The last few weeks to May half term are a time of celebration for those teachers who are due to retire in the summer from sixth-form colleges. They are a time to congratulate those who are being promoted or moving on to new roles. It is also the time of year when recruitment becomes busy as we seek to expand our teaching staff to make sure we have enough capacity for growing student numbers and classes.

This year, that process is made more challenging as our predictions for how many teachers we might need and how many students might choose us for their GCSE resits, AS/A level, BTEC and other applied courses is less clear. Our very diverse qualification offer at East Norfolk Sixth Form College means we build the timetable around our students rather than fit them to a specific set of qualifications.

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Student choice

This means student choice and having the right staff ready to teach when we do return is critical. We are also looking at how much cover we might need, if we need to reduce class sizes to help with social distancing, changing patterns of work and also to cope with the potential for higher levels of staff sickness in September if we need to.

With this in mind, we carried out our first formal recruitment process online using a password-protected Zoom meeting. We usually ensure that students are able to be part of the process with candidates teaching them an aspect of the specification but for these first two sessions, this was not possible. Candidates were asked to provide a micro teach online and the panel was then able to watch the teaching and ask questions. 

Offline, teaching is usually observed by two people. One of the observers then becomes a member of a three-person panel. Online, there is no limit to the size of the panel as others have the potential to observe the teaching and the panel without being involved and could remain in the background if required. 

This subtle change is not something I had considered before and having a protocol for whether or not additional members of the panel who do not contribute can be present in an online interview is something that every college should think about in advance. They should also think about how the presence of any additional non-participatory panel members will be communicated to candidates.

When our HR assistant asked me if we were recording the session or not, this had not entered my mind. We chose not to record the interview as not only would we not do this normally but also because we had not agreed recording protocols in advance. This again is something that needs to be thought about.

For the taught element of the process, our candidates were asked to teach the panel and then take questions. This did work well and candidates were able to provide materials and share their screens. Having an element of teaching for a teaching role is essential for us. With the new change to the online classroom, being able to teach through a virtual environment is already emerging as a new essential skill for teaching.

The Q&A panel interview as part of the process mirrors the offline world, but what was particularly noticeable was missing eye contact when notes were taken by panel members, and also the inevitable streaming delays that meant that it was possible to accidentally talk over each other.

Making sure the process is fair and equal remains critical online as well as offline. Colleges need to carefully consider how fair adjustments can be made for candidates with any form of disability. Our increasing reliance on fast broadband, IT skills and access to computers at home must also be considered when recruiting online. The college is located in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where access to faster network connections is not always good, particularly in villages.

This has meant throughout the lockdown that staff and students have very different download speeds. Such differences could have a potentially negative impact on candidates and therefore access and presentation both need to be considered in this context. Panel members must remember to not be too dazzled by a candidate demonstrating excellent IT skills rather than great content and a good pedagogical approach.

Candidates and panel members also need to think about what is happening in their homes. Our weekly staff meetings are led by the senior management team who are either on the college site or in their homes. Thinking about camera angles, the impact of light on a camera view or what is in the background during the interview is critical. At one point, a panel member’s enthusiastic dog decided to start barking at a passer-by. While this did not affect the performance of the candidate, such events need to be considered.

Key lessons

Overall, my view of online recruitment is that it can work but it is important to remember to be transparent with candidates and in advance to agree:

• Who is present and the extent to which non-contributory panel members are going to be permitted to watch the process confirming with candidates in advance.
• Whether or not the process will be recorded and, if it is recorded, how that recording will be stored in line with GDPR principles (generally, my advice would be to not record as we don’t do that offline).
• Equality of access for all candidates including reasonable adjustments and to take into account other relevant information such as IT skills and access.
• Protocols for candidates and panel members to think about backgrounds and other distractions so that the process is as fair and easily undertaken as possible.

With more recruitment to be completed before our summer term deadline at the end of May, we will also be thinking about how we can involve students in the taught elements of the process online and the risks/benefits for the future of doing so. With the coronavirus and restrictions on social distancing likely to remain with us for some time, good online recruitment is likely to become even more essential and to stay with us for the foreseeable future.

Catherine Richards is principal of East Norfolk Sixth Form College in Gorleston, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. She tweets @drcatherine1