The Best Way to Recruit Teachers with Interviewing Technology

In the competitive landscape of education, recruiting top-notch teachers has become an increasingly challenging task. Traditional hiring methods have evolved, and innovative solutions are now essential to attract the best talent in the field. Interviewing and hiring technology is no longer a ‘nice to have’ – it’s a necessity for school districts trying to be competitive in hiring enough teachers for their students.

Virtual interviewing technology has emerged as a game-changer for school districts looking to streamline their recruitment processes and secure top candidates efficiently. School districts that leverage the power of virtual interviews are able to reach a third more applicants and review their interviews 80% faster. This time advantage helps when the first offer teachers receive is often the offer they accept. 

See how real clients of interviewstream are using virtual interviewing technology, like one way video interviews, to recruit their favorite teacher candidates before other school districts.

How School Districts Using Virtual Interviews Screen Candidates Faster

By using virtual interviews, school districts and school boards can significantly expedite their candidate screening and selection procedures, gaining a competitive edge in securing top talent. On average, districts using interviewstream screen teachers 66-80% faster than before, 

Let’s delve into how schools can effectively employ virtual interviews to streamline their recruitment efforts:

1. Recruiters create interview templates based on job category. For example: primary teacher for 4th grade, or high school science teacher. 
2. Within the interview template, HR administrators create competency based questions. Some questions may be the same for each position (i.e. “Why are you motivated to teach”) but some questions can be different (such as – “Give a 5 minute lesson on erosion as if you were teaching a room of 16 year olds”)
3. After this part of the interview is made, recruiters can choose to add a pre-screen questionnaire. This can include yes or no questions such as “Are you willing to relocate?” 
4. After the interview template is set up, recruiters can make individual requisitions for each unfilled job position and send their top candidates invitations to complete a one way video interview.
5. Candidates then complete the one way (or pre-recorded) interview – normally in less than 48 hours. 
6. Principals, superintendents, HR directors, and whoever needs to review the applications then reviews the videos. They can rate, share, and rewatch videos if needed. After that, all that’s left to do for candidates moving forward is send an invitation for a second round interview.

This interviewing technology allows HR administrators to move candidates along the hiring process faster than if they had had to schedule with the candidate and hiring manager. The entire screening process is completed within 48 hours, giving an advantage to K-12 hiring teams using this technology.

Best Practices for Using Virtual Interviews To Recruit Teachers

To make the most out of virtual interviews and ensure a seamless experience for both candidates and hiring teams, school districts should follow these best practices:

Take Advantage of Evaluation Rubrics To Rate Candidates

Schools can take their existing evaluation process and, leveraging our review and rating systems, integrate them into their evaluation process. For example, one school district using interviewstream uses a 4 star rating scale. Evaluators are given a rubric that shows what candidates need to accomplish to get a 4-star score, 3-star score, etc. 

The rubric is available on the interviewstream platform for evaluators to reference when needed. By using their rubric in conjunction with the grading system already used on interviewstream, hiring managers see which candidates are truly the top contenders for teaching positions. Schools are also able to keep evaluation metrics consistent and objective across all candidates, leading to a fair and job-responsibility based evaluation process.

After the teacher candidates finish the process, evaluators keep tabs on them to determine their longevity at the school and how well they perform as teachers. This allows HR professionals to study the link between candidates with a high score and employees with a great quality of hire.

Integrate with your Applicant Tracking System 

By integrating video interviewing into your ATS, you can even further streamline the hiring process by allow all of you candidate information to live in one system. Start by Integrating the virtual interview process into the initial application stage. Candidates can submit their applications, and the pre-screen interviews are seamlessly integrated and shared with school principals or other hiring team members. Integrating with an ATS means all candidate information is available with the click of a button. Interviewstream integrates with the following K-12 focused applicant tracking systems: 

• Frontline Education
• PowerSchool
• ApplyToEducation 
• Custom integration to any system are available through our OpenAPI if you have a different applicant tracking system

Embed Video Components to Humanize Your Job Application

Consider using video-based welcome messages and messages to enhance the candidate experience. Some school districts using interviewstream even use students to ask prospective teacher candidates interview questions. These video questions are a great way to make your candidates feel more like they’re talking face-to-face with a person, rather than recording a video of themselves. It’s also a great way to showcase your school culture. 

Use On Demand Interviews to Onboard New Hires

Successful onboard plays a huge role in employee retention. Recent studies show that employees who had managers that communicated clear expectations were 23% more likely to stick around in the organization. On the flip side, those who felt awkward about giving feedback to their managers were 16% less likely to stay.

One way interviews are not just applicable to the screening and interviewing process. Our clients have successfully used one way interviews as a method to regularly check in with new hires. For example, new hires can be surveyed (either through video, audio, or text based answers) at 30, 60, and 90 day intervals to ensure their needs are being met, and there are no gaps in the new hire process, and opportunities for feedback are regularly provided.

Use interviewstream to Recruit Teachers

Embracing technological innovations is crucial for attracting and retaining the best teaching talent. Virtual interviews offer an unparalleled opportunity for school districts to expedite candidate screening, improve the hiring experience, and make data-driven hiring decisions. 

By following the best practices outlined in this guide, educational institutions can revolutionize their teacher recruitment process and secure the educators that will shape the future of their students and communities. Embrace the power of virtual interviewing technology and position your school district at the forefront of modern teacher recruitment – contact us to learn more.

About The Author

Caroline Chessia is the Marketing Operations Specialist at interviewstream. She loves color-coordinated graphs, hiking in the mountains, and every dog she meets—especially the Golden Retrievers.