Recruiting Etiquette
By Tamira Griffin, Plano ISD Executive Director of Human Resources and TASPA Secretary

As each of our districts gets into the full swing of spring recruiting, this is a good time for a friendly reminder regarding “recruiting etiquette.”  It is considered inappropriate for one district to directly recruit staff from another.  Certainly, we all network with each other and share information; however, if we are not careful, this can cross over into actions that are viewed very negatively by our fellow districts.

None of us wishes to have our teachers or other staff members be directly contacted by other districts about employment opportunities.  If a teacher would like to make a move, there are plenty of venues for obtaining information on which districts are hiring.  Most districts have job postings linked to the district’s website.  In addition, many times positions are posted with professional associations as well.  Most of us would not want our teachers to be called or e-mailed directly regarding specific job opportunities.  If we don’t want our districts to be the recipient of this tactic, we need to be diligent in not using this approach ourselves.

Of course, there is no way to “police” each and every staff member within our districts.  However, if you become aware of this type of activity within your district, please contact those involved and inform them of more appropriate ways of “getting the word out.”  Most staff members, when informed of their district’s preferred practices, will discontinue such practices immediately once they become aware of how this negatively affects not only their individual professional reputations but that of their district as well.

One of the items that your TASPA board will be discussing in the near future is the idea of creating a Code of Conduct for our members, similar to those of other professional organizations.  The issue of recruiting etiquette would be appropriately addressed in that document.

As you are looking for teachers, remember to utilize approved education preparation programs, which can be accessed at the following link:

http://www.sbec.state.tx.us/SBECOnline/approvedprograms.asp

The Teacher Job Network can be accessed at the link below:

http://ws3.ednet10.net/TJN/TJN_Home.nsf?OpenDatabase.  Although this is for Region 10/Dallas area, the map on the link does have hotlinks to ALL the ESCs.

Information regarding TASPA district job fairs can be found at:

http://taspa.org/jobfairs/current-job-fairs.html