February 1, 2022
Hiring
One more measure of the strength of mission and community in independent schools is our relative non-participation in the Great Resignation. Unlike their counterparts in other sectors, independent school people have stayed in their positions this fall, and the early signs this winter are that there will be only a slight upswing in turnover for the 2022 - 2023 school year. That said, there were far fewer candidates in the fall searches for heads and other senior administrators, and all indications suggest that candidate pools will be shallow for searches across the org chart this winter and spring. Would-be candidates are either holding their own or moving onto other careers, as this Wall Street Journal report suggests.
It's a good time for schools to confront their hiring biases and dig more deeply into what the "alternative candidate" means at your school and how you'll go about identifying them. Knuckleball Consulting has done just that and partnered with several clients this fall to conduct searches outside the legacy formats, often defined by confirmation bias. I'm presenting on this approach to hiring with one of my clients, Vanessa Alpert, Director of Human Resources at Pembroke Hill School, to member school leaders at ISAS, SAIS and ISACS in the next month. Vanessa has transformed the role of HR Director at Pembroke from benefits bureaucrat to recruiting strategist and helped her school expand its hiring practice tremendously.