Pivoting to Virtual Teacher Recruitment

How Austin ISD Recruited and Hired Hundreds of Teachers Using Free Tools

Norma A. Castillo, Director of Talent Aquistion, Austin ISD

Recruiters usually only need a few swag items with their school district branding, a passion for their school district and a big personality to recruit teachers. Most recruiters can usually accomplish this right from the trunk of their car.

Every year, our school district employs 600-800 teachers during the span of four to five months in preparation for the first day of school. This requires recruiting thousands of potential candidates who will eventually make Austin ISD their home. However, in the Spring of 2020 teacher recruitment, like many other things in our world, were immediately changed forever. In the midst of prime teacher recruitment season, we were no longer able to recruit teachers face to face. Universities, our main recruitment source, suddenly cancelled job fairs and we were faced with having to reinvent how we recruited teachers.

Previously, our district had explored the possibility of virtual recruitment as an option pre-pandemic and had initial conversations with representatives from different virtual recruitment platforms. We those representatives to follow up but quickly realized they were also being contacted by a large number of other school districts and their response time lagged. We also realized purchasing a virtual recruitment platform in the time of budget uncertainty may not be the wisest choice. Therefore, we quickly developed a system to virtually recruit teachers with free tools we already had available. Using Zoom and Google forms, our team created a toolkit that included everything we needed to recruit, interview, and onboard hundreds of educators.

“Even though we have suddenly cancelled job fairs ... we were faced with having to reinvent how we recruited teachers.”

Principal Toolkit

Principals are our primary hiring managers so we created a toolkit that would guide them through the tools and recruitment events the Office of Talent Acquisition created. Because we know people process information differently, we created the toolkit in a chart and word version. The toolkit included all of the tools that are included in this article as well as step by step how-to explanations on how to use the tools. From how-to videos on creating a Zoom meeting, to Google forms with teacher interview questions for principals to use, to PowerPoint slides principals can use during a virtual interview, the toolkit aimed at providing principals with everything they would need to recruit and interview teachers virtually.

(Platforms used: Excel and Word) Virtual Recruitment Events

Meet and Greets

The goal of the meet and greets was to allow principals access to candidates through quick (10 minute), individual conversations via Zoom. Principals hosted a one-and-a-half-hour session where they were able to individually meet up to 6 candidates. Candidates were pre-screened for basic eligibility. The meet and greet was not meant to take the place of a full interview but the principal could follow up with candidates by scheduling a full virtual campus interview or by recommending the applicant to another principal for consideration.

On the days of the scheduled sessions, multiple Zoom sessions were hosted by principals across the district. Instead of setting up a booth like a face-to-face job fair, the principal pre-set up Zoom sessions and shared the meeting ID# and password information with the Office of Talent Acquisition days before the meet and greet allowing our office to schedule candidates into sessions. Principals received a schedule with candidate information along with candidate resumes prior to the meet and greet and candidates were emailed their individual meet and greet schedule. Many candidates had the opportunity to participate in multiple sessions with different principals.

(Platforms used: Zoom, Google Forms) Information Sessions

The goal of the information Sessions was to provide potential candidates an opportunity to learn more about topics of interest, opportunities in our district, and encourage candidates to apply for a position in our district. The series of sessions were held once a week throughout the recruitment season and led by the Office of Talent Acquisition. They provided an opportunity for positive district exposure to internal and external candidates. Candidates RSVP to the one hour Zoom session and could select to attend one or all of the sessions. These sessions were highly attended by potential candidates and some of the topics were repeated due to candidate demand. The information session topics included were: • Best

Practices for

Resumes and

Effective

Virtual

Interviews

• The

Paths to

Obtaining a Texas

Teaching

Certificate

• The

Teacher Assistant to Teacher Path

• The perks of being a bilingual or special education teacher

(Platforms used: Zoom, Google Forms, Google Slides) Chat with a Recruiter

The goal of the chats was to provide potential candidates with specific dates and times where they had an opportunity to chat one-on-one with a talent acquisition recruiter. The Office of Talent Acquisition hosted two, one-hour chats per week on Zoom throughout the recruitment season and into the summer. With all of the talent acquisition staff working remotely, this allowed candidates scheduled times they knew they would have access to staff who could answer any questions they may have had. No specific content was pre-planned for the chats and candidates did not need to RSVP. Candidates decided what the

recruiter would chat about based on their questions or needs in real time.

