If you’re only recruiting twice a year, you might start to wonder where all the great teachers are hiding.
They’re not. But your school might be if your online presence isn’t quite up to scratch.
We surveyed 12,618 teachers for our second annual recruitment report and discovered that:
- 95% of active job seekers are currently searching for their next teaching job online
- 58% of working international teachers found their current role online
And where exactly are they looking for jobs online? It’s a bit of a mixed bag, actually, but here are the top three online search channels they identified:
- Education job boards
- School websites
So, if you’re not in these places, how can they possibly find you?
And with that truth bomb out of the way, let’s get back to the topic at hand: how to raise your job posting game in 5 simple steps.
Step 1. Make it mobile friendly
Today, candidate expect that job applications work across different devices. Your teachers also expect more of the “easy apply,” one-click functionality that makes applying faster and easier for them.
Step 2. Include real pictures of your school and teachers
It doesn’t cost a lot to hire a photographer or take good digital pics. This is a chance to give candidates a glimpse of what life is really like at your school.
Step 3. Make requirements work both ways
Keep in mind that the job posting shouldn’t just be a job description. If you’re completely focused on what you’re looking for in a new teacher versus what you have to offer, they may not be resonating with candidates, especially in a job seeker’s market like the one we currently find ourselves in.
So try to list the things the teacher you’re looking for will care about, like your school’s culture, community, career progression opportunities, etc.
Step 4. Be transparent about salary
Go right into selling the position by highlighting the salary and bonus that come with the position (the most critical factor in deciding whether or not to apply to a job in the first place, according to our survey).
If you’re hesitant to include compensation upfront, you may inadvertently cause qualified teachers to lose interest.
Step 5. List those benefits
Teachers with children, for example, consider family health insurance a more significant factor in their decision to apply for a job than salary and bonus.
There’s always room for a bit of marketing wiggle with different types of candidates – maybe you can’t offer the best salary, but perhaps there are other benefits you can highlight that make the prospect of working at your school appealing.
With 53% of candidates starting their job search at least six months in advance, it’s time to think of your recruitment as a year-long strategy.
So make sure your online presence is doing the heavy lifting for you at all times. Even if you’re not looking to fill a vacancy right away, you should still keep a career page live on your school website and a year-round presence on an education job board.
That way, you can build your pipeline of great teachers over time and get in touch when the time is right.
For more insights into what matters most to today’s international teaching candidate, get your free copy of Teach Away’s 2018-2019 International Education Recruitment Report.
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2019 edition of NESA News Magazine, the bi-annual newsletter of the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools (NESA).