Winning the Race for Talent: Strategies to Increase Your Candidate Pool
By Stephen Fujii and Taylor Tamang
In the ever-evolving landscape of talent acquisition, organizations must stay ahead in the "race for talent." This is particularly true as many education organizations face staffing shortages, as noted by the American Association for School Personnel Administrators.
Educators are a school’s single greatest asset. That’s why having the right people matters. The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (the Department) believes in the power of school and district employees to change the lives of students. The Department created the Ohio Human Capital Resource Center (HCRC) to support the state’s human capital leaders in solving challenges like educator shortages.
This blog post was inspired by a recent HCRC networking session that focused on strategies to increase your candidate pool—exploring the insights from collaborative dialogue with 63 human capital professionals from across Ohio.
If you want to go deeper to learn more:
Use this handout to audit your own organization’s current state of recruitment.
Read on for our recap of key points.
Set the table for success in your recruitment process
The Dinner Party Analogy
For a moment, suspend your disbelief with us and imagine the recruitment process as planning a dinner party. There are noteworthy parallels between dinner party planning and recruitment strategies.
When setting the stage for dinner guests, we put their needs ahead of our own. For example:
Is there a place for them to park?
Is the path to the door surrounded by a mowed lawn, raked leaves, shoveled snow, and a clear entryway?
How do we greet guests at the door and usher them to the table?
Do we make sure there’s food for all, accommodating food allergies and different tastes?
Are there enough comfortable seats, the right beverages, and place settings for everyone?
How do we want the guests to feel about the experience?
The biggest takeaway here is our need to shift focus. When we invite people to dinner, we put their experience first! The same applies when we think about the recruitment process. Putting prospective employees’ needs front and center can make all the difference. These five strategies help to refine your approach to set the table for a memorable experience.
Strategy 1: Identifying Ideal Candidates
The first strategy involves identifying ideal candidates, akin to selecting guests for the dinner party. We recommend building an ideal candidate profile before diving into the recruitment process. Many districts and schools are building personas for hard-to-staff and high-need positions that identify characteristics and needs such as these:
Have we accurately identified the minimum qualifications for the position?
What are the mindsets, motivations, and pain points of the ideal candidates?
How can we help to bridge gaps for them and be a part of fulfilling their professional dreams?
Once you know who you're looking for, one way to reach those people could be through social media. Social channels have emerged as a powerful tool for expanding the candidate pool, with a focus on leveraging platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and Facebook, each catering to different demographics, generations, and interests. We cannot deny the power of social media to reach people in targeted geographies with specific needs.
A special note: For many reasons, we do not recommend TikTok for recruitment. One of these is that while your audience is there, many who are not in your audience (think about 15-year-olds) are also there and using this platform for entertainment. Privacy worries and harvesting individual information are particular concerns given the ownership of TikTok.
Strategy 2: Protecting Your Curb Appeal
Safeguarding your organization's "curb appeal" in the digital realm is the next focal point. This includes a few elements:
A positive brand image
Clear communication of what the organization offers
The importance of an easy-to-navigate website as your digital front door
We highlighted the Ohio Education Job Board as a resource to streamline the application process and maintain a strong online presence.
Take a look at this tool and see how your open positions compare with those of other schools and districts. If you were on the hunt for a new position, would you be attracted to your district’s offerings?
Strategy 3: Crafting Effective Job Postings
Developing effective job postings was identified as a critical component of attracting quality candidates. Best practices include posting only for available positions, using inclusive language to encourage diverse applicants, and providing clear and concise information about the role and organization.
We also touched on the issue of degree inflation and its potential to narrow the candidate pool. When we list specific degrees as requirements, let’s take a step back and ensure that the degree is truly required. Would alternative degrees or equivalent experience provide us with what we need for success in the position? If so, this further widens the available pool of candidates.
Strategy 4: Streamlining the Application Process
We cannot emphasize enough the importance of online applications that are mobile-friendly and efficient. Mystery shop your own online application process. Does it require duplicate entry of data (from the resume, for example)? Does it look different on mobile devices vs. desktop? Does your applicant tracking system require multiple accounts?
Research conducted by Greenhouse in their Candidate Experience Report (n= 1,500+ employees and those actively searching) indicates that 60% of job seekers abandon the online process because it is too long. With 86% of candidates looking for new moves on their mobile devices, your mobile experience must be optimized.
Acknowledging that a lengthy application can discourage potential candidates, we advocate for brevity. A positive and “just enough” application experience contributes to building a pool of potential candidates for future roles—even if they are not perfect fits for currently open positions.
Strategy 5: Ensuring a Positive Candidate Experience
Our final strategy focuses on ensuring a positive candidate experience.
Again, drawing parallels with hosting a dinner party, we encourage being hospitable, transparent, and truthful throughout the recruitment process. Responding to candidates promptly and providing a valuable experience, even if they are not selected, can contribute to building a favorable reputation as an employer.
One district we’ve worked with set a priority of responding to all candidates within three days. While this is a good start, they soon realized that it was not enough. Candidates expect to hear back within 8–12 hours that the information has been received, and what might be the next steps. You risk losing applicants to other organizations that can move more quickly if your response time is too slow.
Keys to Success
We encourage human capital leaders in education to take an active role in evaluating recruitment practices and engaging in discussions with peers. Contact us at HCRC@education.ohio.gov with any questions.