Teacher Recruitment

Cain (1880), Pernand Cormon, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Picture taken by Jonathan Acuña (2019)

Teacher Recruitment

What should all be looking for in new staff? 

         “Human capital is an asset consisting of the knowledge and skills held by a person that can be used by an organization to advance its goals” (Grimsley, 2014). However, to advance in a company’s goals hiring the right people is a valuable and substantial part of the process of personnel selection. But what should recruiters be really paying attention to when looking for the right individuals?

         [1] Recruit seekers should stick to a clearly defined job description to identify the precise candidate who can become passionate about the organization’s aims. As stated by Lewin (2020), a company’s best human capital are not its people, but the right individuals. Many people can apply for a job out of need, but not all of them are right candidates for a position. In the case of a education company, the teaching personnel has to be qualified for, enthusiastic about, and devoted to teaching, elements that must be part of the job description. For instance, this has to be done bearing in mind that a top student at a university is not necessarily the right applicant. And teaching training is not the solution to help teaching staff advance in their professional development when they are not aligned with the institution’s goals because they are hiried without being the right candidates for a position.

         [2] “The staffing function of human resource management searches, recruits and acquires employees with the human capital necessary for the organization’s needs” (Grimsley, 2014). But in the process of finding the right personnel for an orgainzation’s needs, such as a language school, a kind of a screening interview is a must. This interview can help reveal inter- and intrapersonal skills the company must look for in its employees. As Lewin (2020) puts out, details regarding the attidude of a candidate reveal important details of an indivifual. These details prior the interview can expose lots about the mental outlook of a potential worker and foresee attitudes towards institutional policies. Having a teaching candidate, e.g., write a presentation letter, as Lewin (2020) suggests, about specific questions and desireable behaviors at work is a way to help the recruiter have a clear perspective of a new teacher.

         [3] Kenton (2019) argues that “An organization is often said to only be as good as its people.” What do we then pay attention to during a job interview as a recruit seeker to continue finding good people? Lewin (2020) answers this question quite simply; we pay attention to everything! An in order to focus on everything, the job interview, e.g. for a language teacher, has to be organized with a set of highly professional questions that can yield the real attitudes of the candidate. The recruiter needs to delve into knowing what this person liked about his/her former job, what his/her areas of improvement are, about his working antecedents, why the person wanted to become an educator, the reasons why s/he studied at the university the person studied at, how s/he could be defined by his/her former students and employers, etc. (Lewin, 2020). All this input does help to find the right people for the right positions.

         [4] “Human capital is an intangible asset or quality on a company’s balance sheet” (Kenton, 2019). It is for this intangible reason that it is transcendental to know as much as we can about a candidate, especially in the areas of former job experience. In the education guild, the recruiting interviewer must have a potential hiree talk about a education project that had a great impact of other colleagues and that can continue to have a long-lasting effect on their former peers. Lewin (2020) also suggests having teaching candidates tell you how s/he copes with criticism. For this reason, it is a good idea to understand how a hiree responds to criticism by listening to him/her talk about a former supervisor. People can disagree with criticism, but how this individual reacts to the memories of feedback can reveal lots of what to expect of him/her.

         There are probably more areas that a recruiter has to focus on while interviewing a candidate. However, Lewin (2020) warns us to beware of the halo effect. “The halo effect refers to the idea that our overall impression of someone will directly impact how we perceive almost everything they do” (Miller, 2018). The halo effect is a sort of prejudice all talent seekers can fall into if the candidate is professionally charming. If that candidate at our institutuion “has an overall positive impression -a halo as it were- then we’re more likely to perceive everything they do more positively” (Miller, 2018) and whatever they say sounds like music to the recruiter’s ears. Falling in the halo effect trap can mean that the company’s recruiting official can suggest the wrong name for a teaching position.

References

Grimsley, S. (2014, May 7). What Is Human Capital? - Importance to An Organization. Retrieved August 16, 2020, from Study.Com: https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-human-capital-importance-to-an-organization.html

Kenton, W. (2019, May 28). Human Capital. Retrieved August 16, 2020, from Investopedia.Com: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/humancapital.asp

Lewin, L. (2020, August 11). Selección de Personal. Escuela para Directivos. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Miller, B. (2018, October 2). How the Halo Effect Impacts Your Workplace. Retrieved August 16, 2020, from HRDailyAdvisor.blr.com: https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2018/10/02/how-the-halo-effect-impacts-your-workplace/#:~:text=The%20halo%20effect%20refers%20to,perceive%20almost%20everything%20they%20do.&text=It%20could%20be%20that%20the,before%20even%20meeting%20the%20individual.

 

 

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