all of their staff members with training opportunities to develop their talents and help them succeed. For example, they provide clerical staff members with training to help them manage their workload and deal with difficult people. As a result, their clerical staff are more engaged in their work, and more equipped to graciously welcome every visitor.

They have also provided professional development for their custodians, to give them leadership skills. Then, when additional positions open up, the district knows that they already have people with the skills needed to lead a team.

“The most important thing about talent development is that all employees need to feel valued, they need to be respected and their voices need to matter. It’s not just the training that matters. It’s that we’re investing in them as key members of our team. And the more we invest in them, the more payback the school system gets, and the more productive our operations are.” – Mark Benigni, Meriden Public Schools

Providing classified staff with professional development opportunities can mean developing more than just their skills at their current position. Lori Hudson, a district recruiter for Indian River School District, once hired a new employee to serve as a paraprofessional for students who had just arrived in the country. Now, that employee is going back to school to become a teacher of English language learners. For the district, that’s a win: they have a candidate for a hard-to-fill position — and they already know how she performs in the classroom.

Similarly, the president of the National Educational Association, Lily Eskelsen García, proudly began her career in a school cafeteria before becoming an aide to a special education teacher, then a teacher after obtaining her degree.

So invest in your staff: you never know where your next great teacher will come from.

How To: Practical Ways to Offer PD for Classified Staff

Providing professional development to your classified staff is, unquestionably, a win-win for both the employee and the district. But as we all know, time is always in short supply in a school district. Luckily, there are always creative ways to offer training to your classified staff without taking away from the work that needs to be done.

Mentoring
Many schools have found that mentoring programs for new or struggling teachers can reduce turnover. So why not create a mentoring program for non-certified employees? A mentor can provide individualized support, encourage learning and improve performance.

Learning Lunches
Learning lunches are an opportunity to sit down with your classified staff and go over training topics that can be covered in a relatively short amount of time. The face-to-face contact is great for discussions and questions, and eating as a group can foster a sense of community.

Online Learning
With the accessibility of the internet, you no longer have to gather your staff members together in one location for professional learning. Giving employees access to online training means that they can work at their own pace and on their own time. First, though, make sure all of your employees have Internet access. If they don’t have their own computer and Internet access at home, consider allowing them to use a district computer (such as in a school computer lab) when they’re off the clock.

In Conclusion: Every Employee Matters

People’s impressions of your district are often directly tied to the relationships they form with non-certified staff. Offering professional development to all of your employees by helping them become more skillful — with both technical and soft skills — can only help your district.

What other ideas do you have for supporting your classified staff? Share and comment on social media!

Retain First-Rate Substitute Teachers with Rewards and Recognition

You’re well aware that people choose to be teachers for reasons far beyond the compensation package.  People choose to teach because they care about students, are passionate about a subject area, and want to use their gifts and skills for the public good. For teachers like this, an identity as an educator means everything.

The same is true for people who make excellent substitute teachers.

So if your district has a shortage of substitutes, ask the question: are you viewing your substitutes as educators or babysitters? If it’s the latter, it’s worth making the effort to structure the job so that people who identify as educators will be drawn to it. Here are a few ideas:

Recognize the Role Substitutes Play in Education.

Great substitutes don’t just want to punch a clock; they want to teach.

Reward Great Work with Pay Incentives.

Most people don’t grow up saying, “I want to make $30,000 a year for the rest of my life with no opportunity for financial growth.”

Find ways to reward the great work of exceptional substitute teachers so that your district retains them and helps them grow into a professional community member who furthers the goals of the district alongside administration and other educators. Look at ways to provide rewards and recognition for great service.

Reward great work with:

  • Tiered Pay: Consider tiered pay as an opportunity for a substitute to make more than the per-day flat fee to reward strong qualifications and work ethic.
  • Non-Monetary Rewards: Consider non-monetary rewards, too, such as placing substitute teachers on a preferred list where they may have more control over which classes they cover.
  • Recognition: Consider ways to elevate and honor those substitute teachers who show up regularly and further academic excellence in your schools.
  • Training: Consider providing pedagogical and technology training for substitutes early in the school year and explore online resources that can help.


By helping to increase their skills as educators, you’ll not only provide a benefit to your substitutes, you’ll be serving your students as well. As your district seeks to provide excellent education to your students, don’t overlook the crucial role that substitutes play. The more you recognize substitutes as partners in education, the more you’ll attract people who are invested in your mission — and that can only be a good thing for your school.

