5 Benefits of Outsourcing Educational Staffing

Staffing a school provides administrators with a host of problems. Many school interviews happen during the school year. This makes it difficult for the schools to resume normal operations while also finding open spaces to interview, scheduling qualified interviewers (who have other responsibilities around the building) and even taking time away from classes for candidates to present practice lessons. More schools are adopting mock classroom interviewers with staff posing as students, but that still requires staff to take time out of their day.

Schools also have multi-layered interview procedures and have to comb through a lot of candidates for each position. All organizations make similar sacrifices to replenish their staff, but schools have more moving pieces involved than most businesses. Outsourcing educational staffing can make hiring processes effective and efficient, without forcing schools to adjust their schedules to make a hire.

1. Better Quality Candidates
Staffing agencies specialize in finding talents for a given profession. Since they gather talent by the profession, rather than the individual job listing, staffing agencies can offer a deeper pool of teaching candidates. A staffing agency’s dedication to hiring candidates helps them efficiently vet candidates by requiring clearances, fingerprinting and other background checks. This way, a candidate interviewed from a staffing agency is prepared to begin working. With a staffing service sorting the candidates’ experience, qualifications and specialties, administrators can rest assured that they will have the right hire for the job.

2. Lower Costs
Maybe the most important aspect of outsourcing staffing is the money it saves the schools. Especially with Pennsylvania’s educational budget crisis, more schools are outsourcing staffing because of its cost-effectiveness.

Outsourcing helps cut costs with:

• Recruiting helps save time spent at job fairs and travel expenses
• Advertising, either online or with physical ads, costs money
• Outsourced interviewing ensures your top administrators and teachers can keep doing their jobs
• Background Checks take time to process and can cost the school
• Skills Testing is also usually administered by educational staff, taking more time away. Depending on the school, it could cost class time for students too
• In-house Training for a smooth transition is ideal for our best candidates, so they can begin working as soon as you need them

Seven school districts in Massachusetts switched to have their staffing outsourced over a decade ago, and a 2009 peer-reviewed analysis of the savings and student results throughout the transition to analyze outsourcing’s cost-effectiveness for the districts. In two years, and without any irregularities with school performance, the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative saved $208,300 in their Operations Budget. The schools were happy with the results of the hires and that total in the operations budget does not account for all of the time and energy it saves your current staff.

3. Faster Hiring
You can hire quickly based on the qualifications necessary for the open position. Browsing through clients enables you to find someone you are comfortable with hiring quickly. Sometimes teachers need to miss school for extended periods or take leave. When there is a sudden demand for a teacher, staffing agencies already have candidates ready to be hired. It can even make your wrap-up of the school year smoother if you’re looking to hire a candidate in time to prepare the classroom and lessons. This facet also connects with the in-house training benefits staffing services have. For the most part, the school’s main responsibility for the new hire would be oriented around the school.

4. Flexibility

Depending on what you are looking for, outsourcing agencies can quickly provide either experienced candidates or new teachers starting their careers. There are also specific qualifications that can be made. For example, a school that’s special education program uses co-teaching might only request candidates with experience in using co-teaching methods. Whatever the need is, staffing services can find the right candidate almost on the fly.

5. Reduced Administrative Burden

The main focus for outsourcing educational staffing is to prevent disruptions for short-staffed schools. Staffing services assume as many responsibilities as possible to place workers promptly. Fast hiring also means quicker relief for existing staff if there are significant staffing needs. Teachers at school will be happy with quick, competent hiring.

Proven Efficiency with Educational Staffing

Since the educational staffing process has been such a grueling burden with schools, it’s normal for the school to be wary of outsourcing staffing. It’s also because of the burden that it is necessary for schools to delegate hiring responsibilities to professionals who specialize in vetting and evaluating talent. It removes the burden off of your staff, the school’s budget, parents, the taxpayer and, most importantly, students who need stable, fully staffed learning communities in order to thrive. There is proof in business across all fields that are outsourcing staffing. It’s become a reality that our schedules are just too overfilled to handle all of these things internally.

Need help staffing your organization?

Call Aspire ES today. (215) 388-0670