Successful Ways to Leverage Your Teacher Hiring Technology in 2021 – Fireside Chat Recap

“Every child deserves a champion; an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection and insists they become the best they can possibly be.” – Rita Pierson, Educator

And Trina Persson, Director of Recruitment and Retention at New Caney ISD, is determined to hire those teacher champions for the kids in her district, no matter what it takes. Trina recently chatted with Meg Peterson, VP of Revenue at interviewstream, to discuss how she has used interview technology throughout the past year for hiring in her school district and how she will continue to use it moving forward to hire the best teachers, and paraprofessionals in her district,  the teachers and staff she wants her own children to sit with in a classroom and meet in the hallways at school.

You can watch the full fireside chat and hear from Trina and Meg here. Below is also a short recap with sound bites from their full discussion.

2020 Reflections

2020 was a year of immense change. In March, school districts, in the midst of their busiest hiring season, had to make a quick pivot to remote hiring. Trina described this time as, “It felt like running through the Piney Woods blindfolded.” And we can relate. School districts had to hit the ground running to make the changes needed to keep hiring moving forward for full-time and substitute teachers.

Even though Trina’s district, New Caney ISD in Texas, had already implemented remote video interviewing technology, they were not using the tools to their full potential. Although they were one step ahead of many districts, they were forced to learn new ways to leverage the technology in a way that worked best for them in this new state of K12 hiring.

The Current State of Hiring for K12 School Districts

The majority of K12 school districts have been hiring virtually for the past year, and will continue to do so far into the future. While looking forward to getting back to face-to-face interactions, school districts continue to use remote hiring technology to build their talent pipeline and provide a superior candidate experience for their teachers and staff.

From job fairs to the recruitment process, the use of hiring technology is an effective way to communicate and vet potential teacher candidates. Trina explained the way she uses the technology and how it can work best for your school district hiring:

1. Virtual Job Fairs. Host a virtual job fair and send interested candidates an email with instructions. Within the emails, embed information about screening videos, or one-way video interviews, which are an integral part of the application process as they allow candidates to interview anytime, anywhere and provide your hiring teams with more personalized insight than a resume.
2. Recruitment Emails. Use recruitment emails to create an open line of communication with candidates. Send emails to potential candidates describing the open position and laying out the steps for applying. You can (1) include a link for candidates to complete a one-way video interview in your initial outreach email or (2) wait until an application is received and reviewed to share the link.
3. Online Screening. A one-way video interview provides a quick glimpse into who candidates really are and their skill sets, personality, fit for the role, and experience. It’s value is vast. It saves principals and superintendents time and money, allowing every member of your hiring team to access the videos at will and helping you pinpoint standout candidates faster.

Interviewing technology opens the door to a plethora of use cases and opportunities. New Caney ISD implemented the technology in the best way it worked for their school district hiring process, but there are so many other ways in which you can use the technology for teacher recruiting and hiring in your district.

Lessons Learned

When the world had to blindly pivot to remote everything, K12 hiring was in game-on mode, and K12 district recruiting teams had to make fast changes. As Trina and New Caney ISD forged forward with teacher hiring technology, there were a few things she wished she had known, that she can now share with others implementing video interviewing into their school districts.

1. Plan, Plan, Plan! Make a solid one. Dot your i’s and cross your t’s. Think of all the pieces and all the players involved and be sure everyone is on the same page. If you need someone to assist you on the rollout depending on the size of your district and applicant pool, have that person on board from day one. And ensure that all individuals on the rollout team are educated when it comes to the technology.
2. Keep everyone updated. Once the rollout is complete and you are moving forward with recruitment, keep everyone in the district in the loop. Even the administrative staff needs to have a heads up because they often will be the touch point for candidates calling in with questions.
3. Personalize the process.This cannot be stressed enough. The candidate experience still needs to be at the forefront of your recruitment process when using video interviewing tools. When recruiting teachers, you want to find the best of the best for your students and personalization is becoming an important differentiator for employers – it is next level in the candidate experience.

Leverage hiring tech to hire quality teachers and staff

Trina Persson and New Caney ISD have leveraged teacher hiring technology in the best way that works for their district. However, the scope of opportunity for video interviewing technology usage spans so much further. Guidelines will eventually be lifted and the doors will once again be open to face-to-face recruitment, but video interviewing technology is here to stay.

To hear all the details on how the New Caney school district has used and will continue to use teacher hiring technology for their K12 recruiting, watch the full fireside chat here.

If you are excited about the possibilities that video interviewing technology can add to your K12 recruiting, speak to a client success expert about how our technology can add value to your teacher hiring process and help give your students the very best teachers!

About The Author

Monique Mahler is the CEO of interviewstream. She is an avid researcher of facts, a self proclaimed marketing geek, and an equestrian in her spare time.