Effective Practices For Recruiters: Preparing for the Recruitment Fair
Whilst technological advances have made the job of recruitment more streamlined, most recruiters agree that no technological experience can replace the value of meeting candidates face to face, in a full, in-person interview. This is especially so in the case of key appointments. For this reason, for many international schools, Recruitment Fairs continue to be important landmarks along the road to completing their list of appointments.
Preparing for the Fair
Successful recruiters do their research before the Recruitment Fair begins. The Search Associates Database enables recruiters to identify candidates attending a fair, to make initial contact, or even pre-arrange interviews. Such approaches give a competitive advantage over schools that wait until they arrive at the Fair before approaching candidates, and before giving candidates information about their schools.
The best candidates are usually very busy at the Fair, and may not have time in that context to fully digest the information you give about your school. Prior contact is an ideal opportunity for you to show a candidate that interests you just how exciting it is to work at your school, and to live in your city. It enables you to direct the candidate towards information he or she may otherwise overlook - information which may be crucial in turning a candidate on to the opportunity you offer. Particularly for schools in less in-demand locations, thorough research and prior contact with candidates is essential.
Your School's Information Package
All Search Associates Recruitment Fairs provide candidates with database information about your school. Some do this by providing "books" with school details in the candidate lounge. Others provide the information on disk or thumb drive. Others still simply direct candidates towards the Search database online.
With so much information available already, successful schools differentiate their schools' presence at the fair itself. It is no longer sufficiently competitive to just leave standard copies of parent information, staff handbooks, and student yearbooks (and so on) as reference material, in the candidate lounge.
Candidate expectations are high. Successful recruiting schools will have all their recruitment material, in various attractive forms of media, available on disk (to be given to candidates you wish to invite to interview). They will also have all this material available online, on their school website and other websites, so it can be downloaded if desired or found necessary by candidates. In light of this increased level of technological expectation, the Gez Hayden branch of Search Associates requires all candidates and recruiters to have their laptop with them during the London-January Recruitment Fair.