June 1, 2022

Future of Hiring

For an industry in which people ARE the value proposition, independent schools have historically dedicated few year round resources to employee recruitment. With the Great Resignation and thin candidate pools this winter and spring, heads are reporting the most challenging hiring environment they've ever encountered and most expect these dynamics to persist for another few years. In Groundhog Day, I describe a year round approach to employee recruitment based on networking. It's an approach that often arises organically at schools, often here and there with a school's divisions or departments, situated in a handful of individuals who have built connections over time with community partners and candidates, people who know "who's out there." Groundhog Day argues for applying this approach across the institution. Communication and Recruitment recommends the establishment of a new senior administrative position, Chief Recruiter, or in smaller schools the reorganization of responsibilities so that someone on campus has recruitment as at least 50% of their role. This person would function much as a Director of Advancement does creating and stewarding not donors but community partners and potential candidates, coaching colleagues involved in the hiring process, and cultivated an on-going, deep knowledge of the school's programs and needs.