Curbing the Teacher Shortage: How To Take a Retention-First Approach To Recruiting

Recruitment & Retention: A Two-fold Approach

Every year, sixteen percent of educators leave their school, and half of those teachers leave the profession altogether. That turnover puts administrators in a hard place: it can cost up to $18,000 to replace a teacher in a large urban district, and the recruitment and selection process for teachers can be a nightmare — especially for positions like STEM or special education.

So, when it comes to overcoming the teacher shortage, it’s not enough to recruit more applicants. You have to hire the right people and keep them around. Otherwise, you might end up with a revolving door of new teachers — an expensive problem that ultimately harms student achievement.

It’s time to stop the teacher shortage in its tracks by taking a retention-first approach to teacher recruitment. Here’s how.

Collect Information From Employees About Why They’re Leaving — Or Staying

First and foremost, determine where your school district stands by gathering as much data as possible. Exit surveys are a good tool for gathering feedback on why employees leave, but you can gain even more insight by conducting employee engagement and stay surveys as well. Get a deep understanding of how your staff feel about working in your schools and their reasons for staying — or leaving, as the case may be. Make sure to collect feedback from new employees too, especially on their experiences with onboarding.

Compare That Information To Your Current Retention Strategies

Are people leaving or staying for the reasons that you imagined? Are you incentivizing employees along lines that resonate with them and what they want?

Once you have plenty of employee feedback in hand, compare it to the policies and strategies already in place throughout your school district. Identify areas needing improvement in your district’s retention tactics and recognize which initiatives are successful. Then, look for ways to highlight your district’s strengths and shore up any gaps in your game plan.

Use Technology To Streamline Hiring and Onboarding

Hiring and onboarding go hand-in-hand with retention, and technology can help you improve those practices. A fantastic first impression is made in three parts:

• A positive applicant experience
• Streamlined hiring process
• Stress-free onboarding phase

In addition, ensure that your onboarding procedures support a welcoming, collaborative work environment where employees feel confident and prepared for their first day. This might mean building up your school district’s mentoring program or holding more events for new hires to make them feel welcome.

Dig Into Recruiting and Retention Data

Now it’s time to talk about recruiting. Explore your district’s data and discover where your most promising applicants come from. And if possible, review connections between recruiting and retention data — where do you tend to find candidates who are most likely to stick around for a long career in your district? Then, direct your efforts toward those resources.

Be sure that your teacher recruiting efforts highlight how your district supports educators, too. This is a good time to channel your inner Rick Astley and make candidates understand that you’ll never give them up or let them down.

Celebrate Success

Throughout this, don’t forget to take a moment and recognize your achievements. The teacher shortage can be stressful, and you’re finding ways to curb it so that your district, and its students, can accomplish even more.

“Do not look at the teacher shortage as an obstacle. Challenge yourself that it’s an opportunity. We created the employee wellness program as a “do it yourself” program on pennies. We have increased engagement and productivity, and we’ve had some outstanding results with retaining our first-year teachers. It went up from 69% to 86% just in Year One, so I say it can be done. You just have to dig in and get to the hard work, and you have to be an active recruiter, not passive.”

Andy Koenigs, Associate Superintendent of Human Resources, Emporia Unified School District