The Rand CorporationThe Rand Corporation provides objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. The “Review of the Research Literature on Teacher Recruitment and Retention” by Cassandra Guarino, Lucrecia Santibanez, Glenn Daley, and Dominic Brewer provides power information on recruitment and retention.
Policies to Promote Recruitment and Retention
The literature says:
a. A large number of studies offered evidence suggesting that higher teacher salaries were associated with greater retention
b. Non-traditional or alternative certification programs frequently appeared to recruit individuals whose characteristics differed from those in standard teacher-education programs and sometimes produced higher retention rates than did traditional programs
c. A number of “working conditions” are related to success in recruitment
and retention. Mentoring and induction programs, class size, disciplinary issues, the matching of teaching assignment to teacher’s skill, the level of autonomy granted to teachers, the amount of administrative support, and the ability of the students taught often appeared to play prominent roles in teachers’ decisions to quit or remain on the job
Policies have been grouped into three categories upon reading the research literature. The categories are Compensation Policies, Pre-service Policies, and In-service Policies. The document can be viewed here.
The National Foundation for Educational Research
The NFER Annual Surveys are helpful references. The Annual Survey of 2001 focused on teacher recruitment and retention. The findings of the Survey are very revealing.
They can be viewed at: http://www.nfer.ac.uk/index.cfm
MORI has over 30 years experience and has teams of researchers working on recruitment and retention. It can help you answer many questions. Here are a few of them.
a. How effective is our recruitment activity?
b. Is our recruitment activity reaching the right targets?
c. Is our organization attracting the “right sort of people”?
d. At which point in the process can I have the greatest influence in attracting them?
e. How can we refine our communication with prospective candidates to maximize recruitment opportunities?
f. How effective is our website in meeting the needs of potential recruits?
g. What role do our intermediaries (e.g. agencies, consultants and influential players) have in our recruitment drive?
h. How can we best optimize our recruitment processes?
It has a whole database on retention and recruitment. MORI Recruitment & Retention Research can be found at http://www.mori.com/recruit/index.shtml.
Society for Human Resource Management
“Trust people with fairness and respect, provide them with meaningful work to attract and retain a diverse workforce” (Debora Bloom, President, Debora Bloom Associates).
“People don’t just work at jobs, they live for opportunities. People stay where they are wanted…not where they are tolerated” (Janine Fondon, President Unity First.com).
Develop a Recruitment and Retention Action Plan
Create a long (three to five years) and short term (six months to two years) approach. Develop a strategic direction that links with your organization’s mission, vision, values and strategic direction. Utilize a comprehensive approach by including:
a. multicultural marketing
b. marketing segmentation
c. community outreach brand image as an employer of choice
d. internal recruitment activities
Recruitment and retention strategies and image must change with time based on fluctuations in the marketplace and/or your organization. Consider what strategies you implement that are different from everyone else’s.
Understand where various groups in your community get their information? Where do they socialize?
- Social and civic groups (e.g. fraternal societies)
- Recreational facilities (gyms, golf, tennis, basketball, religious institutions)
- Religious institutions e.g. (churches, temples, mosques)
- Schools/institutions of higher learning
- Understand why employees stay and go. Craft strategies to keep the right people and let the wrong ones leave.
Train and assist managers in management basics:
a. Managing diversity and diversity awareness
b. Performance management
c. Communication across generations and cultures
d. Team building (multicultural and multidisciplinary)
e. Taking disciplinary action
f. Motivating and rewarding
g. Change management
h. Interviewing skills
Teach managers how to be coaches and do mentoring and succession planning. Prepare internal staff for career advancement.
Ideas on the development of recruitment and retention plans can be found at http://www.shrm.org/diversity/recruitkit/
The National Teacher Recruitment Clearinghouse
The National Teacher Recruitment Clearinghouse discusses many ideas about keeping new teachers that are hired. There are a number of resources available at the clearinghouse. These are a few of them:
a. Teacher recruitment: preparation and retention for hard-to-staff schools
b. Attracting and retaining teachers in rural areas
c. Teachers and administrators training, recruitment and retention
d. Recruitment and preparation of quality teachers for rural schools
e. The problem of recruiting and retaining teachers for rural areas: An application of anthropological concepts and methods in a department of education
f. Supporting beginning teachers in rural and small schools
g. Teacher recruitment and retention in rural school district
The discussion can be accessed here
Canadian Teachers’ Federation
Canadian Teachers’ Federation is calling on school boards and government to work with teacher organizations in supporting the following measures:
a. Increase the number of spaces in teacher training institutions
b. Develop supportive programs for beginning teachers
c. Work to improve the conditions under which teachers teach and children learn
d. Maintain supportive programs, resources and competitive remuneration packages; utilize the pool of substitutes and part-time teachers to fill full-:time positions
e. Provide greater opportunity for in-service training
f. Increase investment in public education and the provision of education resources
This website is a review of the literature on recruitment and retention of teachers in Canada.
