How to Beat the Teacher Shortage by Broadening Your Recruiting Horizons

In many school districts, teacher recruitment efforts tend to be localized and rarely focused out-of-state — unless, of course, your district is near a border. And while localized recruitment strategies can be very effective, if you’re struggling with teacher shortages, it’s time to branch out.

Most likely, you and your team work with finite resources to attend all the out-of-state job fairs you can but you know that there are plenty of qualified educators around in the country who might be looking to relocate to your area.

Invest In Recruitment Materials

Put the time into perfecting your district’s recruitment materials so that you can send it into the world to do the work for you. Consider investing in your:

• Your district’s brand: Across your materials, what story are you telling about what it means to work in the district?
• District website: The first thing most people do when exploring something new? Google it.
• Recruiting page: Have a dedicated page on the district website for interested applications and keep it useful and updated
• Job postings: Make each one great since they’re likely a candidate’s first exposure to the district

Out-of-state applicants probably need a little more motivation to seriously consider your district, especially since they would have to relocate to work for you. So, talk up your location and community too. Is it a gorgeous rural setting, ideal for nature lovers or people with an outdoorsy side? Or is it bustling with activity and culture, with something new happening every weekend? There’s something great about where your district is, but out-of-state candidates may not know about it until you tell them.

Out-of-state applicants probably need a little more motivation to seriously consider your district, especially since they would have to relocate to work for you. So, talk up your location and community too. Is it a gorgeous rural setting, ideal for nature lovers or people with an outdoorsy side? Or is it bustling with activity and culture, with something new happening every weekend? There’s something great about where your district is, but out-of-state candidates won’t know about it until you tell them.

Tip: Your job posting may be an applicant’s first exposure for your district, so make sure it makes a great first impression. Check out our blog post 3 Characteristics (and Examples) of Great Teacher Job Postings.

Make It Easy for Job-Seekers To Find You

Make sure that applicants hear about your districts and can easily find open jobs in your district. Have a clearly-labeled link to your job postings in the main navigation of your district’s website; don’t let open positions languish, hidden. Local candidates who already know about your district and are interested in applying might be willing to do a digital scavenger hunt to try and find a job application, but others will give up and look for districts with a more streamlined site.

Advertise your district’s and its openings:

• If your district has someone dedicated to public relations or communications, work closely with them to ensure that your district’s story is told.
• Post vacancies on online job boards and social media pages.
• Consider the generations you’re targeting and whether local classified ads or billboards are necessary at this point.
• Reach out to local publishers and the media to see if they’ll run a story about working in your district

Journalists are more likely to pick up the story if you can give them more to go on than the fact that you have open positions. So, make sure to tell them what you’re doing differently, like offering a signing bonus for certain shortage-prone districts or setting up a new mentoring program for new hires. Shine a light on the wonderful work happening in your districts, and have the media do the work of spreading the word.

Invite Qualified Applicants to Apply

That’s all great for having job-seekers find you — but what if you can be proactive about finding them? On certain certain online job boards and career sites — Frontline’s proactive recruiting tools, for instance — you can invite qualified candidates to apply. With our applicant tracking system to automate your outreach strategy, so you don’t have to sink hours of your time into messaging applicants individually.

Another idea for proactive outreach is networking with teacher preparation programs. You probably already have partnerships in place with local colleges of education, but why not try reaching out to out-of-state universities as well? It might not lead to an official partnership, but it can only help if professors mention your district in class, or if your vacancies are announced in their newsletter. Even if they aren’t within driving distance, they may have many students looking to move somewhere new after graduation.

Remove Obstacles From The Hiring Process

Effectively recruiting from further afield means you have to be willing to put yourself in a qualified candidates’ shoes and adjust your hiring process accordingly. It’s all about providing a great applicant experience. To put it simply, the easier your processes are, the more candidates you’ll have.

Look at your hiring process from their perspective:

• Is it an effecitve use of their time doing their job search?
• Is it a cost-effective effort for them? (A plane ride may not be feasible.)
• Can they see a realistic path for an out-of-state applicant to go through your process?

Lastly, look for ways to make the transition easier for candidates who need to move closer to your district. For example, can you offer a list of affordable housing or moving resources? This doesn’t mean you have to spend your own valuable time compiling a list of nearby apartments or moving companies — see if a local realtor already has something similar and is willing to share, perhaps in return for being recommended to employees new to the area. Ultimately, you know more than they do about the area.

In addition, seamless onboarding systems make the process easier for all new hires, but especially those who aren’t able to pop into your office for an hour or two to fill out forms in person. It’s all about making a great first impression and showing that your district is a fantastic, supportive, modern place to work.