Do you remember how you got your first teaching job in an independent school? What did that process look like? Was it via a search agency? Referral from a colleague? NAIS Job Board? LinkedIn? If you are on the hiring team at your school, what does that process feel like to you? Has it changed since you started in that role? As with enrollment, many of the systems and structures that have come to dominate the profession were found to be outmoded in the first years of the 21st century, with the 2008 financial crisis only speeding up the demise of the old and rise of the new. Admissions shifted to “enrollment”, the office grew, email and social media became standard, the admissions season became year-round, and now, thanks to Covid-19, Zoom tours and video interviews are just another tool for the office to utilize. All of this begs the question, with so much change in nearly every area of school life, why haven’t staffing practices changed as well? 

Staffing, from identifying talent to the hiring process to onboarding to the deployment of personnel, remains locked in the last century even though conditions have changed and nearly every other…