Course Libraries: Frequently Asked Questions

If you have questions about our course libraries (formerly known as EdTrainingCenter), you’re in the right place! We’ve put together the questions we most frequently hear from school districts who are researching our online courses.

What are some of the benefits of using Frontline’s online courses?

Our extensive course libraries let you meet all of your employees’ diverse learning needs. Educators can drive their own learning with relevant, just-in-time content. Substitutes and paraprofessionals can become more effective, and new hires can get up to speed with onboarding and compliance trainings. And you can easily track all of your employees’ learning activities, document their progress and reduce the risk of incidents or lawsuits.

  • Provide your educators with lessons from the best: all courses are taught by expert educators, typically with 10 years of experience in the subject area.
  • Ensure that your people get the training they need by assigning courses, or allow educators to choose the learning opportunities that best fit their needs.
  • Save time and money by letting employees complete courses on their own time, instead of hosting in-person workshops.
  • Easily keep track of employee professional learning and training. Our courses are SCORM-compliant, giving you confidence that they’ve actually completed the course.

What makes Frontline’s course libraries different?

Where should we start? Not only are all of our courses fully trackable, allowing your district to increase accountability, but we also have the widest variety of courses in the industry. No other vendor has all of the courses we offer — you would have to buy from four or five separate vendors to get all the content that Frontline offers in one place.

That convenience extends to accessing the courses themselves. As part of Frontline’s platform, learners can easily get the content they need, when they need it. For example, new hires can access their assigned onboarding and safety training courses directly from Frontline Recruiting & Hiring.

We are also the only provider that includes courses that help substitutes work with at-risk kids — students who are poor, hungry, homeless, traumatized, abused or suffering. We believe that we can help make a difference by empowering the front line of education to protect every student

What courses do you offer?

Our course libraries are comprised of over 800 courses total, including state-specific and state-mandated titles.

  • Safety & Onboarding Library (formerly known as “New Hire” and “Roots”): safety and compliance trainings for all job roles, as well as any state-mandated trainings.
  • Substitute Training Course Library: trainings for substitute teachers, paraprofessionals and school secretaries.
  • Professional Development and Mandatory Training Library (formerly known as “Post Hire” and “Growth”): a broad variety of courses designed to impact instructional practice and help your educators be as effective as possible.

Here’s just a taste of some of the topics we cover in our courses:

  • Ethics and professional conduct for educators
  • Classroom management, instructional pedagogy, and curriculum development
  • Support for at-risk youth, special education, ESL/ESOL and struggling students.
  • Use of educational technology, digital devices, internet resources and common software programs like Google Classroom
  • The Common Core Mathematics standards (including sub standards) for K-12 and
  • The College and Career Readiness CC standards for K-12.
  • The NGSS standards for K – 8th grades.
  • Financial literacy for 8th – 12th grades.
  • Teen dating violence
  • Drug- and alcohol-free schools

Are they videos or courses?

All of our available content is in course format. Although videos are built into the actual courses, our courses include more than just videos. They include interactive widgets, narrated presentations and built-in assessments.

What is the format of your courses?

All of our courses are built using the eLearning standard SCORM protocol. This means that users cannot “click-click-click” their way through courses and get credit. They also cannot mark them as complete themselves. Instead they have to read every page, listen to every narration, watch every video, and answer every assessment question in order to receive credit for completing a course.

Course lengths are listed in our catalog documents, but tend to be in the 20-30 minute range. The only exceptions are any state-mandated courses that require a specific length.

Can learners start and stop whenever they want or need to?

Yes! Learners can take courses on demand, logging in and out whenever they want to do so. The course will bookmark their progress and let them resume where they’ve left off. They don’t have to start over or try to remember where they stopped.

Do courses mark themselves as completed automatically or does an Administrator have to do it?

Courses are automatically marked as completed automatically once a learner has actually met all completion requirements (visiting every page, answering every quiz question, and depending on the course, answering every quiz question correctly or passing a graded quiz).

How do I know that someone has completed a course?

Administrators are able to view individual learners’ transcripts and generate reports that show completion records for whole groups of employees.

A Different Perspective on the Substitute Shortage

We hear about the substitute teacher shortage often, and we probably accept it without giving it a second thought. But what does “shortage” really mean? Fewer than before? Fewer than we expect? More turnover than we’d like? And what’s causing it?

