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IASPA WEBINAR WEDNESDAY

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Mrs. Sofia Alvarez

Human Resources Specialist

IASPA Support Staff Recipient

&

Red Rover Substitute Manager of the Year!

Human Resources Manager

Mrs. Nina Youabb, pHCLE

MEET OUR TEAM

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The recruitment process, particularly in schools, has evolved over the years. Its increased complexity, various steps, and need for strategic workforce planning make it essential for Human Resources and Hiring Teams to collaborate effectively, ensuring a fair, equitable, and positive experience for ALL stakeholders.

OVERVIEW

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AGENDA

Identifying the Need
Building the Hiring Toolkit
Creating a Strategic Recruitment Plan
Structuring Fair & Consistent Interview Process
Streamlining Pre-Employment
Setting New Hires Up for Success

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Identifying the Need

Listened to feedback from Hiring Teams.
Recognized the gap between HR and the Hiring Teams.
Identified inconsistencies across the buildings.
Decided to develop a set of guidelines.

Leveraged our strong network to gain valuable insights into best practices.

→ Don’t be shy to do this with any of your processes!

SOFIA

Within Dr AR first couple years with the district, she recognized inefficiencies/inconsistencies in our hiring process based on her interactions with our new administrators and seasoned ones. Ex - she noticed that buildings were following different process or even outdated processes
This aided her identify the gaps between HR and the buildings - from our perspective, everything was just fine, but that wasn’t the case.
Furthermore, the interactions helped her identify gaps across all of our buildings - everyone was doing something different for their hiring process. This is not to say that everything needs to be the same, but it should be fair across the board.
Above all, Dr R recognized that what was needed was not necessarily a process but rather a training guide. And as a result, the team developed a set of guidelines into a user friendly toolkit.
Note that Dr R did leverage her network. She reached out to neighboring districts to gain insight what they were doing. So don’t forget to leverage your network throughout this process because it may just spark an idea you hadn’t thought about.

Dr. AR recognized inefficiencies based on new and seasoned administrative experience (this could be because buildings do things different or outdated, etc)

Identified gaps within HR and buildings based on that feedback (from our perspective, we thought we had it all down)
“” “” across buildings - going back to doing things differently in one building from another. Not to say it has to be the same, but it has to be fair.
Dr. AR also recognized that this is not necessarily a process, but a training guide and as a result, developed a set of guidelines into a user friendly toolkit.

In the end, take advantage of the strong network we had.

new administrators - there were lack of confidence in the hiring process

Dr. AR analysis of what happening at other districts; gathered hiring managers; feedback on our process

based on data, gaps were identified in recruitment process but also in the communication between HR/Hiring Managers

5. AR tapped back into District she worked with and tapped into our network to learn mor about how other school foramlized their process, as a result, she came back to the table and landed on creating the hiring toolkit.

Credit to Association - reaching out to membership

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Building the Hiring Toolkit

Establish a Hiring Toolkit Committee.
Gather feedback on current process.
Identify the gaps & areas for improvement.
Reach out to neighboring districts to learn about their process.
Brainstorm.
Design and develop a process.

Train → Evaluate Annually → Retrain.

NINA

Don’t just start creating - might waste time including unnecessary information

You want to include the stakeholders to develop your process - CRITICAL FOR BUY-IN!

Created a committee - diverse committee ensuring representation from all buildings, dif’t levels of hiring managers, department, etc

Gather feedback so you can identify the gaps

And again, don’t forget to reach out to neighboring districts

Brainstorm, design and develop a process

Once process in place, critical that you train the all hiring manager - on the same page. At D225, trained using google slide deck. Attended each buildings Building Administrative Team meetings. ___

It can be easy to think: hey I created something awesome that is intended to be helpful”, but they may be confused and even upset. We can sometimes target about volume in the buildings versus district office, for example so it is critical to train first.

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Inside the Hiring Toolkit

1-2 pages → KEEP IT BRIEF!
Table format (optional)
Broken down by:

Task
Purpose
Applicable Forms

Example

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Inside the Hiring Toolkit

Example

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Structuring a

Fair & Consistent

Interview Process

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Creating a Strategic Recruitment Plan

Define why it is important for YOUR district.
Identify your recruitment access points.

D225 broke it down by position types.

For example - Administrative postings will also be posted on IPA. Meanwhile, non-licensed positions will be posted on Indeed.
Defend why job fair representation is important.

Helps get Hiring Managers buy-in.

