Classified Staff – Recruitment Strategies

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, PK-12 schools were experiencing staffing shortages beyond classroom teachers and special education positions. The pandemic further exacerbated shortages among classified employees, like bus drivers. Heading into the 2021-22 school year, education leaders are concerned with filling these various classified positions. According to a recent AASPA survey, nationwide shortages include Paraeducators/Teacher Aids, Substitute Teachers, Bus Drivers, and more.

For any position, the overall approach to sourcing and recruiting is the same:

1. Promote your district/schools as an attractive workplace. Consider your employer value proposition and total rewards offerings.

2. Identify sources of high-quality candidates.

3. Develop a recruitment strategy:

   • Include analysis of the external labor market, and

   • Address the gaps in your workforce plan.

4. Implement the recruitment strategy:

   • Create effective job postings,

   • Identify internal and external partners,

   • Engage high-performing staff to assist, and

   • Build partnerships/programs to expand your talent pipeline.

Recruitment resources, such as Tips for Promoting Your Organization and a Job Posting Guide, are available on the HCRC website. A recording of the HCRC Recruitment webinar can also be found here.  

In addition, here are some specific strategies districts are using to recruit classified employees.

• Expand employment for individuals across departments – Help interested employees with full-time and/or year-round employment. For example, bus drivers for Fort Wayne Community Schools act as student mentors in the summer. The drivers already have relationships with the students, and this is a way to provide drivers full-time employment.

• Staff Ambassadors – Elevate staff as ambassadors that can share their own story and highlight the various benefits of working at your district. Example promotional videos:

  • Toledo Public Schools – Gaylene’s video (Facility Site Coordinator) and Manal’s video (Administrative Assistant)

  • Fairland Local Schools – Barb Ward’s video (Bus driver)

  • Columbus City Schools – Lois Carson’s video (School secretary)

  • Fort Wayne Community Schools Bus Driver Video

  • Stillwater Area Public Schools Paraprofessional Video

  • Tuscaloosa City Schools – Bonita’s video (Bus driver and small business owner)

  • Tuscaloosa City Schools – Mark’s video (Bus driver and pastor)

• Substitute Teachers – Consider hiring permanent subs for buildings with higher pay and benefits. On days the building is fully staffed, use subs to provide additional support.

• Partnerships with local companies – Reflect on your community context and think about these questions: what companies have part-time employees that may be interested in supplemental income and/or benefits? Are there small business owners that may be interested in supplemental work that provides benefits? Are there companies that had recent layoffs?

• Partnerships with Educational Service Centers - Does your local ESC offer services in recruiting and hiring hard-to-staff positions?

• Promotional efforts – Infuse your brand and employment opportunity information into community events (i.e. sporting events, music/art competitions, local movie theatre). This can be done with swag (i.e. car stickers), short videos or ads, or speaking direction to the audience.

 For next steps, read the next blog in this series: Classified Staff – 4 Onboarding Strategies for ALL New Hires.