How to Recruit and Keep Good Teachers

Teacher quality plays an essential role in a student’s education. That is why it is so vital for any school to recruit highly qualified teachers and create ideal conditions to retain them. And most ELT managers will admit that attracting and hiring teachers is one of the biggest challenges for schools. So, how to recruit good teachers? 

Here are my proven techniques to both hire and retain highly qualified teachers. 

1. Develop a talent acquisition strategy

I used to work as a recruiter for a bank in Toronto, Canada. When I started, the HR vice president assigned me a mission to hire about 100 bilingual (English and French) candidates in 3 months. And I am happy to report that we met our goal, and most of the people are still working for the bank. 

Here are my suggestions to successfully source top-qualified ESL teachers: 

1. Advertise widely where teachers hang out: Online job boards specific to education
2. Whenever possible, participate in job fairs in your local city or community 
3. Highlight all the advantages, salaries, and bonuses that your school offers
4. Brand your school to attract the best teachers because they often look for favorable work conditions and a school that values its teachers
5. Develop partnerships with colleges and universities around the world. Creating this type of relationship might take some time and effort, but it will pay off in the long run 

2. Build a strong and positive culture for your school

Imagine you want to grow beautiful flowers. What would be your first step? Wouldn’t you focus on creating the perfect growth condition for your flowers to thrive? Well, the same goes for good teachers; if you want to attract the best teachers, you must create favorable conditions. 

The truth is that the best ESL teachers know that their talents, qualifications, and experience are in high demand, and they can be selective when looking for a job. They generally look for a school with a suitable culture where their talents, qualifications, or experience will be valued.

In fact, a Glassdoor survey revealed that 77% of respondents consider a company’s culture before they apply for a job, and 56% stated that company culture is even more important than salary regarding job satisfaction.

Here are a few tips for building a positive culture for your school:  

• Ask other teachers to share their teaching stories with your school on your website and social channels
• Promote and develop your existing teachers
• Create a unique and positive vision of your school to attract and retain the right type of teachers 

3. Build a reputable brand 

Building a reputable brand is closely related to building a solid culture. Ensure that your current teachers are proud to work for you. When you contact a teacher, they will first perform a quick internet search.

Your school reputation is not what you think but what your current teachers say. A quick search on the internet will give a potential candidate an idea of what it is like to work for you and what your teachers think of you.

I suggest you encourage them to post reviews on sites like Glassdoor, Indeed, Reddit, Quora, and even LinkedIn to boost your school’s reputation. 

4. Ask your current teachers for referrals

Word of mouth can significantly increase your ability to attract top candidates from your current teachers’ networks, peer groups, friends, and family.

In addition, word of mouth is the cheapest and easiest way to hire qualified teachers. And yet, most ELT managers still neglect using it in their marketing and hiring strategies. 

As humans, we typically trust our friends and family member recommendations when making decisions. Your existing teachers may have friends or past colleagues ideal for an open position with the right skills and personality to be a perfect ‘fit’ for your school.

Teacher referrals are an excellent way to access qualified ESL teachers. According to a study by Careerbuilder, 88% of employers ranked employee referrals higher than other sources in terms of quality of hires, and 82% ranked employee referrals as the cheapest to hire employees. 

Here are a few tips to increase referrals:  

• Offer incentives to encourage referrals within your school 
• Send emails to your existing teachers whenever you are looking for new teachers and ask them if they know someone who could be a good fit

5. Offer generous salary and bonus

Offering generous salaries and bonuses is another important element in attracting and retaining ESL teachers. 

The best way to figure out what will appeal most to your teachers is by asking them. Some teachers might prefer fewer office hours, discounts on their kids’ tuition, parental leaves, and personal development. 

6. Provide opportunities for growth within your school 

Providing plenty of growth opportunities within your school will be crucial in attracting and retaining teachers. 

Without growth opportunities, you will have a higher employee turnover, and you might be able to attract good teachers, but they will leave if you don’t help them grow. 

In addition to providing opportunities to grow, fairly treating all your teachers is essential.

When you show your teachers that you care about them, they may be more willing to care about your school and contribute more, which will positively simulate work performance and employee retention and improve your school’s reputation and brand.

The key is to focus on hiring excellent teachers. If you hire the wrong teachers, you will spend a lot of time trying to motivate them and neglecting the better ones, leading them to leave your school.