Headteacher recruitment during coronavirus: how to manage it remotely

Last reviewed on 10 January 2022
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 37055

You can still successfully recruit a headteacher if you can't do it face to face. Here's what you need to do differently to lead a remote recruitment round and how to do it well.

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  1. Take extra precautions so the process runs smoothly
  2. Have an additional phone interview to screen candidates
  3. Speak with referees before the interview
  4. Set up remote interviewing and test it
  5. Most traditional interview tasks will probably be the same 
  6. Get candidates to meet staff remotely
  7. Do the same with pupils
  8. Check ID documents remotely

Take extra precautions so the process runs smoothly

Plan for people being off sick

  • Use a shared drive for all recruitment documents. Make sure everyone who needs to has access 
  • At the end of each day, note down where you're at in the recruitment process and what the next steps are, so that others can pick it up if needed
  • Add extra buffer time into your process to account for any delays 
  • Have more than 1 recruitment panel member trained in safer recruitment. If you're a member of Safeguarding Training Centre from The Key, take our safer recruitment eLearning module

Make sure you over-communicate throughout the process 

Decide

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