My sons are back in school after a busy summer. Mornings at the house are finally quiet again and this got me thinking of all the projects related to this back-to-school season. It is time to get ahead of the curve on the most important of those tasks.
Similarly, this is also a good time of the year when many school-based organizations can start to plan out their hiring timelines and projections for the following school year. Teachers and school leaders may start thinking about next career steps as early as November or December and many school recruitment activities really start to pick up at the beginning of the new year.
The Fall is a perfect time for organizations to look at potential hiring sources such as:
· Recruitment events at teacher colleges and/or Schools of Education
· Networking opportunities in your community to establish new relationships and to build potential partnerships
· Specific conferences that specialize in areas to fit your organization’s needs (i.e Charter School or technology based conferences)
· Maintaining connections to key stakeholders and building a referral network.
One of the best resources for hiring key positions is to promote from within. Does your organization have an emerging leadership program? The Fall can be a great time to look at succession plans for key positions. Who are some of the influential individuals in your school or organization and how can you empower them to take on more leadership responsibilities?
This is a great time to look back at systems and processes to determine what worked well last year. You can ask key questions such as:
· What events gave us a good yield of qualified candidates for our open positions and which did not?
· What key positions do you expect to open up in the next 9-12 months?
· What will be our recruiting and hiring budget for the coming year?
· Have we prepared financial reserves for positions that need to be filled unexpectedly throughout the year?
Putting together a recruitment project timeline and listing a calendar of events will help hiring managers to get a bird’s eye view of the upcoming recruitment season, alleviating any last minute scrambling to fill those critical positions. So, why not get a jump start on the planning process this year? You will be better prepared to fill those critical positions and before you know it, summer break will be upon us again!