Hiring and Retaining Top Talent: The Importance of Site Leadership and Identity Alignment

A diverse interview panel of three casual professionals smiles at a job candidate with medium length dark hair who is only seen from the back.

If you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money. But if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.

– Simon Sinek


Hiring & Retaining Top Talent Begins With You

Site leadership matters. The principal is key to attracting and retaining talent.

A New Way of Hiring Top Talent

Goal: Finding and hiring top talent who align with your district’s/school’s identity, vision, and mission, and who are then likely to remain at the site/district

  • FIRST INTERVIEW: Panel of top teachers from throughout the district/school
    • Interdisciplinary and diverse grade levels and experience
    • “Top teachers” not only perform well, but do so in alignment with the district’s/school’s identity, vision, mission
    • This panel sorts through the applications and selects applicants for interviews
    • This panel conducts the first interview and selects those to be interviewed by their respective sites
  • INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: Have nothing to do with content, etc. — the focus is on discovering Is this the right fit for our school/district?
    • What you don’t know — and need to know — is if they’re aligned with your maxims/identity
      • Remember, you already know about a candidate’s knowledge, skills, experience, references, etc. (that’s in the application/resume) — what you really need to know is if they’re a good fit for your district/site
  • SECOND INTERVIEW: Site-level interviews — again, the focus is on discovering Is this the right fit for our school?
    • Equity Lens: Consider the demographics of your student population and the current makeup of your staff in addition to your school’s maxims/identity

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