Using an Agency

Education recruitment agencies are vital. They have become an essential part of most school's method of recruitment.

In the past recruitment agencies have been perceived negatively, usually focusing on the 'cost' to the schools and rarely on the benefits of outsourcing, what can be time and resource intensive.

TLTP Education provide staff for a range of contracts, from daily supply to cover unplanned absences as well as short- and long-term placements right through to permanent assignments. We will look at their current database to find matching candidates as well as advertise the job on various media to attract applicants with the appropriate skill set. Agencies will also carry out all the necessary groundwork beforehand which gives them the ability to be reactive to the needs of the school.

We know from talking to our clients every day that recruiting staff is one of the most challenging problems. Recruiting new staff through traditional methods is time-consuming, potentially expensive, and offers no guarantee of success. The Department of Education support the value of recruitment agencies in the education sector

Here are our 10 top reasons why schools use TLTP Education for their recruitment needs

1. Time Saving

The hiring process can be very time consuming, from advertising the vacancies, sorting through the applications, setting up interviews and carrying out background checks. This is a full-time job in itself which can be extremely repetitive and very difficult to manage.

2. Cost Saving

It is often assumed that outsourcing recruitment will result in a cost to the school. Cost needs to proportioned to advertising the vacancy, which can prove expensive if posting single one-off jobs. Recruitment agencies will often have allocations on the all the top job boards, so you can be sure that your job is advertised in all the correct places. Administrative costs also need to be taken into consideration for facilitating the process, sifting through the CVs, initial conversations, the list goes on – these all take time, and as we all know time is money. TLTP Education is here to help negotiate the best salary, provide guidance and advice on what is fair and appropriate, but also anything that might be needed to eliminate unsuitable candidates and capture that top candidate that everyone else is after too!

3. The Screening Process

The screening process in itself is time consuming and lengthy. TLTP Education will sift through the applications, run background checks, follow up references, check qualifications and conduct preliminary interviews to ensure the candidate matches their application. As a result, you will only see easy to understand, relevant and consistent CVs. With these steps already taken care of you will feel assured that anyone you interview has already passed the first stage of necessary checks.

4. Candidates not applicants

The aim of advertising a role is to attract suitable talent for the vacancy. Whichever way applications come through there will be a lot of time invested in filtering, assessing and communicating with them. Only when applicants pass the initial screening process do they become potential candidates who are worthy of consideration and interview by the school.

5. Access to a large talent pool

will recruitment agencies have the best jobs, they will also have access to the best candidates. Schools will benefit from the fact that a recruitment agency may have some of the best talent already registered on their books and it could mean finding the perfect candidate sooner rather than later.

The UK teacher shortage is well known; increasing number of pupils entering the education system, a high number of teachers leaving the industry and less people entering into teacher training courses, the situation is expected to get worse. This makes it more and more difficult for schools to do their own recruiting. To support teacher recruitment and retention, agencies tend to invest in career fairs, hold their own recruitment open days and partner with education institutes to acquire the next generation of education staff and support them in a fulfilling teaching career.

6. Compliance Time Saving

Agencies accredited with the REC Audited in Education status, allied to stringent registration and vetting procedures, provide a significant benefit to schools in that they ensure all the compliance criteria is met before a candidate starts work. They also have the responsibility of ensuring all candidate compliance criteria is constantly up-to-date. This relieves schools of a huge administrative burden. Therefore, allowing schools to get on with what they do best; teaching.

7. Relationships

Building long lasting and effective relationships with both schools and candidates is vital for recruitment agencies. After all, for an agency to have a good reputation it will need to have a proven track record of finding the right employees for the job and the right positions for those candidates. Once a trusting relationship has been developed future hiring's will go even smoother.

8. Extended network

Whether a candidate is passively looking or being selective it can be very difficult to find them. There may be a number of reasons as to why they are not responding to job advertisements. They may be too busy to search for jobs and may already have built relationships with other specialist recruiters. Even if they aren't currently active, there's a strong chance that a good recruiter will know who they are and how to reach them. Agencies have many networks - each consultant, candidate, client or associate has the potential to influence their networks to help connect to people with a range of skills and experiences, many of who would be off the radar of an in-house recruitment team

9. Knowledge of the market

The top recruiters will always have their finger on the pulse and be always one step ahead. They will know the available talent, where they are and how to reach out to them, salary rates, career expectations, available skill-sets and current hiring complexities. The best will act as partners and collaborators, and be your eyes and ears in the market. They'll keep up to date with industry news, have the ability to react to a changing market and apply their knowledge to their role.

10. 24 hours 7 days a week

TLTP Education operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, giving you access and reassurance whenever you need us.

Recruiting through TLTP Education offers a quality, reliable, efficient service which aims not only to save you valuable time and money, but is also risk free; leaving you to concentrate on delivering exceptional teaching and learning.

Only when you appoint the successful candidate do we charge a fee - so there is no risk of spending your valuable budget on an unsuccessful recruitment campaign!