Recruitment Process - Frequently Asked Questions

A recruitment process involves a whole range of decisions – recruiters will vary in their approach based on their experience and personal preference.  All of the aspects below are currently occurring in independent school recruitment and, on which, my clients are keen to seek advice.

1.      When to perform referee checks - at short listing or once a candidate is ‘preferred’?

Some recruiters will conduct referee checks of all short listed candidates, prior to Panel Interviews - this may involve reference checking of up to 5 candidates.  Whilst this gives you and the Panel useful information, two drawbacks are:

-Impact on referees and potential impact on your reputation

Many referees will be your Principal colleagues who are time poor and may be less than enthusiastic about being involved at this early stage when several candidates are still being considered. Many such referees are starting to ‘push-back’ and say they will provide a reference check if/when the candidate is ‘preferred’ or of strong interest.

-Impact on candidates

Early reference checking has a significant risk for candidate confidentiality. Candidates will be concerned about the risk to the relationship with their current employer, even if the process doesn’t include their curent employer in the early stages.

2.      How to manage internal candidates?

Most internal candidates who are not successful in a process, have no grievance about not winning the role, they are more likely to feel aggrieved by the process.

Interviews:

Why you may choose NOT to Panel Interview an internal:

• You are time poor and not able to use your/your Panel’s time

• You consider it will raise their expectations unnecessarily

• You believe that they are unqualifed and don’t have potential

Why it is recommended you Panel Interview a ‘quality’ internal:

• It invests in their professional growth – particularly with quality feedback, from which they will be more likely to be future ready for other recruitment processes

• They are more likely to feel respected by being engaged in the process and hence you are more likely to avoid them being a flight risk

• If you (or a Panel Member) has encouraged them to apply

Communication and feedback:

• Pre-communication should not raise expectations

• Post-communication should be timely and offer quality feedback

3.      School Tours

Many Panel Interviews involve a tour of the school – when should a tour occur:

• On a school day?

  -The goal may be to observe the candidate(s) engaging with staff and students

This goal can be achieved by visiting the preferred candidate at their school which, arguably, provides a better indication of the candidate’s ‘usual’ interactions.

•  Outside of school hours?

-Most importantly, because candidate confidentiality is not compromised by who may see them on the tour.

Key personnel can be involved in ‘out of hours’ tours, to enable a Panel to gauge interactions with Executive Team members.

Rosie has 8 years’ experience in Executive Recruitment in independent schools across Australia, including assisting with the placement of:

• 15 Principals

• 10 Deputy Principals

• 24 Heads of Section

• 5 Business Managers

• 28 other senior education/corporate leaders