It’s very possible that school administrators and Human Resources professionals focused on improving retention are already asking themselves these questions. And it’s very possible that they hold the key to attracting and retaining more, higher quality substitutes. The solution may be more human than you think.

The real problem: substitute teachers are undervalued

Ask any group of kids what they want to be when they grow up. You’ll hear:

  • “A football player!”
  • “A chef, because I like to eat!”
  • “A veterinarian; I think my neighbor’s dog is cool!”

But how many students would say they want to be undervalued, misunderstood, or have great work go unrewarded? (You got it: not many.)

Yet consciously or unconsciously, that’s the message we often communicate about substitute teaching.

Plenty of people out there are qualified to be substitute teachers. Yes, we have recruiting challenges. We have empty classrooms. We lose substitutes to other jobs. We do have a problem — but understanding what lies at the heart of it is the most important step toward solving it. Why are people choosing not to substitute? Why do substitutes work a few jobs and then not come back?

Understanding what lies at the heart of it is the most important step toward solving it. Why are people choosing not to substitute?

Substitutes are educators

A substitute teacher impacts multiple students’ educational journeys every day; they’re truly educators. You may think, “Subs are only in the classroom for one day. That isn’t enough time to make a difference.” But how many times has one single word, one kind action, one enlightened thought changed your life? Imagine what can be done with an entire day! Substitutes can offer that one moment that makes a difference.

Taking the baton: continuity in the classroom

The full-time teacher has established a particular culture in the classroom. Taking the baton and lending continuity to that teacher’s hard work is an art. And substitutes do it while facing challenges:

  • They often cover a subject or grade outside their area of expertise.
  • They routinely walk into unfamiliar environments, with unfamiliar people.
  • They’re expected to discuss multiple subjects.
  • They’re placed in semi-emergency situations all the time.

Many substitute teachers do all of this with grace and professionalism, and embrace the opportunity to impact educational journeys in the process. Certainly this is something worth choosing to do — so how do we make them feel that way before, during, and after a day in our school?

A step forward:

Substitute teaching is certainly not easy, and there are realities of the job we cannot change. We can, however, change perceptions around substituting. We can help people see that it’s worth choosing by treating it as an educator role worth supporting, recognizing, and encouraging in your district the humanity and capability of the substitute teacher. Help others do the same.

If we don’t see the job as something worth doing, how will anyone else?

Learn from substitutes already doing a great job

There are people in your district who choose to substitute. Ask them why.  Ask them how they approach their work. Ask them what would make the job better, and if they know of anyone who could be a good substitute teacher.

More than anything, thank them! Celebrate the fact that while everyone is talking about a “substitute shortage,” they still choose to substitute. Tell them that you appreciate their work in education. Then, tell everyone else about the great job and significant impact they are making each day. Retention will be your best recruiting tool for the new job of substituting.

A sincere thank you to Patty Blanchard, Human Resources Director Technology and Support Services, Portland Public Schools, Oregon, for her collaboration on this message. 

Survey Results: The Teacher Shortage and Recruiting with Data

In a recent survey, we found that two-thirds of all districts have a teacher shortage. That’s a lot of open positions gathering dust while districts stress over finding applicants. And even though that’s a significant shortage of teachers, I wasn’t exactly surprised. What did surprise me is that only 22% of all districts have data on which recruiting methods work and which don’t.

The vast majority of districts don’t have any data driving their recruiting strategies.

Let that sink in for a second. When it comes to recruiting — the first step to hiring the best person to teach our future leaders — most districts are essentially flying blind. Making recruiting decisions without any solid data has worked for schools so far, but if there’s a way to improve your process, especially facing a shortage of qualified applicants, why wouldn’t you at least try? After all, the modern world is all about using data, data and more data to drive decisions and shape strategies. Perhaps it’s time for districts to climb aboard the information train.

You’re already collecting information on your candidates through their resumes and applications; why not turn it into something usable? You can directly apply knowledge from this data to planning your recruiting strategy for the upcoming year — valuable information about which job fairs or other recruiting methods are attracting the most applicants, which colleges are producing the best applicants for your districts and, ultimately, where you should be concentrating your recruiting efforts.

