It’s fair to say that 2020 has been a challenging year, beyond anyone’s expectations. Almost overnight we’ve had to adapt to new ways of living and socialising, whilst continuing to educate the generation of tomorrow.
With Christmas around the corner, school staff will finally get a much-needed break. But before your school closes for the festive period, we share some ideas to get fully prepared for the break and for the year ahead.
Make use of the Christmas traffic
It may shock you, but the festive period has proven to be very busy when it comes to searching for jobs. Last Christmas we saw massive numbers of job seeking education professionals heading to Eteach! We witnessed over 345,000 page views during the 2019 Christmas period, which resulted in over 40,000 job advert views.
Don’t miss out on this traffic; log in to your Client Portal and get any jobs that you may need posted before your school breaks up.
Manage applicant expectations
Many schools are having to close early for Christmas, or reopening a little later than normal in January to manage the spread of Covid-19. If your school falls into either of these categories, then spare a thought for applicants that might apply for your jobs over this extended period of school closures.
Consider amending your application confirmation email and your application instructions to make candidates aware that it may take longer for them to hear back regarding the status of their application. You can make these changes easily in the Application Process settings page within the Client Portal. Just remember to change it back in the New Year! Also consider any contact details that might be included in the job advert itself (particularly for your more senior vacancies).
Take interviews home
Interviews don’t need to take place on the school grounds anymore! You can carry out interviews via our schedule online interview tool wherever you are – once the interview is set up and added to your diary, you can join the interview on any device. So, don’t put your important interviews on hold until the New Year; interview from the comfort of your own home via your smart phone or tablet.
Upload a festive header image
Have you considered changing your Career Page or Career Site as the seasons change? Add a bit of festive cheer to your jobs by creating and uploading a seasonal header image to wish interested candidates a happy holidays. It could be a photo of your school covered in snow, a collage of a Christmas project that your students have carried out, or something else entirely that shows your school in a festive light.
You can do this easily in your Career Page/Career Site editor and it will update automatically across all pages that your jobs and school is featured on.
If you’re looking for inspiration, take a look at what Thomas Knyvett College has done to spread some holiday spirit!
Make use of our expert supply team
Throughout the autumn months, our recruitment team’s offering has increased massively, most notably within our supply team. Operating across the UK but primarily in Greater London, South East England and Wales, we place excellent teachers, TAs and SEN staff in primary and secondary schools. We maintain our exceptionally high standards by ensuring every candidate has a thorough background check and performance feedback on all our supply teachers is obtained.
If you are in need of last-minute supply staff before or after the Christmas period, get in touch with the team today or enquire about how we can help you throughout the academic year. Contact us on 01276 674150 to talk through your supply needs.
And finally…
…enjoy a much-needed break!
2020 has been a remarkably hard year for everyone, but schools have had a particularly difficult time with a duty of care for their staff and students during a global pandemic. You’ve truly gone above and beyond this year.
About the author
Emily Godolphin
As Eteach's Product Marketing Manager, Emily is passionate about giving schools and colleges the ability to seamlessly recruit and hire teaching staff across the UK and beyond. Emily graduated with a first class honours degree in Education Studies at the University of Winchester and has since had 9 years of experience in marketing for recruitment companies.
