We have a variety of ways, such as newspaper and internet ads. However, referrals have worked very effectively for us as well as advertisements. We are clear in the type of instructor we seek, and everyone in our school know about the specific characteristics/skills our instructors must have.
i often use word of mouth from other students or known college instructors, i also use the hospitals to give leads that will give me someone who is a natral teacher on the floor.
I like the central repository suggestion John. Even though our Corporate Recruiter maintains a file of all applicants it would be great to have the "faculty" portion of that file and to have it maintained within the "education department".
We primarily use the Internet for recruiting but also attend job fairs in search of qualified candidates.
For some hard to find positions we will utilize newspaper ads but since we are an online institution that method is often limited to candidates that will be required to maintain on-campus hours.
We can make better use of our existing staff by asking for referrals from them and also by being more specific in how we present our skill requirements in our Internet ads.
Shanel,
Excellent answer. I agree the online questionnaire should be improved.
Good response, Shanel. Does your organization use the screening methods that Monster or Career
Builder offer? If so, has that helped or hurt?
We have a variety of methods for recruiting applicants. We use Internet resources such as Monster and Careerbuilder. We also have an employee referral program, however, I have not seen many of those. The majority of our resumes come from the Internet resources. I do know that I have never received a walk-in.
Our method can be improved by adding more detail to our ads. Our instructor qualifications are based on the course. So, we can offer more detail into qualifications so that underqualified applicants do not get submitted to us. We do use a questionnaire to get more detail, but that does not always prove to be effective.
We use varied resources to recruit for instructors. We do have an account with career builders and receive a lot of applicants from that source. We also rely on our program managers and existing instructors to refer people they know to teach. The referrals work out the best, since our employees know what the applicant needs to get the job. One way our method can be improved is to have a central repository for applicants that can be viewed for any opening and then interest in that applicant can be documented to avoid multiple calls to the same applicant.
Hi Ricardo
This sounds like a great way to meet your needs. What might you do to improve the process?
OUr way of recruting instructors is probably different form the way it is done in traditional universities. Since we are an accelerated bilingual institution we ask that our prospect professors demonstrate their knowledge and skills in the area to be taught by presenting a mini lesson and going through an interview process. At the same time we ask that our professors demonstrate their skills in both Enlgish and SPanish language by writing an essay in the languages assigned and by providing feedback to existing essays in either language. Once that has happened a committe evaluates the candidates and make final decisions as to which candidates can be recruited.
Ricardo Ortolaza, Ed.D.
Director of Faculty and Curriculum
Cliff
You brought up a good point--use the advisory board. They are an excellent resource. And they have connections.
Thanks for your response!
Thanks for responding. I am a graphic artist and operate a business along with my duties with the school. This keeps me in touch with people in the field. Our school has an advissory board which also helps to provide a source of networking professionals. This class will be a great help to me to select instructors from this pool of individuals.
Thanks Cliff
Hi Cliff
I'm for anything that works. And in my experience personal referrals from good employees or experienced professionals are the best applicants you can have. So, if you have
"many qualified applicants" that is great and
an asset to your school. It should also speak of your institution's reputation in the community.
How did you do this? Are you meeting people through professional organizations? How have
you developed the outside contacts?
This is an important part of creating an entire
recruiting program and we can all learn from your success.
Thanks.
Hi Cliff
I'm for anything that works. And in my experience, personal referrals from good employees or experienced professionals are the best applicants you can have. So, if you have
"many qualified applicants" that is great and
an asset to your school. It should also speak of your institution's reputation in the community.
How did you do this? Are you meeting people through professional organizations? How have
you developed the outside contacts?
This is an important part of creating an entire
recruiting program and we can all learn from your success.
Thanks.
I find that networking with other schools and instructors in my field produces many qualified instructors. Thes are also professionals working in the field of study. Any comments?
Thanks, Jeff. Referrals are an inexpensive and time-tested way to find quality applicants.
Whatever you can do to get applicant from this source will help your pool of applicants.
In the past, we've asked instructors about graduates that they thought had the academic skills and the personality to be an instructor. Of course, they need industry experience, but after a few years they can become valuable instructors.
We use a combination of methods. When you advertise in the local newspaper you automatically get put up on CareerBuilder. We find we do get better more easily sorted applicants from CareerBuilder then from the paper itself.
We also advertise in professional periodicals. This gives us a very focused approach based on the KSAO's but since we are a regional institution it does get diluted geographically.
We do track all of our recruitment efforts, and we are doing more and more on the web. But probably our best way of improving our recruitment is to work our own network better. The idea of an alumni newletter and looking to our alumni for references is one we will implement very soon.
Jeff
Hi Heather
You have been innovative in methods to get new instructors. I remember Pharmacy Technicians being difficult to find. It got to the point of
referrals either from current instructors or from the Advisory Board.
Thanks for your response.
Our ad is as specific as we can be about what classes we need to fill. We do ask for a resume. When I receive an email/resume from someone inquiring about the postion, I will generaly ask them at that time to email/fax college transcripts, providing the resume meets the basics. I will also email them an application for them to fill out and email or fax back. (resume's are often not detailed enough) Even thought the potential applicant believes themselves to be qualified, they may not be according to our college accrediation (ASCICS). After I receive those 2 documents I then decide to bring them in for a face to face or not . Saves time for both of us!
Our most commom way of recruiting is through our local newspapers. We have varied the newspaper ads by placing them under specific headings (relevant to the field) in the classifieds. For example, instead of placing an ad for a Medical Assisting instructor under "Education," we will place it under "Medical." Although this has increased our results, it is not enough. In the last six months, we have been forced to use other methods of recruitment for our "hard to fill" instructor positions. Some alternative methods we have used is Craig's List (internet based) as well as local Paralegal Associations and Bar Association newsletters (for legal instructors.)
One of our hardest instructor positions to fill is for our Pharmacy Technician program. In the areas in which our schools are located, Pharmacy Technicians are in high demand with plenty of employment opportunities. We receive very little response to newspaper ads in this field (regardless of what heading the ad is placed under in the newspaper.) Another alternative method we have used in this field is to fax out flyers (stating instructor openings with a number to call for more information) to local pharmacies in hopes of finding qualified instructors.
After going through this module, I believe our ads (for all of our methods) need some work. Currently, our ads contain the "deal breakers" (mainly the qualifications needed for the job) with very little "attention getters" or "motivators" to encourage the applicant to call.