Start with collecting the data

Making data-driven decisions first requires collecting the data. It’s certainly possible to try to track the outcomes of your recruiting efforts manually, but that is incredibly difficult and time-consuming. Instead, using an electronic applicant tracking system makes it much easier to examine where your applicants are coming from, how experienced they are, and which recruiting methods are netting you the most (or most qualified) applicants.

On the other hand, you might realize that your district is barking up the wrong tree and spending time and money on a recruiting method that just isn’t getting traction. With this information, you know where to redirect your time and energy during the next recruiting season.

Data in action: Deerfield Public School District 109

Executive Director of Human Resources Dale Fisher uses data from Frontline Recruiting & Hiring (formerly AppliTrack Recruiting and AppliTrack Fit) in Deerfield Public School 109’s recruiting and hiring process to ensure that every position is filled with a great candidate. He says that the district struggles with finding candidates for unique, specialized positions, particularly school nurses, physical therapists and occupational therapists. So, he looked at his district’s recruiting methods, which relied heavily on posting jobs on K12JobSpot (their “#1 tool for finding applicants”) and the Illinois Job Bank.

These methods are great for recruiting general education applicants — his district receives hundreds of applications for elementary ed positions — but he realized that Deerfield still had a shortage of school nurses, physical therapists and occupational therapists. These are “candidates who aren’t educators by nature,” which means that they probably are not actively looking for jobs in education. And yet, they’re not opposed to working for a district — it’s just that they take a different path when looking for a job than many district recruiters.

So, Deerfield Public Schools broadened their strategy to find people with the unique skills needed for these hard-to-fill positions. Now, he finds these specialized candidates by posting on Monster.com, where there is a broader pool of applicants, and by reaching out to professional networks, such as the Illinois Association of School Nurses. And because every candidate applies through Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, he’s able to track where qualified applicants are coming from, their experience level and their educational background. Having all of the data within one system (and not on paper) helps Deerfield Public Schools identify which opportunities to expand on, and which recruiting efforts aren’t working well for particular positions.

What could you learn from data?

Districts struggling with shortages, whether general or specific, need to know what recruiting methods to focus on to fill positions and stop spending time and money on channels that don’t work for their specific district. We are in the Age of Information — and that means we don’t need to develop recruiting strategies in the dark.

Get the full report on the teacher shortage

Over 500 districts shared their insights on the teacher shortage and recruiting strategies. Get the report.

 

 

How to Develop Your District’s Brand to Attract Top Candidates

You want to hire and retain the best teachers for your students. The problem is, so does everyone else. So how do you stay competitive and attract the best candidates?

You want to create a compelling brand that makes great teachers want to work for you and help achieve your district’s goals. This isn’t something that can be done in a day: it requires buy-in throughout your district and sustained effort, but the payoff is worth it. To develop your brand as an employer, you’ll need to tackle three questions:

1. Is your district visible?

2. How do job seekers perceive your district?

3. How can you use this information to improve your district brand?

1. Be visible

Developing your brand first requires that you look at your district’s visibility: if no one knows about you, it doesn’t matter how great your image is. Traditionally, visibility meant getting press releases out and being on the news. That’s not to say that media coverage is no longer important, just that most people now get their information from social media first and CNN second, including prospective employees. Setting up social media accounts with Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for your school is the most important way that to enhance your visibility—if you update them regularly.

Speaking of updating, make sure that your school and teachers’ websites are kept up-to-date with pictures and video as well. One tip regarding the use of video: upload any videos to Vimeo, instead of YouTube. YouTube is popular, but has a very unfortunate “Related Videos” feature that will put recommendations for clips with titles like “Fight at (School Name)” next to your promotional materials. Even if it’s a similarly-named school that isn’t in your district, you don’t want your district to have this kind of negative association. You want your schools to be associated with friendly people, great kids, and a welcoming environment.

2. Improve candidates’ perceptions of your district

For job seekers, perception is reality. What they experience when interacting with your district in person or online has a huge impact on how they view your district, and what they will share with others. And they will share their experiences with others, so it’s important to ensure that everyone has a positive experience with your district. If a candidate comes to one of your schools and the building is dirty, or the employees are unfriendly, they won’t want to work there and may tell other teachers not to apply.

You want to always put your best foot forwards and make sure that potential applicants see your district in the best light possible. Of course, you might think that your district is a great place to work, but how do you know if job seekers see it the same way? One method is to check Glassdoor.com, a site that allows job seekers to post reviews of employers. District administrators may not be aware of this site, but applicants certainly are. Districts are advised not to respond to negative reviews, in case their response comes off as offensive to the poster or other job seekers.

