Evolving Education Recruitment: Embracing the Virtual Landscape

Evolving Education Recruitment: Embracing the Virtual Landscape 

By Peter Cunningham, Ed.D, pHCLE, Director of Instruction and Personnel, Diamond Lake School District 76, Mundelein, IL

The most recent online job fair in March, facilitated by the Illinois Association of School Personnel Administrators (IASPA), an AASPA affiliate, attracted over 500 candidates who connected their profiles.

It is important that anyone overseeing recruiting for their school district or educational institution develop practices and protocols for virtual job fairs in order to attract and hire the most desirable candidates. 

Speed is Key

Unlike an in-person job fair, where employers typically only have access to the candidates that visit their table, with an online fair, employers likely have access to the data and resumes of all candidates that have applied. This can be very exciting for a hiring manager until the realization arrives that every other employer has access to the same candidates. Since now there could be many competing employers for the most desired candidates, hiring managers have to be ready to move quickly to screen, interview and ultimately hire staff. 

This process begins before the fair itself. The hiring manager will need to push the Human Resources department to adapt the recruitment process for speed and efficiency without compromising the importance of having a fair, ethical and consistent interview and hiring process. Before the job fair arrives, the hiring manager can work with the school or institutional leadership, human resources department and those involved in the interviewing and hiring of staff to ensure schedules are blocked-off soon after the job fair for conducting interviews, references and establishing the potential offers that would be given to candidates. Failure to do this can result in losing candidates to a district that was able to make an off er more quickly.

Establish a Normative Process

The process for virtual job fairs and hiring needs to be consistent and ensure all candidates and recruiters are engaging in an ethical process. Online fairs themselves move quickly and the better prepared a team is, the better the chance is of connecting with candidates and making a good impression. Hiring managers need to prepare questions to screen candidates and scripts about how to introduce the district or institution, answer questions about the positions that are open and give next steps.

Recruiters need to convey a lot of information and gather important feedback from staff in a very short time window. And anything electronic, like a chat record, is linked to the organization and stored. This can be helpful or it can be problematic if there is a record of a recruiter asking a question about age, family status, etc. that could expose the district. 

The hiring manager needs to work with the team to decide the format of any candidate screenings or connections. Virtual fairs usually allow for using a chat, voice call and/or video call with candidates. The approaches that are allowed need to be established ahead of time, as well as what the recruiters should say and are allowed to ask. Whoever is involved in the fair also needs to know the educational institution’s stance on hiring staff with out-of state licenses and visa sponsorship, because there are often candidates at virtual fairs that fall into one or both of these categories. 

Do the Homework Ahead of Time

Many virtual fairs allow for employers to invite candidates to chat with them at specific times. The importance of doing the research on candidates and inviting them to chat with a member of the recruiting team at a virtual fair cannot be understated. If the team has studied a candidate in advance, it is much easier to have a personalized, engaging screening interview and to also have an idea of who would be moved along in the process. This targeted approach and the ability to move quickly can make the difference between hiring or losing the candidate to another employer.

As an aside, there is an ethical question to consider. Employers often have access to the contact information of candidates before the fair begins. It might be tempting for recruiters to contact candidates before the fair starts. If teams are insistent on exploring if this is allowed, the team should ask the organization or company running the virtual fair. Contacting candidates ahead of the fair is likely not permitted.

Stay in Close Proximity to the Team

While virtual job fairs are online, being in the same room or area with the team can be extremely helpful. First, often candidates will need to get passed along from one person to another, depending on the position for which the candidate is being considered. And sometimes a member of the recruiting team might try to connect to a candidate with whom someone else on the team has already spoken. Being able to have verbal conversations with someone in the same room as you is very efficient and keeps the team organized. When a candidate interacts with an accessible, organized team, such an experience can stand out. 

Have a Backup Plan for Technical Difficulties

Internet connections and problems with virtual job fair platforms can and will occur. The hiring manager should plan for contingencies by developing a protocol for emailing or calling candidates that they cannot contact due to such difficulties.

First Impressions Still Matter

When a candidate interacts with an employer in a virtual fair, the candidate’s best connections to the district are the website, social media, the online booth and the virtual backgrounds seen when doing video interviews with candidates. The human resources department will want to ensure that social media and the website are updated and easy to navigate, and that the branding in the district is consistent.