Collaborative Brilliance: How Panel Interviews Can Empower Schools to Build a Strong Teaching Staff
Leaders need to know their strengths and limitations when tasked with leading a school toward excellence. This is especially important as you think about your hiring practices. Knowing your strengths enables you to have a greater awareness of when you are stepping outside of your zone of genius and need to tap into others. School leaders cannot know EVERYTHING. It’s not humanly possible. But you do need to be able to confidently seek out support from those around you.
Recruiting and hiring the right teacher is a critical decision for any school because research shows that the quality of teaching staff significantly impacts students' academic success. When it comes to interviewing candidates for a teaching position, I have seen and experienced many different approaches. Some caused me to break out in a sweat while others I walked away thinking, “Was that even an interview?” Regardless, there are many approaches that school leaders take. One method that has been gaining popularity and I strongly recommend is the panel interview. There are different versions of panel interviews but to make sure we're speaking the same language I'll define the one I'm using. A panel interview is when there is one applicant and multiple interviewers who participate in developing the interview questions along with interviewing candidates. If you haven’t tapped into the brilliance, which is your current staff, to help you improve your hiring process, then you are surely missing out.
There were a few positions that I had to hire for which were outside of my “jam” areas, but thankfully I knew when and how to gain the needed information. And I didn’t have to look very far. It was right in the classrooms and offices within my school building.
For example, when I needed to hire for Early Childhood positions, I knew I lacked the necessary experience and knowledge of that content area and child development stage to develop interview questions or even know what the listen for from candidates. So I had a choice. I could fake it and google questions I could use and qualities to listen and look for in early childhood educators. (Don’t do this. Bad idea.) Or I could find comfort in admitting my limitations and go and ask for help from the brilliant educators down the hall. That’s just what I did, and it led me to make informed decisions which led to hiring high-quality candidates which positively impacted the school.
Panel interviews allowed me to tap into the genius of staff members and collectively seek out strong teaching candidates. Let me elaborate just a bit more about the importance of panel interviews when hiring teachers and why this approach can be a valuable tool for schools seeking to build a strong teaching staff.
Collaboration-I alluded to this already however I want to share more. The power of collaboration is tangible during the panel interview development and execution. It brought brilliance and intelligence together into one space which allowed different perspectives and expertise to make informed decisions. By working collaboratively, hiring teams can assess candidates more thoroughly, identify strengths and weaknesses, and ensure that the most qualified and suitable candidates are selected for the job.
Reduce Bias-It’s time for us to admit that we all have biases. Own it. Explore them. Identify yours and take action to combat them. Using a panel interview is one way to combat your biases and shine a light on your blind spots. It reduces the impact of the individual interviewer's personal biases because multiple panelists can provide a more objective assessment of the candidate’s suitability. This approach can help ensure candidates are evaluated equitably and consistently. (There is so much more to say about this topic. And I will but it will be in a later post where I can devote the necessary time and space to it.)
Transparency: Including teachers in panel interviews helps them see and understand some of the behind-the-scenes work that takes place in hiring. It can help promote transparency by ensuring all the candidates are evaluated using the same criteria and the decision is made based on the quality of the best candidate.
Comprehensive Evaluation-Panel interviews can give a more accurate assessment of candidates' teaching skills. Each panel member can ask different questions and evaluate different aspects of their qualifications and experience. Their unique perspectives also allow them to observe and evaluate the candidate’s ability to present information, engage students and answer questions.
Trust- When current staff is involved in the hiring process through panel interviews, they feel included and valued in the decision-making process. Panel interviews communicate that leaders value their staff member's expertise, voice, and perspective. This can promote a sense of ownership and investment in the new hire and process which contributes to a positive and collaborative work environment.
Panel interviews provide several benefits for schools looking to hire quality teachers while strengthening their staff community and culture in the process. By incorporating this approach, school leaders can ensure they are promoting staff collaboration, making informed decisions that are fair, efficient, and effective, establishing trust, and promoting transparency. School leaders, what are you waiting for? Tap into the brilliance in your building and reap the benefits of this valuable tool as you build a solid teaching staff.