Once you have an idea of how your district is perceived, you can begin to improve your district’s brand and position your district as a great place to work. You want candidates to see your district as a friendly, welcoming environment, so make sure that your staff members and administrators are always polite and helpful when candidates call or visit. It also helps to always follow up on unscheduled in-person visits. You don’t need to respond with a phone call, a generic email will do.

“Thank you for stopping by. Unfortunately, we do not have any open positions at this time. However, we will keep your information on file. In the meantime, please visit our website.”

An email like this may not be personalized, but goes a long way in improving candidates’ perceptions of your district. And even if that candidate wasn’t right for your district, they will talk about their experience with others who may be the perfect fit.

It also pays to be mindful of student teachers and substitutes, who may consider returning to your district as applicants for full-time positions. Many substitutes report that they come to schools with no preparation or lesson plans from the absent teacher, or that they were never welcomed to the building by the principal. Having principals take the time to speak with each new teacher, substitute, and student teacher helps make them feel valued and want to return.

3. Market your district as a great employer

You will need a plan to rebrand your district as a great employer. A SWOT UP (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats, Understand, Plan) analysis is commonly used in business ventures and planning, but can be invaluable for districts as well. It is comprised of six steps:

1. Focus on your strengths. What are the great things about your schools? Share your strengths, don’t keep them a secret!

2. Review your weaknesses. How is your district struggling? You have to acknowledge where your district falls short in order to make improvements.

3. Look at opportunities. What opportunities or partnerships are available to you? What resources can you use, and what partnerships could you form to improve on your weaknesses?

4. Recognize threats. What conditions or activities negatively impact your school? If you are located in an urban area, new teachers with a lot of potential could be afraid of the location based on preconceived notions. Or, you might have competitors who grab a lot of great candidates.

5. Take the time to understand how these factors impact your recruitment and retention statistics. Do you have high teacher turnover, or low application rates for vacancies? Once you know which area is being impacted the most, you can direct your efforts to alleviating the problem.

6. Develop a plan and determine what steps you can take to effect change, such as creating newsletters, updating your website, or participating in job fairs.

Whatever plan you come up with, you will need to make sure that every employee in your district is on board. Your district will need to be a team and everyone will need to work together. One person cannot rebrand a district on their own, and will need to share responsibilities with others. When it comes to your district, everyone is a brand ambassador. It’s critical that everyone understands their role in positioning your organization as a great place to work.

Great teachers want to work for districts that have invested time and effort into their brand. Developing a great brand for your district boils down to three key messages: be visible, improve candidates’ perceptions of your district, and market your district as a great employer. Remember, great branding isn’t only for businesses: it can help you recruit and retain the best teachers for your students, as well.

 

Employee Onboarding: Improve First Impressions & Lasting Retention | Part Four

If you’ve read parts one, two, and three of this series, you understand the impact the onboarding experience has on your district’s health and employee retention. You understand the value of instilling in your employees pride for their roles within your district, and you have some tips on how to improve the interaction and relationships built through the onboarding experience.

In the final part of this series, I want to show you how you can use time and technology to enhance the onboarding experience.

Expand Your Onboarding Process

In “Onboarding New Employees: Maximizing Success,” Tayla Bauer offers the “Four C’s” that should be present in all successful onboarding processes:

  • “Compliance is the lowest level and includes teaching employees basic legal and policy-related rules and regulations.”
  • “Clarification refers to ensuring that employees understand their new jobs and all related expectations.”
  • “Culture is a broad category that includes providing employees with a sense of organizational norms-both formal and informal.”
  • “Connection refers to the vital interpersonal relationships and information networks that new employees must establish.”

If your district’s onboarding process only lasts the first day or two on the job, do you believe you’ll have enough time to truly express the culture of the district? Will you have enough time to establish legitimate connections between new employees and their peers, supervisors and the district administration?

Probably not. But unfortunately, that’s what happens in many school districts. However, according to a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, approximately 46% of those surveyed began their onboarding between accepting the employment offer and day 1 on the job.

With only a day or two slated for onboarding procedures, many employers would only find time for the first two C’s necessary for successful onboarding. Expanding the onboarding process before day one can help give you the time you need to cover all areas pertinent to your employees’ assimilation into the district.

