If everyone likes you, you’re doing it wrong…
I spent Easter weekend in bed.
I told my Auntie that I couldn’t make Easter Sunday dinner because my six-year-old had a temperature.
Instead, I lay in my PJs tearfully scrolling through jobs to apply for.
You see, in March, one nightmare client wore me out.
They had unrealistic expectations, loads of internal politics, kept changing recruitment plans, couldn’t make decisions, and had an SLT with less stability than a game of Jenga.
After a weekend of wallowing (and chocolate), things became clear.
I wanted more dream clients, those who:
Realise that outstanding schools are built on strong teams.
See that investing in staff will pay back tenfold in student outcomes.
Are open to a new approach to recruitment
Know recruitment can be easier and better.
I’ve been working on how to attract my dream client. And it comes down to knowing:
What their values are.
What’s important to them.
What I stand for.
How to get that across.
And just laying it all out there.
Being direct.
And unapologetically me.
And being okay with not being liked.
I want to be Marmite. Not Flora.
Marmite divides nations and relationships. Raving fans and haters.
Flora gets the job done, but it’s boring. No-one’s favourite, and flavourless.
I only want to attract the right people. The nightmare clients will self-select, so I won’t need to deal with their rubbish.
So why am I telling you this?
Because it’s the same for you when you’re attracting candidates.
If you have:
Irrelevant applications.
No applications.
People who struggle to explain why they want to work at your school.
Candidates dropping out of the process to work elsewhere.
People deciding to stay with their current employer.
Hiring people who don’t share your vision.
New employees leaving in their probation period.
It’s because you don’t have a strong employer brand. i.e., people don’t know what you stand for, you might look like A.N.Other school to them, they’re not THAT into you.
Here’s a simple test to see if you have a strong employer brand:
Who’s your ideal candidate?
What’s great about working in your school?
Why is that important to your ideal candidate?
How do you get that across in your recruitment?
If you can’t answer these confidently, they aren’t coming across to your ideal candidate either.
And it comes down to this:
If you’re for everyone, you’re for no-one.
Be marmite. Be anchovy butter. Be stilton.
But be something.
The only way you’ll build and keep a strong team in a sector with major skills shortages, is to stand out from the competition.
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