As we approach the start of the academic year, FE Colleges recruit staff at pace, to cover permanent gaps, sickness and respond to student enrolment. To help the community we’re releasing a two part series on temporary work in FE and how to find the right jobs and talent, the second in our series explores finding talent.
Understandably the start of the academic year is a busy period when it comes to hiring staff within Colleges, who need to recruit quickly. Similar roles and candidates are often needed simultaneously and now with job seekers being in higher demand they have more choices than in previous years, so you need to act fast if you want to hire the right talent for your College.
In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the ways you can help improve your chances of recruiting the right talent for your College. Whether that’s by getting the most out of your recruitment consultant or by implementing some tips for you and your staff.
Hiring Manager Hints
Hire at pace
For those managers who are hiring temporary staff in FE, both new and old, the best advice we could give to you for hiring staff from recruitment agencies is to move at pace.
Not managing to hire or hiring poor quality staff can have an incredibly negative impact on the outcomes of learners and morale amongst existing staff; and it's no secret that the FE and education sectors in general are facing huge challenges in recruiting and retaining staff, particularly at Lecturing, Support Assistant and Management level. So your College's recruitment process and strategy needs to be as efficient as possible if it is to be successful.
Sell the opportunity
It’s important to assess the candidate’s suitability for your vacancy, however it's also crucial that as a hiring manager you ‘sell’ the vacancy to the candidate and highlight the amazing opportunity to work in your team and at your College. Promoting the College's vision and values and providing first hand feedback on what it's like to work there will enable candidates to picture what life is like at your College.
The interview experience is an incredibly important factor for job seekers when considering offers; those who have had a positive experience and can see the passion and enthusiasm their potential new manager has, are more likely to be excited about the prospect of working there.
Act fast
We all know that a strong candidate will always have multiple job offers on the table and that they will be evaluating each opportunity on its own merits, so if you like the candidate and want to make them an offer, then act fast. Being responsive and proactive can often be the difference in successfully appointing a member of staff and not.
Making the most out your recruitment consultant
The more detail is better
Make time to talk to your recruitment consultant, they are there to act as an extension of your HR recruitment team; it's crucial that they are able to fully articulate the opportunity within your team and in order to do that, a brief phone or video call (usually 10-15 minutes) can be the difference to successfully fulfilling your requirements and not.
Given the demand for good candidates in the education sector currently, job seekers are looking to establish as much information about the job and employer they are applying to in order to aid their decision making process. If you haven’t come away from a briefing call with your recruiter feeling slightly interrogated, then they probably haven’t done their job properly.
Set aside time for admin
To make sure your consultant can support you to the best of their ability, it’s best if you set aside some time to discuss appropriate timescales on how soon they can provide candidates for you to review, a time to discuss feedback and pre-booked diary slots for interviews. This will make the recruiting process go smoother, faster and your consultant will be able to advise how quickly they can confidently supply options.
Find your future staff
By applying the tips in this article, you’re sure to find the right staff for your College in no time. If you are looking to recruit new staff why not reach out to our Education Recruitment Team, they have over 100 years combined experience and are proud to be a key supplier of staff to FE. You can email our team at education@morganhunt.com.