Ask any hiring school, and they’ll tell you attracting new teachers is a major challenge right now. Talent pools are shrinking, everyone’s competing for the same educators and relying on job boards alone won’t bring the results it used to.
Of course, there are a lot of different factors contributing to the school recruitment crisis. But a big part of the problem – and one that’s often underplayed – is how schools actually recruit.
Look beyond education and you’ll see how much the recruitment landscape has evolved over the last few years. Recruitment agencies and the private sector are using all kinds of innovative tech-led recruitment strategies to attract and engage a constant flow of great talent into their pipelines. All this, while schools continue to rely on outdated, traditional recruitment methods that put candidates off working for them.
One major recruitment strategy that forward-thinking schools are starting to adopt is multichannel. A multichannel approach to recruitment is fast becoming the only way for schools to keep up with the private sector and continue reaching the UK’s best educators.
But what is multichannel recruitment exactly? Let’s take a look at what it looks like in practice, why it’s so beneficial to hiring schools and how you can implement a multichannel approach at your school today.
Multichannel recruitment is a hiring strategy that involves using multiple platforms and methods simultaneously to attract and engage a constant flow of potential candidates.
For most schools, the recruitment process currently involves waiting until you have a new vacancy, creating a job ad and then relying on a single source to magically bring suitable candidates to you. This way of recruiting hasn’t worked for years, yet we continue to do it and feel frustrated with the results.
A multichannel strategy, on the other hand, supports the idea that when the market is this competitive, you need a proactive rather than reactive approach. You need to be where great educators are actually spending their time online (i.e. not job boards!), attract them with your messaging and pull them into one single platform so you can engage and hire them before someone else does.
Using a wide scope of different channels and platforms, multichannel allows you to reach a much more diverse pool of talent – including those teachers who aren’t actually looking for a new role yet – which substantially increases your chances of finding the right people for your vacancies.
There are a few reasons why this method of recruitment is particularly important for schools to get on board with right now.
For one thing, a lot of schools are still using traditional, outdated recruitment methods like paper or downloadable job application forms. But the reality is, as much as 70% of candidates apply for jobs on mobiles nowadays. When you consider this, against the fact that most schools don’t even support online applications (never mind one that’s optimized for mobile!) you can see how crucial it is to modernise your approach.
We’re living in a world now where candidates are overwhelmed by choice online every day. This means employers need to work harder to pique their interest and earn their trust; studies have shown that it takes 8-10 touchpoints before a candidate will trust your school brand.
Restricting your candidate attraction to job boards means you could be missing out on hundreds of qualified applicants. Only around 30% of teachers are considered active candidates, so are actively looking for jobs on job boards. The other 70% are passive candidates, who aren’t actively looking for a new role - yet - so can’t be found on these sites.
We’re in a candidate-driven market, where schools (and wider sectors too) are all competing for the same talent. This creates a situation where you’re wasting resources trying to recruit candidates who are already in the interview process with 5 other schools at the same time, when you could be engaging with those who haven’t even started their job search yet.
To recruit effectively in this kind of market, you need a proactive approach that reaches teachers no one else is finding – and that’s exactly what a multichannel recruitment strategy is designed to do.
So now you know the basics of what a multichannel recruitment strategy looks like and why schools could really benefit from them, how do you go about implementing multichannel at your school today? There are four key steps to getting started.
Map out your channels
First, you’ll want to map out any channels and platforms you currently use in your recruitment strategy. ‘Channels’ are the different methods you use to reach out to potential candidates (e.g. social media, email, job boards) and ‘platforms’ are the places you have a presence in (e.g. Facebook, Eteach Jobs, Mailchimp, your school’s career site).
Then, list out the platforms and channels that you’re not using yet but that could provide an opportunity to reach totally new talent pools. A good way to work out which platforms and channels you should be testing is by creating candidate personas.
Choose a software that supports all of those channels
At the centre of every successful multichannel strategy is a powerful recruitment software that can fully support it. While the aim of a multichannel strategy is to reach as far and wide as possible, you’ll need a recruitment technology that seamlessly filters all candidates and applications straight into your ATS automatically. That way, the system works its magic with no manual work from you and you can be sure that no candidate will fall through the cracks.
Define your core messaging and logos
If your multichannel strategy is going to raise awareness and strengthen trust in your school’s brand, you need to have a clear core message and recognisable logo that accompanies everything you post. Studies have shown that candidates need multiple touchpoints with your brand before they will trust it, and for this to be effective you need consistency.
Set your KPIs
The only way you’ll see the true impact of your multichannel strategy is by setting the right key performance indicators and tracking your data as you go.
Your recruitment software should be able to provide you with a whole wealth of data you can learn from, including which platforms are bringing quality candidates and which channels don’t provide the best return on your investment.
Data is absolutely crucial to running a successful multichannel strategy, so make sure to decide your goals and monitor them closely so you can improve ROI and reduce spend as you go.
Get support
If this is the first time you’re encountering multichannel, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed right now. The idea of adding more channels and platforms to your recruitment strategy when resources are already tight also might not seem possible.
But don’t worry – a modern education recruitment software like SchoolRecruiter will handle the extra work for you, and we have a team ready to support you in the transition too.
Want to see how adopting a multichannel strategy could truly revolutionise your recruitment? Visit us here to find out more and get in touch with our experts to start your multichannel hiring journey today.