How to weather an international recruitment storm

All the signs are that it could be a tricky year for international teacher and leadership recruitment.

Not only are schools going to be restricted in how they go about meeting and interviewing candidates, but it’s also likely that there’ll be fewer candidates chasing a higher than usual number of vacancies.

Meeting candidates in a Covid-19 world

The annual teacher recruitment trips to the UK are key points in the school year for most international school leaders.

For many schools, these trips combine attending major international recruitment fairs to meet prospective candidates with interviewing those who have responded to adverts and who have made it through the video-conferenced first round.

Traditionally at Kellett, we have had six UK trips pencilled in the diary, although in most years the recruitment has been completed in three or four. The likelihood is that this year there will be none. Face-to-face (or should that be mask-to-mask?) interviews will be restricted to local candidates.

It is still very much in the balance whether or not the annual recruitment fairs will take place as usual in early 2021. Their cancellation is likely to impact disproportionately on new schools and on schools in lesser-known locations that rely heavily on these events as a source of their teacher talent.

Home comforts

The Covid-19 restrictions on travel etc have meant that a lot of people who are living a long way from loved ones understandably are rethinking working overseas.

Living abroad works for many people because they know that, in most cases, they can hop on a plane and be home the next day. It is reassuring for those with elderly or sick relatives that they will be able to get home at short notice if necessary.

Likewise, there are many who routinely sustain long-distance relationships living apart in different countries in the knowledge that they can catch up at weekend or at the next half-term break.

2020 has changed all that. People have not been able to travel, splitting up families. This forced separation was never part of the equation. For some, it has meant tough decisions between the relationship and the career.

The consequence of this is that we could see a higher proportion of teachers than usual heading home at the end of the year (even if that means breaking contract). By the same token, those who were thinking of moving abroad in 2021 may well postpone their move until there is greater certainty again over travel and movement.

Furthermore, it is likely that candidates will be much more discerning about where they move abroad to work. If there are going to be lockdowns and quarantine restrictions, most teachers want to be in interesting places where there is lots to do in the locale.

This is going to impact on those schools in remote second and third-tier Asian cities at the very time when many schools are setting up and expanding in these areas. Indeed, the consequence of this is going to be that salaries and packages may have to rise further to attract people to schools in these cities.

Six ways to prepare your school for this year’s recruitment storm

The simple conclusion is that International schools should prepare for a tough year in terms of recruitment. So, with that in mind, here are six things that schools can do to help them weather this year’s recruitment storm:

1. Plan for going fully virtual

On the basis of “plan for the worst and hope for the best”, it makes sense to assume that all recruitment this year is going to be online through virtual recruitment fairs and video-conference interviews.

2. Build your online employer brand

Put as much effort into your teacher recruitment as you do into your pupil recruitment. Have an area on your website that outlines what it is like to work at your school.

The ‘Working at Kellett’ section of our school website has video case studies of staff talking about how they came to join Kellett and what it is like to work in Hong Kong. An excellent example of a school selling a less-well-known location is Haileybury Almaty’s video ‘How British teachers live and work in Almaty’.

3. Look for new sources of talent

In addition to the traditional approaches to recruitment (adverts, job fairs and recruitment agencies), it is worth exploring new ways to attract talent.

For example, try to lever your school social media and professional networks by setting up a school jobs Twitter feed; and by posting the advert on the school LinkedIn page. Encourage colleagues to re-tweet or share the posts and thus extend the reach of the advert.

4. Be flexible about timing

There is no doubt that the international recruitment round has been moving earlier in the year. At Kellett, we had made five out of seven senior school appointments before the Christmas break last year.

Schools that stick to their traditional pattern of “we don’t advertise until January and then we interview in late February” may well be too late to the party.

5. Rethink your Interview questions and processes

International schools are generally quite good at conducting remote recruitment via video conferencing, but it is worthwhile reviewing both the questions that are asked and the tasks that are set.

At Kellett, we are moving away from the traditional style questions (“can you give an example from your career when you...”) to setting work-related tasks and scenario-type questions (“what would you do or say in this scenario...).

This approach elicits more relevant, deeper responses (and it is much more difficult for candidates to roll out pre-prepared stock answers) which is vital if the whole process is being done remotely.

6. Do your due diligence

International schools routinely ask questions at interview to reassure themselves that the candidate has thought through fully what the move abroad entails.  

Part of that process this year is going to be a series of hypothetical questions exploring how the candidate feels about the potential impact of any travel restrictions.

Mark S. Steed is the principal and CEO of Kellett School, the British School in Hong Kong; and previously ran schools in Devon, Hertfordshire and Dubai. He tweets @independenthead