(Platforms used: Zoom) Resume Videos

The goal of virtual resume videos was to provide candidates an opportunity to share their resume virtually through a video. The HireVue platform was used to allow candidates an opportunity to upload a three-minute video of themselves where they would bring their resume to “life. HireVue is the only tool we used that is not free but it was a tool we were already using in our district. Resume videos were made viewable to principals by content areas/grade level and served as a pre-screen tool. Hundreds of resume videos were submitted by potential candidates and this took the place of the traditional candidate “dropping off” their resume at a

school or district office.

(Patform used: HireVue)

Virtual Campus Interviews

As recruitment events were ongoing, principals conducted virtual teacher interviews using the Zoom platform. An array of tools and resources to help principals with conducting campus virtual interviews were provided in order to ensure that best practices continued to be adhered to and to ensure that all legal considerations for interviews were followed.

Principals were provided with a Google forms of Confidentiality and Disclosure Statement for all interview committee members to sign, interview Question Forms, and slides to display during a virtual interview. The Google forms were shared using a “force copy” feature so that when principals selected the form link, they were able to create their very own form. Having their own form allowed principals to collect and store interview information.

(Platforms used: Zoom, Google Forms, Google Slides)

Virtual Onboarding Sessions

Our commitment to customer service did not waiver through virtual recruitment. We took great care at ensuring that our recruitment events and onboarding sessions were created in a way that provided the candidate a personalized and positive experience. Normally, onboarding sessions would be held face to face in a large conference room and candidates would have an opportunity to meet with a team of staff welcoming them to the district. They receive benefits, payroll, and other important information. Our team transitioned these onboarding sessions to Zoom and they were all done synchronously. We created a slide deck presentation where different departments had an opportunity to share information. Because we hire hundreds of teachers and hold multiple onboarding sessions each week throughout the summer, it was difficult to have our Chief of Human Capital or Superintendent attend all the live sessions, so a pre-recorded video kicked off each synchronous session. New hires self-scheduled into onboarding sessions using Google forms to RSVP to an onboarding session allowing us to prepare and cap the number of new hires per session.

(Platforms used: Zoom, Google Slides, Google Forms)

Other Tools

RSVP Forms

We used a variety of Google forms that captured candidate information and allowed us to strategically plan our recruitment events. RSVP forms were also used to capture and collect principal Zoom meeting information and participation.

(Platforms used: Google Forms) Virtual Backpack We went completely paperless and instead of providing new hires paper resources, we created a “virtual backpack” which was essentially a word document containing live links to resources covered in the onboarding session so that they could refer to later. Each time we referenced a resource during the live onboarding session, the link was also shared in the chat making the session interactive.

“We have found innovative and efficient ways of doing things as a result of going completely virtual, not to mention the money saved on travel. ”

How It Went

We hired a total of 675 teachers and other campus professionals by the first day of school in 2020 during a pandemic, virtually, and without the purchase of any recruitment platforms. Survey feedback data was collected from principals after events and this allowed us to make immediate changes and improve our practices. Principals reported meet and greets to be the highest leverage recruitment activity and they reported hiring the most candidates as a result of these events. Candidates reported positive experiences from both the recruitment events and from their onboarding experience.

Lessons Learned

It does not go without saying that all of this was not easy. It took a different type of thinking and as with anything that involves creation from scratch, it was a lot of work to create and coordinate. Some of the things that worked for us were the following: Chat Board

Create a chat board during your recruitment events. We used TEAMS for ours. This allows for all principals participating in an event to have one place where they can pose questions, ask for support, or share live during the session. Recruiters stood by to provide support as needed and found that many times principals helped each other. This really provided a place for community and that feeling and energy of being in a large space during a recruitment event. Personality Matters As is with face to face recruitment, the people you have recruiting for your district are important. It is important to have high energy, passionate, and knowledgeable staff behind the screen. This was a team effort and it took all hands-on deck to coordinate events. Look for the strengths on your team. Some people may not be the most comfortable in front of the screen but are very capable of helping with technical details. Details Matter

Close attention to details is extremely important. When you think you have thought of everything, you probably have not. If you have ever put on a job fair in your district or coordinated a large event, you know that there are numerous details involved to ensure a successful event. Virtual events are no different.

It is recommended that run-throughs are done and that many stakeholders have provided feedback on tools to ensure all details have been addressed.

Our district will probably never go back to the old ways of recruiting teachers. We have found innovative and efficient ways of doing things as a result of going completely virtual, not to mention the money saved on travel. While we all miss the buzz and energy of face to face recruitment, we will very likely continue to use many of the virtual tools and strategies we created in the future.

If you would like more information about Austin ISD’s principal toolkit, contact Norma A. Castillo, Director of Talent Acquisition, Austin ISD.