Selection & Placement

• What is your district’s hiring system – who creates that system and implements it?

• What are the skills and mindsets for educators (all staff) to deliver on your vision for students? How do your recruitment and hiring processes support this vision?

• What are the competencies you seek to measure before hiring the candidate? How will you measure them?

• How does your hiring system address reliability and validity?

Effectiveness of the Screening Process
An important step in developing measures to evaluate candidates is to ensure your measures are both reliable and valid. Any measure or process that lacks reliability and validity is prone to error. In the context of hiring, this means that you can’t be sure you are selecting the best candidate from your applicant pool.

Five Strategies to Improve Reliability & Validity

As you develop new screening criteria and incorporate them into your hiring process, several actions can help you improve reliability and validity.

1. Be clear on what you are trying to assess or measure. For every step and every sub-step (e.g., each interview question) of your hiring process, you should clearly define what aspect of candidate performance you are trying to assess.

2. Collect multiple measures. Different screening methods are better suited to assess different aspects of performance. Use this information holistically to make decisions.

3. Minimize variation within your hiring process. Make the process as similar as possible for each candidate. Don’t change who is part of the hiring team midstream. Ask all candidates the same set of interview questions. While follow-up questions may vary based on the candidate’s response, the same core set of questions should be posed to all candidates.

4. Develop standards for scoring and documentation. Create scoring sheets and performance rubrics to increase consistency and complete this documentation in a timely manner, so the information is fresh in your mind.

5. Provide training. Offer regular training to ensure hiring criteria are collectively understood and to keep employees’ hiring skills sharp. Calibration sessions increase the likelihood that the same outcome is achieved regardless of who is part of the hiring team.

• Is the interview team clear on the competencies, or the knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs), and professional qualities necessary for success in the position(s)?

• Does each interview team member understand and commit to your hiring process?  

Train Your Hiring Team

Hiring a new employee will have a wide-reaching impact on your organization. They accomplish a series of individual responsibilities and work and interact with various people in and outside the organization.

When a position is posted, several actions should be triggered. First, someone should be tasked with heading the selection committee or hiring team. During the process, this person will be known as the Hiring Lead. This person may be a district representative in human resources, a building principal, or the prospective employee's direct supervisor. The Hiring Lead has several responsibilities, such as screening applicants, forming a hiring team, and making a recommendation to the head of HR or superintendent for employment. The Hiring Team will be responsible for considering hiring criteria, maintaining confidentiality, establishing aspirational goals for the ideal candidate, and eventually serving as endorsers of the new employee.

Hiring Team Expectations

1. Be as inclusive as possible without compromising efficiency and effectiveness. Hiring processes that include many individuals have the advantage of including broad input. They also can be unwieldy.

2. Make it clear—the team will have a hand in ensuring the new hire's success. Everyone who participates is personally responsible for ensuring the success of the final candidate once hired.

3. Everyone must commit. Hiring efforts where team members drift in and out of the process are impacting the reliability of the process. Establish the dates/times and set the expectation that all team members must participate in all interviews.

4. Stress the importance of multiple data points. Make it clear that while the face-to-face interview process is important, multiple other data sources must be equally valued. Committee members should understand that the final decision will be made by weighing all the evidence.

5. Remember that this is a great learning opportunity for the team. You have a chance to spend a lot of time with some of your key people making an important decision. Use that time! The hiring process should be viewed as a professional development opportunity for your team.

6. What is discussed in the hiring process must stay in the hiring process. This is a critical issue. It is highly unprofessional to discuss anything said "behind closed doors" during or after the hiring process.

• What does success look like for your hiring practices this year? How are you sharing your successes?

• What enhancements would you like to see in your hiring practices in the short/long term?

Tips for Creating a Customer-Centric Hiring Experience:

• Consider the first impressions you are making with potential applicants. Prioritize the customer experience —past applicants can and should be a part of your future candidate pool.

• Have a schedule and a process. Applicants have multiple options and may look elsewhere if there are unreasonable delays.

• Inform candidates of their status. Even a brief email will do.

• Maintain confidentiality. Candidates should feel confident that information gathered will be discussed only among the selection team and not shared with third parties.

• Make candidates feel comfortable and valued. Take the time to answer the applicants’ questions —create a positive experience. Ensure everyone involved in the process knows the basics of what is and is not permissible to ask. Make applicants feel that their time is important.

• Monitor and improve customer service metrics. Ask applicants about their experiences with your selection process. Collect process data such as time to hire, offer acceptance rate, and cost to hire.

Hiring Metric Examples: Time to Fill; Acceptance Rate; Quality of Hire; Candidate Experience; Application Completion Rate; Retention Rate or First-Year Attrition