How to attract stellar Educators to your early childhood education and care service.
You’ve possibly been recruiting for an Early Childhood Teacher or an Educator for a while. You’ve had your sparkling advert on the job boards for weeks and you feel quite dejected that your superstar candidate hasn’t yet applied.
The other Educators are getting frustrated as their list of daily tasks goes up day by day and you have not even found someone yet, let alone arranged the onboarding processes!
Could the problem be that your service and opportunity doesn’t look quite as attractive to potential candidates as others out there including your competitors?
We have prepared some ideas that may ignite your imagination and generate some ideas that help to attract and retain Early Childhood Educators and Teaching staff to your business!
Create a careers page that paints an exciting picture!
It's important that candidates can easily find the careers page on your website and going one step further by including a page dedicated to what it's like to be an employee at your company can add real value. Include staff pictures, career profiles, photos from company events, plus a list of current job vacancies. You could even post a "day in the life" type video featuring one of your employees simply using a smartphone and free online video editing software.
Think about interesting benefits you can offer!
There’s no denying it, company perks are wonderful and incredibly important, but they shouldn’t be the only reason why candidates should want to work
for you. Your career site needs to go beyond promoting the benefits you offer to truly stand out from your competition and capture the attention of your target candidates. Potential employees are visiting your website and social media pages to see if they can see themselves working there and to understand why they would want to work at your company. One of our clients, for example, organise professional development trips overseas as a perk to the Early Childhood Teachers!
Give staff what they are asking for!
Do you really understand what it is that most Educators want from a role? Whilst a six figure salary is always welcome, did you know that work-life balance is a serious consideration high on the list, just below salary. As is large natural outdoor play areas, an abundance of quality learning resources, and many more. A good way to get an indication is to engage the community.
Job advertising
We know that the sector is short on staff, relying on job postings as your sole recruiting strategy just won’t cut it anymore, but it’s still hugely important to write an effective job description and an eye-catching advert. Creating some compelling graphics and posting in social media groups can also be helpful.
Stay in contact with candidates
Sourcing great Educators is not just about the initial contact. It is about nurturing a relationship with your silver and bronze “medallists” – those who were your runner- up’s for past openings. You may also want to stay in touch with rejected candidates who weren’t quite right for a previous position; just because they were not a good fit for one job, it doesn’t mean they won’t be for another in the future. So try to follow up with your candidates regularly and stay up-to-date on their job search status, career goals and interests, and offer to share information about your company and latest projects to keep them engaged and interested in joining your organization. Add them to social media accounts and follow them