TSL Education, publisher of Times Educational Supplement (TES), is seeing further outstanding take-up of its free online schools recruitment service, gaining huge market share and exceeding initial take-up expectations. The company reports that more than 750 schools (23% of secondaries) have signed up for its service.
Bill Donoghue, Director at TES HireWire, says: "Since the launch of TES HireWire in February, some 750 schools (23% of secondaries) have signed up for the service of which 500 are already live and advertising vacancies using the service. The number of teachers registered as candidates on TES HireWire has now passed 5,000. The feedback from schools, local authorities, academies and candidates has exceeded our best expectations. We are delighted with this huge response, which endorses our significant ongoing capital investment and strategic imperative to help schools find outstanding teachers for the right roles."
Bill Donoghue continues: "The challenge for TSL is to help get the right teacher in the right job – every time. Beyond decent class size, a smart school building and state-of-the-art ICT, evidence shows that the biggest single factor in determining whether schools contribute to raising standards or perpetuate a cycle of low aspiration and poor attainment is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. Everyone remembers their best teacher and their worst, and TSL believes with a passion that putting the right teachers in the right jobs, and then supporting them, can make a difference to the overall quality of education in the UK. TES HireWire is a key enabler to addressing this challenge."
About TES HireWire
Developed with head teachers and their teams, TES HireWire is designed specially for schools and is very easy to use. Schools can easily set up a vacancy and are prompted for all essential information, helping to ensure that their advertising is accurate. Communication with all media, including national and regional press, recruitment agencies, local authorities and The TES, is made quick and easy, facilitating the timely booking of advertisements, whatever the media of choice.
Once the advertising appears online or in print, applicants are directed to a secure school-branded microsite automatically generated for schools when they set up a TES HireWire account. It is from here that applicants can apply online using the school’s application form. If they don’t complete their application within a few days of the closing date, schools can send an email reminder, helping them to maximise the response to their advertising. Even if candidates apply by post, the school can still upload their details in order to manage the applicants centrally.
As the applications start to arrive, the management features of TES HireWire really start to shine. The Applicant Tracking feature provides complete visibility and control of all applications and helps schools to track, manage and communicate with candidates. No more piles of application forms at risk of getting lost or misplaced!
Schools can track the number and status of all the applicants for a particular role from an intuitively designed dashboard on the homepage of their microsite, and all the mandatory checks on those lucky enough to be selected - references, medicals and security checks – can be safely logged. TES HireWire also helps schools to reduce the often enormous amount of paperwork and photocopying associated with recruitment and will therefore contribute substantially to meeting sustainability targets.
The beauty of the service is that all this information can be archived securely for future reference, should the school wish to revisit a candidate further down the line. It also saves time for the candidates themselves as, having registered with TES HireWire, their details will be there ready each time they apply for subsequent jobs via the website.
Where relevant, the school can send notification of appointments to the relevant local authority, and personalised emails can be quickly generated and sent to unsuccessful candidates. This is something that many schools, through no fault of their own, just don’t have the time or resources to do, but which can often reflect badly on them.
A major benefit of using the service is that it allows schools to evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising. TES HireWire automatically generates reports which present a breakdown of the spend per advertising medium used, as well as the cost per application and even the cost for each short-listed candidate. This enables schools to assess at a glance which media generated the best and most cost-effective response.
About TSL Education
TSL Education Ltd is the UK’s leading educational publisher and recruitment service. Its portfolio of titles includes education websites www.tes.co.uk and www.timeshighereducation.co.uk, print publications The Times Educational Supplement, FE Focus and Times Higher Education, and education exhibitions and events. TSL’s recruitment service, TES Prime, is a dedicated leadership service for the education sector, working with primary, secondary and independent school governors seeking a new leader for their school.
TSL Education recently launched TES HireWire, a groundbreaking, free-of-charge online solution to support schools through the entire recruitment process - www.teshirewire.com
www.tes.co.uk is the home of TES Connect, the UK’s leading educational website. The number one site for education jobs, TES Connect is now also the world’s largest professional network for teachers to share ideas and the best classroom resources.