Appointing Heads of School

Hiring a Head for your new international school

Recruiting for today’s market

Twenty years ago, it was a relatively simple procedure to hire a Headteacher for an international school. Capable expatriate teachers, moving up through the school leadership ranks as they ventured from one country to the next, were the main source. Once you were a Head, you’d move on to another leadership position in another exciting location after you had completed your contract. Seasoned international school Heads sought out new school openings and more challenging opportunities. The market was essentially a circulating pool of Heads and senior leaders. I was one of them.

Back then, the demands on the market were not extensive; in large part, simply meeting the requirements of the children of skilled, English-speaking expatriates. The number of Headteachers that were required was relatively small and the pool of skilled potentials, large enough to meet that need.

Expansion of the international schools market has raised the bar in every way. A changing enrolment demographic, which now includes more local than expatriate children, has increased demand for international schools the world over. The desire for a British-oriented education has continued to grow, in some regions it is becoming insatiable. The lucrative business potential of the market has motivated investment and development, including international expansion by an increasing number of British independent schools. Competition within the market has raised standards so there are now many very good and outstanding international schools. As a result, the need for skilled and high quality leaders as well as teachers has never been greater. Yet the pool of potential quality candidates is limited.

Parents paying costly fees for their child to attend a British international school expect to see British teachers and leaders, or those who have experience of teaching a British curriculum, and who speak English as their mother tongue. They want a British Headteacher, or a westerner with the skills and experience that justify the position. They want what they are paying for.

However, British international schools are not only competing for their staff against Britain’s entire education sector, they are also competing against the vast, competitive international schools market too. With their choice of the world’s most alluring locations, and a wide range of opportunities and experiences, salaries and benefit packages to entice them, the best Headteachers do have their pick of the crop.

It stands to reason that international schools today cannot afford to be complacent about the challenge of finding a good Head. This is a unique process; different in several ways to a home country hire and, for new international school openings, there are additional considerations too.

The selection team

Finding the right Headteacher requires a clearly defined process starting with detailed planning. This should include full Board agreement of a hiring strategy, clearly defined responsibilities for the role of the incoming Head, essential qualities and skills required for the appointment, remuneration package, and a recruitment time-plan.  

Ideally, a new school should employ a founding Headteacher at least a year before the school opens, or longer if you want the Head to be involved in the building design.  Not everyone from the School Board or development team can be involved in all selection procedures. The process needs to be efficient and move forward at pace, particularly once good candidates have been short-listed, in order to secure your preferred choice before other tempting positions are offered to them. Many schools have missed excellent opportunities because of their need to gather consensus from too many decision-makers. So, appointing a trusted and decisive selection team is crucial.  Your selection team needs to have a mix of individuals who, in combination, represent understanding of your entry market, of the wider international schools sector, and who also know the brand priorities of your UK school.

Careful selection of a specialist recruitment partner is necessary at this stage too. Not only do they need to be experienced in school leadership recruitment, but also know the international schools sector and have understanding of the location you are entering.  Some British independent schools have made the mistake of drawing all candidates from their UK base, not realising the unique nature and requirements of an international school. Or they have contracted their domestic recruitment partner that is inexperienced in the international school market and doesn’t know the intricacies of country-specific hiring.

Every international location has its own unique challenges and opportunities that will influence your hiring process. This can include government legislation on staffing, country-related impact on salaries, benefits, security and accessibility, and cultural implications for expatriates. Your recruitment partner needs to be familiar with the region and with the international school market there to give you the expert advice necessary for you to make the right appointments. It’s a specialist market and you need specialist support to ensure you do not waste time and money, nor make mistakes that can jeopardise the reputation of your brand.

License procedures for a new school opening can also influence your hiring process. In some countries, a new school may have an application approved with very little notice prior to opening. Having a recruitment strategy in place so that you are prepared to respond to potential opening challenges is highly recommended, particularly in the Middle East and China.  Appointing your recruitment partner at this early stage will mean they can advise you on the strategy for selection, the hiring process, requirements of the role, in-country hiring regulations and visa requirements, as well as provide you with access to a targeted pool of candidates.

Candidate pool

A healthy pool of candidates is essential for successful international leadership appointments. At TIC Recruitment our work begins well before a school even approaches us for recruitment support. For many years we have been educating British middle and senior leaders about the opportunities within the international schools market. When TIC was established in 2006, most teachers and school leaders did not know about the opportunities available to them internationally, especially within the English-medium, international schools sector. So, for many years, we have been presenting at conferences, writing articles, and speaking at seminars and webinars to inform educators about the international schools market and the career paths available to them. This naturally generates interest and engagement with interested candidates.

We have a database of senior leaders and teachers who are actively considering jobs in international schools. Our candidate pool also includes many teachers and leaders who are already working in international schools. A number of them were first placed by TIC as teachers and, over time, we have helped them find positions to grow into middle and senior leaders.

Many of those seeking senior leadership and Headship positions will advise us two years in advance of their planned move, which means we have valuable insight of a breadth of candidates. We identify their aspirations for their coming move. In this way, we have several targeted lists of leaders; some actively seeking new school openings, others looking for their first Headship, or a move to a specific region or school type. As a recruitment agency well established within the market, these leaders know that we will hear of many vacancies at the earliest possible stage, often well before an appointment advert appears, and they know we’ll advise them of appropriate positions. That too, fuels our candidate pool.

In addition, there are the headhunting opportunities that a specialist agency can provide a school. Recruiting for both international school leadership and teachers means that, on a daily basis, we liaise with international school Heads who are planning their staff hires. Working with these Headteachers helps us to get to know them well, leading to extensive, highly targeted headhunting potential.

