How to create a vacancy

This guide will show you how to create a job vacancy on Tes so you can start attracting candidates.

Please note: The new Tes ATS uses the term “vacancy” for job adverts.

Follow steps below to create a job advert on the Tes ATS and post your vacancy to Tes Jobs.

Creating a new vacancy on the Tes ATS

Log in to the new ATS. You can follow the steps outlined in this helpful article to learn how.
Once you have logged in, you will be on your dashboard. To create a vacancy, select “Create a vacancy” from the top four options. This action will open a new page where you can fill in your job advert details.

How to fill in your job details when you create a vacancy

When you land on the create a vacancy page, you are presented with a series of empty fields. To create your vacancy, you must provide the following information:

Vacancy name, contract term, if the role is full time or part time, the workplace and the position type.

Please note: minimum qualification and minimum years’ experience are not mandatory fields and can be left blank.
Type in your vacancy name – we recommend it best describes the advertised job as accurately as possible
Select the Minimum qualification (not mandatory)
Type your Minimum Years’ Experience (not mandatory)
Toggle on or off if the role is suitable for NQTs or ECTs. Red = Off. Green = On
Select your Contract term. Contract term states if your advertised position is Permanent, Fixed, Maternity cover and more.
Toggle if the job is full time or part time. A red toggle indicates the selection is off. A green toggle indicates the selection is on.
When selecting a workplace, you can choose multiple options in the dropdown.

How to weight your positions responsibilities when creating a vacancy

When outlining the expectations of the position, for relevant jobs, additional dropdowns will appear e.g. if you select the position type as teacher, dropdown options for Curriculum, Educational Stage, Department and Subject appear.

These additional fields are not required to complete creating the vacancy, but Tes recommends that you fill in these fields to provide candidates with the most amount of information as possible.
If your job includes multiple responsibilities e.g. if the person you are hiring also needs to be a head of year, select “Split position”.
After you select “Split position”, you can select an additional Position Type and add a corresponding weight. Each weight must add up to 100% across all positions eg if the person you are hiring is expected to be a Physics teacher and a Head of Year, you can state that they will spend 70% of their time teaching and 30% of their time.
To add a weighting, select the corresponding percentage from the “weighting” dropdown.

How to write a job description when creating a vacancy

Press “Generate description” to automatically create a job description. This will create a description from a template.
Edit the job description to match your requirements and personalise for your brand.

Please note: Tes recommends you edit your generated job description to match your schools branding, outline your ethos and attract better candidates.
Apply formatting to the job description including headings, bold, italic and underlining, and bullet points.

How to enter salary details when creating a vacancy

You do not need to enter salary details when creating your vacancy, however, we recommend you provide a salary range to appear in more searches on Tes Jobs.

Select the relevant currency
Type the minimum amount into “Minimum”
Type the maximum amount into “Maximum”
Select your “Period”
Write in the “Description box” any contextual information the applicant might need to know. For example, this could include benefits

How to add additional documents to your vacancy

You can add up to 25MB of additional documents to your job advert that candidates can download from Tes Jobs.

Supported file types: .pdf; .doc; .docx; .png; .jpg; .csv; .xlsx

Unsupported file types: .exe; .zip; .json

Press “Document type” to open the dropdown options and select the type of document you would like to upload for candidates to potentially view offline
Press “Select” to open your computer’s filing system and choose the file you want to upload
Repeat for every document you want to upload.

Please note: if your document is not captured by the dropdown options in “Document type”, please select the “Supporting document” option from the dropdown.

How to set up your vacancy settings

In the Vacancy Settings section, you are presented with five options you can fill in.

Click “Accepting applications from” to select the date you want to start accepting applications from. Your advert will appear on Tes Jobs from this date
Click “Accepting applications at” to choose a time you want your vacancy to appear on Tes Jobs eg 11:30AM. This is not a mandatory field.
Click “Applications close on” to select your application deadline. Your advert will close on Tes Jobs on this date and the ATS will automatically archive your vacancy.
Click “Applications closes at” to choose a time you want your vacancy to close on Tes Jobs and be archived in the ATS e.g. 11:30AM. This is not a mandatory field.
Click “Role start date” to choose a date you would like the candidate to start at your school. This is not a mandatory field.
Toggle if you would like limited users to “manage this vacancy”. Learn how to set limited users here

How to add your custom questions to your vacancy

You can customise your application form with custom questions specific to your advertised vacancy. Read “How to create your custom questions” to learn how you can do this.

To add your custom questions to your vacancy:

Press “Manage vacancy questions"
In the pop-up, tick the questions you would like to ask applicants for this vacancy
Press “Save changes”.

Please note: when creating custom questions, you can save questions as default questions. Default questions will be asked on every vacancy.

How to select “Your application type” when creating your vacancy

When creating a vacancy, you have four options:

Connect: This is quick apply. Candidates apply with one click and the details you need are pulled from their profile.

Request a CV: candidates must upload their CV when applying

Please note: for KCSIE compliance, it is recommended that you collect an application form as well as a CV when hiring educators for your school.

Upload your own application: upload your own application form that candidates can download from Tes Jobs and upload when applying

Divert candidates to another website: send any applicant you want to your own website to complete their application

Select “Application type” and choose the relevant option.
If you select “Upload your own application”, you will be invited to upload your application form.
If you select “Divert candidates to another website”, you will be asked to supply a URL.
If happy select “Upload your own application” or “Divert candidates to another website”, you must tick the box acknowledging that you understand you might limit your available ATS functionality.

How to customise your application form when creating a vacancy

If you choose Connect, you can select what you want information you want the applicant to provide by pressing “Manage profile requirements” in the Application requirements section.
In the pop up, tick the information you want to receive.
Press “Save changes”

Learn more about customising your profile requirements by reading this article.

How to set your vacancy pathway

The last step to taken when you are creating your vacancy is to set your vacancy pathway. This option allows you to choose what steps and actions you want to take from the moment a candidate applies to starting the job.

Choose if you want a six-step or eight-step process

Please note: While using the 8-step process you will be able to schedule interviews and use the pre-employment step to send a letter of offer or a pre-employment document to a candidate.

Final steps to create your vacancy

Now that you have filled in the various details, you are faced with three options: cancel, save as draft and create this vacancy.

If you are ready to make your vacancy live, press “Create this vacancy” to upload the job advert to Tes Jobs at the date & time stated in your vacancy settings.

If you would like to spend more time working on your advert, press “Save as draft”. You can access your draft from your Connect dashboard.

You can also cancel creating your vacancy, by pressing “Cancel”.

Tip: Once the job is live, share the link to your advert on social media or relevant networks to maximise its visibility. Also, keep an eye on the advert’s performance (views and applications) – see the guide on Reviewing advert performance for how to monitor this. 