A Time-Saving Template to Streamline Your School’s Hiring Process

Save time this busy season with a hiring template.

Hiring excellent teachers and staff members is one of the most important responsibilities on a school leader's plate. You know the quality of your teachers directly impacts student success. But right now, school leaders are being challenged to fill more positions than at any other time in the last decade. There are 300,000 fewer workers in schools than before the pandemic, and public schools lost more than 20,000 workers in September of this year alone!

At CheckBox Pro, we know you can attract great talent to your mission. But we also understand the hiring process can be incredibly time-consuming. We've built a simple template (we tested it with school leaders across the country) to help you streamline your hiring process this school year and put some hours back in your calendar. Below, we'll outline our three-step hiring process and provide a spreadsheet so you can implement the steps.

Step 1: Planning Your Hiring Headcount
(Tab 1 in the template)

The first step in your hiring process is to list the positions you need to fill next school year. You may still have vacancies from the current year, new roles opening up due to expansion, and likely positions to fill due to staff attrition over the summer (between 10-20%). Some school leaders rely on an “intent to return” form during Winter Break to gauge attrition, and we would recommend joining those ranks if you are unsure of which jobs you will need to fill.

Once your list is complete, draft each job description and post them on your website and distribution channels (Linked-in, Indeed, etc.). Make sure to mark the checkbox next to each position after posting to keep yourself on track.

Tab 1 in the spreadsheet will help you see all the positions you are hiring for in one place and automatically update your progress toward your hiring goal. This planning tab will help you stay on course and easily update your board members and team on your efforts.

Step 2: The Screening & Interview Process
(Tab 2 in the template)

The next tab in the hiring template organizes your screening & interview workflow. If your charter school wants to attract top talent, run your interview process without a hitch. Your process communicates your organization's values more than the words on your website and will either attract or deter the best candidates.

Your school may have a unique hiring process in your charter, but this template covers the essential interview process, as depicted below.

 Resume Submitted & Reviewed ➟ Phone Screening ➟ Interview ➟ Reference Check ➟ Offer Letter

Many school leaders are splitting hiring responsibilities amongst their administrative teams. Sharing responsibilities makes hiring more manageable for leadership, but it is easy for lines to get crossed. To keep your staff aligned, first, assign a team member to every stage of the hiring process so that responsibilities are clear. Second, draft email templates for every step in the hiring pipeline. Front-loading email templates may seem like a headache, but you will save yourself hours of future work.

 After a star candidate has impressed your team and skated their way through your interview process, you'll want to lock them down as quickly as possible. We suggest using an application like DocHub, Docusign, or PandaDoc to send offer letters and receive candidate signatures. DocHub and PandaDoc have free iterations of their software that work perfectly for this application. 

Once the candidate has signed their offer letter, you can update Tab 2 in the spreadsheet with the job position you filled. Your dashboard on Tab 1 will be updated to display your progress!

Step 3: Onboarding Your New Employee
(Tab 3 in the template)

Congratulations! You've made a great hire. The final step in the hiring process is to onboard your new employee. Visit Tab 3 in the hiring template to document your onboarding steps. 

You've most likely entered a job in the past where you were "thrown into the fire." Onboarding was a hot mess or nonexistent. You made it work, but what did that communicate about the organization? We want your employees to feel great about their new workplace and know they are set up for success no matter the time of year.

In columns P-T in Tab 3, add your onboarding tasks. We got you started by listing a signed offer letter, employee handbook and calendar, and employee documents. Once again, create email templates for your onboarding needs so that you are not drafting new messages with every hire. Your employee will feel safe and confident in your organization because of your smooth onboarding process.

Streamline Your Process

CheckBox Pro Hiring Template

Now is the time to streamline your hiring process before you are in the throws of staff recruitment season. Using this template to document and track your process will keep your team aligned, help you communicate the value of your school to candidates, and put hours back into your workdays. At CheckBox Pro, we wish you the best this hiring season!