Access to a sufficient pool of quality candidates is essential, so identifying a specialist agency that can deliver you this level of selection is an important consideration.

The selection process

Your selection team will need to prepare for potential scenarios that may arise within a pool of candidates. Many of these will be unique to the international context.  For example, a new school will need a Head with experience. This means that several candidates will likely be of an age of having school-age children. Can your new school provide for the children’s educational needs? If not, what are the local alternatives that would be acceptable by a potential candidate, and how much will this cost the school? You cannot discriminate against a candidate because of their family requirements, so such scenarios are essential considerations in your planning stage. A specialist recruitment consultant will be able to prepare you for all typical scenarios you could face during the selection of your Head.

The salary, relocation, accommodation and benefits package you offer needs to be commensurate with the region. This will require a benchmarking exercise, or advice from a recruitment consultant knowledgeable of the location.

Your founding Head

Opening a new international school requires very specific needs of its founding Head. It is a different role to that of a Head in an established school. There are qualities and skill sets that are essential for a successful opening. You may decide to hire a founding Head for a limited contract; for the duration of the initial opening, and to then hire a Headteacher to take over once the school is up and running.

Your founding Head needs to be an individual with good cultural and school business experience, ideally international school opening experience too, who understands about working with government bodies, investors and developers, who has a clear understanding of the needs of a new school and will be able to network effectively and tirelessly with potential parents and local influencers who can drive business to your school. They will also need to value the reputation of your school brand, its heritage, and the unique characteristics that will attract enrollment.

Preparing for the recruitment process

Plan your selection process thoroughly, guided by your recruitment partner. You should expect a series of selection phases that, in the early stages, can be conducted on home turf or via Skype:

1. Your Board and development team needs to agree the selection process, the role requirements for your founding Head and a salary and benefits package you are willing to offer. It is vital to agree a detailed job specification and qualities you are seeking in a candidate; those that are essential and those you are willing to compromise.
2. A small team from the Board and development team should then be selected to manage the long and short listing stage of the process. A small, trusted selection team will ensure decisions can be made efficiently, to ensure the process moves forward at an effective pace for all parties.
3. Provide candidates with as much information as you can about the location, package, benefits and job requirements at the earliest stage to eliminate any likely declines later on in the process. You don’t want to get individuals to the final interview stage only to find that they don’t want the job because they discover then that their children’s tuition is not fully covered. Your recruitment partner can help you to pre-empt the issues that typically cause candidates to decline an offer.
4. When you get to the interview stage, a third-party representative; either someone from your recruitment partner or an outside consultant should be part of the process. They need to take a wider, more global perspective and provide independent, unbiased advice where required. They will also help you to plan a structured and objective way of ranking all candidates throughout the selection process.
5. Final candidates will expect to see the school or the location of the school if it’s yet to be built. They’ll likely want a spouse to be part of this process too.  The chance to get potential candidates in-country is costly and logistically challenging so you should make the most of the experience. Don’t forget you are not only evaluating the candidates, but also marketing your school and your community to them. Show them what makes your school special.
6. The demand for professional capital within the international schools market is highly competitive today and you will be pitching against other schools. It’s as much about a candidate’s choice of you, as it is your choice of them. So, ensure you plan a full schedule of interviews and meet-and-greets with a range of stakeholders; from the Board, to select staff, students and parents. Include candidate spouses where appropriate.
7. During interview sessions, plan an alternative programme for spouses to show off your school and locality to them. Remember, they can have as much influence of the final decision as your candidates.
8. To ensure efficiency of time, cost and selection, schedule your candidates to attend final interviews during the same few days.
9. Once the process gets to this final phase, it should move relatively quickly. The entire Board may wish to be part of the final interview. If that’s the case, they need to be prepared to make a decision within a set period of time; soon after completion of the interviews. Boards have a tendency to vacillate at this stage and can easily lose a great candidate in the process. With today’s highly competitive market, good candidates are often being interviewed by several schools and will get snapped up quickly.
10. Make sure the candidate who is offered the job accepts the position before informing the other short-listed candidates – you need a back-up plan if your first choice declines.

Common mistakes

Planning well will help you avoid mistakes that many schools make during recruitment. Here are some of the most common ones:

• Lack of information - TIC recently conducted some research of newly appointed international school leaders which suggested that many people felt they had been insufficiently informed of what was required of them in their new international Headship.  Many leaders said, in retrospect, they wished they had received much more detail about the expectations of the role. This is a particularly common scenario when hiring experienced Heads who are new to the international market. They may have colleagues already working internationally and, as a result, know a little information, but not enough to appreciate the differences and challenges they will face within an international context. A little information can be a dangerous thing, so make sure your candidates are very well informed and know exactly what will be expected of them.
• Too few candidates - Not having access to a targeted pool of candidates is another typical mistake. This can prolong the selection process significantly because of the need to return to stage one; re-advertising or seeking out an alternative candidate source. Do not rely on appointment advertising alone. If you do, you will be at the mercy of the market at that moment in time; rather than sourcing best possible candidates who may not be searching the ‘situations vacant’.
• Poor selection strategy - Don’t rely solely on personal contacts or recommendations from the Board. The appointment of the right Head is vital to the success of your new school and to the mothership too so it should be conducted in a very strategic and considered way. Candidate recommendations by Board members should go through the same stringent selection criteria as all potential candidates. Spend time agreeing your job specifications and selection criteria and then stick to them throughout the process.

Provided by Andrew Wigford, Director of Teachers International Consultancy (TIC) and an ex-international school Headteacher. https://www.ticrecruitment.com/