Canadian Teachers’ Federation Report
a. Half of school districts surveyed reported more difficulty in attracting qualified candidates for full-time teaching positions during the preceding four years
b. Three quarters of school districts reported difficulties in finding substitute teachers
c. Majority of school districts expected hiring difficulties to continue for the next five years.
d. Teacher shortages have been most prevalent in science subjects in the last four years
e. Rural boards anticipated more hiring difficulties than urban ones
f. Size of district or board enrollment was a factor in some subject area shortages
g. Shortages in some subject areas varied by language of instruction and/or geographical location
h. The top three shortage areas in each province were identified: FSL was one of the top three large shortage areas identified for Ontario and British Columbia
The next website also provides a review of literature on recruitment and retention of teachers. It presents a number of term papers and essays on recruitment and retention.
Recruitment of Principals
The Recruitment and Retention of school principals is also an issue. Here are some recommendations:
- More attention to succession planning by developing comprehensive data bases of trends in the age profiles, and attrition and retirement rates of principals as a foundation for effective human resource planning
- Review current recruitment practices which are almost totally determined by candidates nominating themselves for vacant positions
- Encourage principals to identify and groom potential leaders by gradually helping them to develop a profile of effective achievement in areas of school management and leadership and thus ensuring that the transition to principalship is seamless and smooth
- Do not put off the training until the principals have been appointed
- Ensure that there is a readily accessible pool of well qualified candidates by monitoring trends in recruitment and keeping in mind that at least half of those qualified to advance to principalship may in effect not wish to proceed
- Encourage those in post to emphasize the positive features of the job in addition to the less attractive dimensions
- Ensure that principals will have an entitlement to arrange professional learning opportunities throughout their careers
This website looks at that topic. http://www.ippn.ie/
Retaining talented, motivated people is vital to the success of any company. The case studies in this website offer insights into how some companies succeed. The sections on “Select and Hire the Right People” and “Retain Valuable Employees” are especially relevant.
The following section will give you very valuable insights into the following areas:
a. Build Strong Teams
b. Define Job Requirements
c. Attract the Best Candidates
d. Select and Hire the Right People
e. Plan for Future Growth
f. Develop Your People
g. Deal Effectively with Conflict
h. Motivate your people
Please find out more at:
Human Resources: Recruitment and Retention Resources
The next website is an excellent tool for recruiting teachers. It provides the most recent feature articles and major resources. It provides many guidelines to assist recruiters.
Top Ten Ways to Retain your Great Employees
a. A satisfied employee knows clearly what is expected from him every day at work
b. The quality of the supervision an employee receives is critical to employee retention
c. The ability of the employee to speak his or her mind freely within the organization is another key factor in employee retention
d. Talent and skill utilization is another environmental factor your key employees seek in your workplace
e. The perception of fairness and equitable treatment is important in employee retention
f. The easiest problems to solve and the ones most affecting employee retention, are tools, time, and training
g. The employees you want to retain, seek frequent opportunities to learn and grow in their careers, knowledge and skill
h. The employee never felt senior managers knew he existed
i. No matter the circumstance, never, ever threaten an employee’s job or income. Your staff member must feel rewarded, recognized, and appreciated
Recruiting Stars: Top Ten Ways to get Great Candidates
How to Build Your Talent Pool
a. Identify your ideal candidate
b. Tap your employee networks
c. Take advantage of your industry contracts, association memberships,
and trade groups
d. Use your website for recruiting
e. Maintain frequent contact with interested candidates
f. Become an employer of choice
g. Recruit using the internet
h. Use head hunters and recruiters
i. Use temporary agencies and firms for recruitment
j. Find out where your ideal candidates live
k. Publicity- news media, print, television, radio, online
Please find out more at:
The next website is an excellent website for retention. It provides many useful guidelines on how to retain workers. The leadership retention talents are based on data from a wide variety of organizations and define the knowledge, skills and abilities leaders need in order to build a retention climate, keep talented people longer, and keep them engaged in their work.
There are 10 employee retention leadership programs available focusing on these leadership talents:
The Talent Retention Section includes some case studies. Please find out more at http://www.talentkeepersservices.com/talentkeepers/prodRetentionLeadership.shtml
- Trust Builders: Creates ability to build a sense of trust with team members
- Climate Builders: Makes work and the workplace enjoyable and fulfilling
- Esteem Builders: Gives team members responsibility and freedom to act, and helps them build self-esteem
- Flexibility Expert: Recognizes and adapts to individual needs and views
- Communicator: Communicates effectively the importance of retention to team members and others
- Talent Developer and Coach: Develops and coaches team members to help them grow results in greater commitment and loyalty to the organization
- High Performance Builder: Creates conditions that reinforce high levels of team member performance, particularly critical for the most talented people
- Retention Monitor: Gauges employee retention and takes preemptive action
- Retention Expert: Develops knowledge and an understanding of the supporting values central to initiating effective retention-focused actions
- Talent Finder: Within the scope of his/her role, shows leaders how to effectively source and select qualified people
- RQ (Retention Quotient): An objective self-assessment of your understanding of the 10 Leadership Retention Talents. RQ is designed to guide your developmental planning by helping to prioritize and recommend retention leadership learning programs