There is no such thing as a good educational centre without professional and good educators. Still, attracting and retaining the best employees is often easier said than done.
But, there is no reason to lose hope. We’ve prepared a list of tips to attract and hire quality educators in Malaysia, that will set you on the right track.
Why Does Your Educational Centre Need the Best Educators?
Simply put, the quality of your learning centre will depend on the quality of your teachers.
Educational centres must hire highly professional teachers. Their main role is to provide education, be positive role models, and help students achieve success. Teachers are a crucial component in the learning process and have a significant impact on their students’ lives.
The academic success of students as well as the reputation of the learning centre are directly determined by effective teachers who deliver high-quality instruction, create a positive learning environment, build strong relationships with students, and exhibit professionalism and accountability—i.e., quality educators.
How to Attract the Best Candidates?
Even though it’s true that the employer is the one who chooses their team members, the opposite is also true—candidates choose their employers. So, you must ensure that candidates find you tempting and worthy of their time.
Your learning centre needs to attract the best candidates because these candidates will become your high-quality teachers, which will impact the value of your centre.
It’s never easy to find the best teachers, especially when there’s a shortage on the market, as there is right now.
Still, we have some tips and tricks for you to make attracting outstanding teachers much easier!
1. Experiment with Different Channels
There are many different ways you can show your educational centre to the candidates. And the best practice is to try them all and combine what works best for you.
- Job fairs. Even though some people find them old-fashioned, the results tell us the opposite. Job fairs are great because in a short time you can access an enormous pool of talent. On top of that, that is a great opportunity to increase brand awareness and represent your learning centre in the best light.
- Social media. People engage with businesses through social media channels even when they are not looking for a job. If you manage to develop a bond between your brand and your audience, people will have feelings of trust in your learning centre and be more attracted to work for you instead of your competition.
- Job boards. Like job fairs, job boards are great because you can reach a large audience. Moreover, job boards are accessible non-stop which means you can search for educators anytime, and they can apply whenever. According to similarweb, Indeed is the most popular job search website. Still, there are many other options, like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Monster, Ricebowl, Hiredly, JobStreet, and others.
- Employee referral program. Would you recommend to your coworkers something that isn’t really good? No one would! That’s why employee referrals are a fantastic strategy to try when looking for educators. You can be sure that your current employees won’t recommend someone who isn’t trustworthy. On top of that, this process is really effective because your existing team members will explain to potential employees what it looks like to work in your centre. If you hire someone recommended by your current educators and that person is a good fit—you reward the person who made the referral. Knowing they will get a reward if they help you find a new team member will motivate them even more to really recommend someone who is amazing. It’s a win-win situation!
- New graduates. What is better than young and educated people looking for their first job? Many employers in the past underestimated young people without experience and made a big mistake. Maybe you will need a bit more time to help them at the beginning, but you will have motivated and educated young team members who will be more than happy to gain experience, learn, and develop. You can think about offering internships or creating an event at their university to represent your learning centre.
2. Offer Competitive Compensation and Benefits
Salary is one of the most crucial things job seekers are looking for. You must make sure to thoroughly research the ongoing rates for educators in Malaysia and that you’re offering competitive compensation. But, that’s not the end.
You also must offer a good package of benefits to your educators. Make sure to find something that’s really valuable for them and that will make you stand out as an employer.
Important note: Don’t forget to research and update the teacher’s salary and benefits benchmark regularly. You need to be well-informed and follow changes in the market to ensure you’re offering the best conditions to your educators.
3. Build a Strong Employer Brand
As we already mentioned in the section about social media channels—good employer branding can be extremely powerful when it comes to attracting the best candidates.
A strong employer brand will differentiate your education centre from competitors, attract top talent who shares your values, and increase employee engagement and retention. By creating a positive and attractive image of your company, you can also establish a reputation as an employer of choice, making it easier to attract and retain the best talent in your industry.
What Should You Look for When Hiring Teachers?
And here are some tips you should keep in mind while hiring teachers for your learning centre.
1. Soft Skills
Soft skills are what make the difference between a good teacher and an amazing teacher. And we want an amazing teacher, right?
You should look for these soft skills in your candidates:
- Communication inside and outside of the classroom. We’re looking for a person who can communicate properly not only with students but also with other team members in the centre and students’ parents.
- Patience. Patience and calmness in a learning centre are as important as formal education. You should look for a teacher who knows how to handle stressful situations and remain calm.
- Motivation. Teaching requires a lot of energy, and the only way someone will do an amazing job is if they are enthusiastic and motivated. You probably won’t have a problem seeing a sparkle in your candidate’s eyes when they’re talking about teaching.
2. Conduct a Background and Reference Check
Being an educator in any learning centre is such an important role with much responsibility, and you must ensure that your teachers are honest and truly qualified.
First and foremost, you need to get consent from your candidate to contact their previous employers.
Important note: Never ever contact a current employer of your candidate—they may not know that person is looking for a new job, and you can create an awkward situation for everyone!
You can also get help from many reference check software programs, which will make your job a little easier.
3. Evaluate Your Candidate’s Skills
An interview is the best way to see who your candidate is and if he or she is a good fit for your learning centre. Make sure to use this time to evaluate their knowledge and skills.
Pro tip: If you want to see your candidate’s organisational abilities, you can give them an assignment related to class management. By doing so, you can see how they’re thinking and solving problems in situations that aren’t familiar. For example, you can give them an assignment to prepare a lesson plan or to stimulate common work scenarios.
There is one more thing you can do.
Help Your Teachers Be Even More Efficient with AOneSchool
Sometimes an excellent teacher becomes a bit demotivated because of the many time-consuming tasks that every teacher has.
But we can prevent that from happening!
Your learning centre can use AOneSchool, a learning management software, and your teachers won’t have to waste time creating reports and sending reminders to parents every month.
On top of that, AOneSchool will ease teachers’ workload with in-sync real-time updates from the school anywhere and anytime and better and easier communication that is traceable.
Make the job for your teachers a bit easier and let them do what they are best at—teaching.
Contact us, and we will help your learning centre thrive!