SilkRoad Technology
Creating an Onboarding Process 

“The first few days on the job can be crammed full of information, but if you’ve been able to take advantage of starting prior to day one, the amount of information you need to cover during this period will be relatively less. . . . This provides you the opportunity to go more in depth into certain topics than you would with programs of shorter duration.”

In addition to starting the onboarding process before your employees’ first day on the job, you should extend your onboarding practices after the first day as well. In fact, you should make an effort to deliberately onboard your new hires throughout their whole first semester or year. The same SHRM survey indicated 32% of employers surveyed extended their onboarding activities from 8 days on the job up to during the first 6 months.

SilkRoad Technology
Creating an Onboarding Process 

“Studies have shown that extending onboarding beyond the first day, preferably from 3 months to one year, can significantly improve the overall experience and the resulting engagement and retention of your employee base.”

Here are some examples of extended onboarding activities that enable you to focus on before and throughout an employee’s first school year:

  • Additional job-specific training in smaller chunks
  • Benefit decision-making, enrollment resources and tools
  • Confirmation of compliance notifications and training
  • Initial evaluation event and document tracking
  • Connecting with mentors and other employees
  • Other performance goal documentation
  • Providing feedback to the employer on the new employee’s onboarding experience

Common Barriers to Expanding

If better onboarding and an emphasis on culture are so important, why don’t more employers take steps to implement these changes in their districts? Districts often cite the following obstacles:

  • Time – can’t spare workers from their jobs
  • Insufficient HR or other staff to implement
  • Finances
  • Lack of Senior Admin support
  • Not enough annual new hires to emphasize new practices

While these barriers do pose problems for districts, onboarding technology with pricing scalable to the size of your district can actually relieve most of these challenges.

Using Technology to Automate Onboarding Processes

By using recruiting and onboarding tools, you can automatically gather information as your new hires pre-board online. Automating these basic onboarding steps can save a great deal of time and paperwork management, allowing your HR team to focus on the rest of their duties, even during recruiting and onboarding season.

Then, by getting the more tedious parts of the process out of the way ahead of time, you can spend your employees’ first few days giving tours, conducting group exercises and building relationships that will strengthen your individual employees’ engagement in your district.

And by improving engagement and thereby increasing employee retention, your district could see a significant decrease in your annual recruiting costs. In “Fully on-board: Getting the most from your talent in the first year,” Martin and Lombardi offer the five key functions that “best in class” employers utilize in their onboarding processes:

  • Reporting tools that monitor which employees have completed what forms and tasks
  • Tools that leverage data collected in the recruiting process
  • Tools that track progress against development/career plans
  • Tools that automatically trigger emails when status changes from applicant to employee
  • “Smart forms” that pre-populate fields with built-in routing/workflow Using Technology to Promote Your Culture

The advantages of technology for accomplishing the “paperwork” side of onboarding are obvious. But could your district also use technology to transmit culture?

SilkRoad Technology
Creating an Onboarding Process 

 “Employees who know what to expect from their company’s culture and work environment make better decisions that are more aligned with the accepted practices of the company.”

Creating an awareness of your culture will help new hires, current staff, students and parents understand what to expect and how to identify with your district.

Consider content, such as a video, on your district website or social media channels to welcome newcomers and communicate what the district culture is really like.

Several districts, including Dallas ISD, Atlanta Public Schools, Goshen Central School District and Des Moines Public Schools use Pinterest to share resources and communicate the culture people can expect to find in their schools. Efforts like this to produce engaging content and to utilize media channels relevant to the people in your district shows that your district cares about its culture and the people within it.

Better Onboarding = Greater Student Success

Time and attention opens opportunities for recognition. Recognition increases employee motivation. Higher motivation increases employee engagement. Higher engagement increases commitment. Higher commitment increases discretionary effort, loyalty and retention. Higher discretionary effort, loyalty and retention increases employee productivity and performance achievement. Higher employee productivity and performance achievement increases student success. It’s all related.

Self-Evaluation Worksheet

Want to see how you’re doing in your district? Try this onboarding self-evaluation checklist and scoresheet to document possible next steps for your district as you work to enhance your district’s onboarding process.

We recommend completing the Self Evaluation Checklist first and filling out the “Doing this currently” column. Then review the Scoresheet to see if your answers rate as “basic,” “advanced” or “enhanced” on the scoresheet afterward.

What steps are you taking to improve first impressions and lasting retention in your district?