Recruitment in the Education Sector, some tips and data to help

Navigating recruitment in the education sector often presents challenges, from sourcing qualified candidates to building diversity and inclusivity within teams, all while being challenged with issues of staff retention and funding constraints. However, implementing an effective education sector Applicant Tracking System (ATS) offers a solution to these challenges.

This blog shares common recruitment challenges in the education sector including the main candidate sourcing pain points, highlighted in the latest UK Candidate Attraction Report 2024. It will also give you insight into how The Thinking Schools Academy Trust (TSAT), were able to streamline their recruitment process and improve candidate experience by implementing Eploy’s applicant tracking system into their operations.

What are the most common recruitment problems encountered in education?

A career in education is truly meaningful for individuals who wish to inspire and teach others. However, despite the positive aspects that come with working in this industry, the education sector is still a challenging field for recruiters to attract suitable talent, as it faces such challenges, as:

• Scarcity of skilled candidates.
• Difficulty building diverse and inclusive teams.
• Staff retention.
• Funding gaps.

Aside from the above, not having a seamless recruitment process and being unable to create a positive candidate experience can deter potential candidates from applying for a role. That is why an Applicant Tracking System for the Education Sector offers a user-friendly and efficient way to manage your recruitment process, providing a better experience for both the candidate and recruitment teams.

How Thinking School Academy Trust improved its recruitment processes with an ATS

Case study insight:

Thinking Schools Academy Trust (TSAT) is a close network of nursery, primary, secondary, and alternative provision schools located throughout the South-East and South-West of England. United in a common goal of transforming the life chances of young people across the South and East of England. Multi-academy trusts can provide professional development and evidence-based curriculum support for already great teachers, freeing them to focus on what they do best – inspire young minds. With around 1300 employees across the family of schools, the Thinking Schools Academy Trust Recruitment Team aimed to attract the best talent and deliver a seamless candidate experience.

TSAT required an outstanding applicant tracking system which could:

• Drive consistency across all Academies by implementing automated recruitment processes with the ability to measure all aspects of recruitment using dashboards and analytics..
• Enhance the candidate experience with flexible online application processes and allow candidates to complete onboarding online.
• Reduce manual administration tasks with automated processes that underpin the candidate experience and enable candidates to stay informed throughout the process.
• Automate smartly to support a collaborative approach and instil control for those who want a simple-to-use system with powerful recruitment analytics.
• Help TSAT remain competitive in the market.

To learn more about how Eploy’s ATS provided TSAT with flexibility and catered to their specific needs, read the TSAT case study here.

Candidate sourcing in the education sector

The education sector candidate requirements are unique, requiring specific skills and accreditations, making it a difficult field for recruiters to find and attract the right talent. According to Eploy’s UK Candidate Attraction Report 2024, the top 3 candidate sourcing challenges within the education sector are:

1. Scarcity of Qualified Candidates (skills and/or experience) was mentioned by 68% of the survey respondents.
2. Advertised salaries are lower than the market average, which according to 55% of the surveyed recruiters, makes it difficult to attract talent.
3. A lack of recruitment marketing budget raises the challenge of reaching and attracting talent, responded 36% of respondents.

When it comes to candidate sourcing channels, employee referrals take the lead on the quality of candidates generated but as is the case for many sectors, it provides a smaller candidate pool. Meanwhile, such channels like LinkedIn and website/careers sites offer both – high quality and quantity of candidates. The use of CV databases to source talent in the education sector has more than doubled since last year, now 54%, however, the quality of this sourcing channel has only improved marginally. To learn more about what the education hiring outlook is for the next 12 months, download our free Candidate Attraction Report here.

One channel in particular, Talent Pooling, is used by just 38% of survey respondents yet is delivering a decent return. If talent pooling was utilised further this could deliver further improved results.

That is where an Applicant Tracking System comes in. It eliminates the manual activities of recruitment and rather than just posting vacancies and waiting for applications to come in, it helps you recruit pro-actively too. 

Take a look at how the education sector can benefit from an ATS

Recruitment processes within the education sector often require customised solutions to be effective. Eploy ATS and Talent CRM is designed to provide the right tools across the recruitment journey to help attract and recruit the right quality and quantity of candidates while improving the experience of everyone involved. This helps education sector establishments to take control of their hiring processes.

If that’s not enough to convince you of the value of an ATS, then look at the top 5 reasons we think you will love Eploy’s Applicant Tracking System here.

You are only 30 minutes away from understanding how you can make your life easier with an ATS. No hard sell, no strings attached, just some winning ideas to help you with your recruitment strategy. Request a demo here