SOFIA

Define why it is important for your district - in our case, getting everyone on the same page - to provide consistency in all of recruitment efforts

Then we identified our recruitment access points. (where do we post our jobs, which jobs fairs must we attend?)

At D225, we drive our recruitment by position types.

So referring to the slide Nina just showed you regarding job postings:

-Administrative Role - IPA - Illinois Principal Assoc

-Non-Licensed position - Indeed

For Job Fairs:

-we struggled

-Our superintendent joined us for the NWPA job fair to support our efforts and this encouraged many of the hiring managers to begin attending fairs. Now we can say the proof is in the data - Every year we collect data to see how our referral sources are doing and we had jump from FY22 from 23 applicants to FY25 when we had 47 applicants. (Collect and share data - it will help you with buy-in)

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Creating a Strategic Recruitment Plan

SUPPORT your Hiring Managers

Include tools and resources to ensure successful recruitment.

Transparency

Prepare Hiring Managers ahead with list of job fairs.

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Phase 1: Establishing Clear Staffing Norms

Understanding of what is involved in staffing needs:

Board-Approved FTE for the year.
FTE types:

Replacement, new, etc.

Average budget/cap
Understanding Reduction in Force and recall rights.
And much more!

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Phase 1: Establishing Clear Staffing Norms

Notice of Vacancies:

Know your policies and CBA

Staffing Timeline:

Work with your Building leadership

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Phase 2: Screening & Interviewing

with Consistency

What does this look like at your District?
Are all candidates treated equally?

For example: Same position = Same Questions

Tools and Resources

Candidate Profile, for example.

Designed to help Interview Teams be aware of what is being seeked in a candidate.

SOFIA

What does this look like at your district?

Are all your candidates treated equally?

What are the tools and resources your hiring teams need.

Best way to describe how helpful this section is, is with an example.

Most recently, one of our Assistant Tech Manager was hiring for Technology Technician position

First time running a hiring process and leading an interview team

He chatted Nina and I multiple times throughout the process, but one of the first things we did with him was meet and walk him through the Hiring Toolkit. He wanted to know:

where do I go to submit a request to post?

what questions must I ask the candidates?

I just want to make sure I do this right.

But what was most impressive was that you can tell he took this process seriously, and he would refer to toolkit because his questions changed. Now he was asking:

how do I set up interview folders? what’s included? support interview team?

what kind of questions should I tell the team to avoid?

In the end, he did a great job, ran a fair process and hired his first choice, but you know who really won in this process? We did. All earlier questions were answered in the toolkit. He didn’t need to reach out to us, he only did when he got stuck. So in the end, we ended up winning time.

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Phase 2: Screening & Interviewing

with Consistency

Train All Members of the Interview Teams.

Fairly screening applicants (dos and don'ts)
Any comments (paper/electronic) may be subject to legal discovery.
Maintain confidentiality

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Phase 3: Streamlining Pre-Employment

Create a clear and streamlined process for

Human Resources to support hiring managers and departments with transparent and

consistent updates on the status of their finalist

in the pre-employment process.

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Phase 3: Streamlining Pre-Employment

This includes, but is not limited to:

Hiring Schedule (details in following slides)
Form Approval - provides updates in real time.
New Hire Checklist updated in real-time.
Communication when cleared for Board of Education review.

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Phase 3: Streamlining Pre-Employment

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Phase 4: Setting New Hires Up for Success

Establish and sustain a consistent, impactful new employee orientation paired with ongoing support.

New Employee Orientation Agenda

Who would you include?
Which topics?

Ongoing support

Mentors

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Phase 4: Setting New Hires Up for Success

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Ongoing Support for Hiring Teams

Set your Hiring Teams for success! Offering support that is accessible anytime is important. This includes:

How to navigate and use ATS
Best practices in screening online applications and video responses
How to use all forms/items required when recommending a finalist
Bank of interview questions
Letter and communication templates
Reference check template

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Closing

Streamlining your recruitment process safeguards your District from legal risks, upholds organizational integrity, and builds trust with hiring teams by setting them up for success and reducing potential challenges.

Consistency protects your district

Collaboration strengthens your culture

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iaspa.org

@_iaspa_

#iaspa2025

Reality Check

Where are you stuck?

maybe give suggestions for them to vote on

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THANK YOU

OUR CONTACT

Nina Youabb

847-486-4707

nyouabb@glenbrook225.org

Sofia Alvarez

847-486-5719

salvarez@glenbrook225.org