By Elliot Masters, Associate Director, UK Teach The recruitment challenge facing schools today A vacancy goes live on Monday morning. The role is important, the job description has been carefully written and the school has recruited successfully before. Yet weeks later, the shortlist is thinner than expected. For many school leaders, that scenario is becoming increasingly familiar. The latest State of HR in Education 2026 survey, published by HR Connect, found recruitment and retention remains one of the sector’s most significant workforce challenges, with 16% of schools identifying it as their main HR concern. Most schools (62%) report taking between four and eight weeks to fill a vacancy, while nearly one in five say recruitment can take as long as two to three months. The challenge is not limited to teaching posts either. Teaching assistants were identified as the hardest role to recruit by 36% of schools, overtaking classroom teachers for the first time and highlighting how recruitment pressures are shifting across the education workforce. It would be easy to view these findings simply as evidence of a recruitment shortage. But they also point to something broader. The way people search for jobs, compare opportunities and decide where they want to work has changed significantly. Recruitment has become harder not only because of workforce pressures, but because candidate expectations have evolved. What’s encouraging is that schools are responding. The proportion of schools making no changes to address competition for staff has fallen from 49% to 34%, while investment in wellbeing initiatives, professional development and flexible working continues to grow. The question is no longer whether recruitment is changing. It is whether recruitment practices are changing with it. Why “advertise and wait” no longer works In our 26 years supporting education recruitment through Kent Teach and now UK Teach, one pattern has become increasingly clear. The schools that recruit most successfully are rarely those posting the most vacancies. More often, they are the schools that make it easy for candidates to understand what makes them a great place to work. For many years, recruitment was a largely reactive process. A vacancy appeared, an advert was published and applications followed. While that approach may have worked in a different market, it is becoming less effective in a world where candidates have greater choice and access to more information than ever before. Schools are not only competing with each other. They are competing for talented people in a much wider employment market while also working to retain experienced staff. As the State of HR in Education 2026 highlights, the challenge for many schools is no longer simply attracting people into the profession, but keeping the staff they already have. Many teachers, support staff and leaders have skills that are highly transferable, meaning recruitment and retention have become increasingly interconnected. Attracting new candidates is only one part of the equation; keeping great people in education matters just as much. This is why simply advertising a vacancy is no longer enough. The schools seeing the strongest recruitment outcomes are often those thinking about attraction before recruitment becomes urgent. Building talent pipelines instead of waiting for vacancies Every school leader has experienced the dilemma of having to choose from multiple strong candidates for a single vacancy. These candidates apply for the role and perform well throughout the recruitment process. They demonstrate the right values, have relevant experience and would fit the culture of the school. The challenge is that there is only one vacancy available, and so only one candidate can ultimately be appointed. Months later, a similar opportunity arises and the search begins again, taking up more time and resource. Yet previous candidates may still have been an excellent fit for the school. Is there another way? There is, and this is where recruitment thinking across the education sector is beginning to shift. Rather than viewing recruitment as a series of standalone hiring exercises, many schools are now looking at how they can build and maintain relationships with applicants who have already expressed an interest in working for them. The aim is not simply to fill today’s vacancy. It is to create a stronger pipeline of future talent and reduce reliance on starting from scratch each time a role becomes available. Great candidates do not always appear exactly when a vacancy exists, and equally, vacancies do not always arise when great candidates are available. The closer schools can bring those two things together by building their own talent pipeline, the stronger their recruitment position becomes. Candidates are assessing schools too The recruitment process has traditionally focused on schools assessing candidates. Increasingly, however, those same candidates are assessing schools just as carefully. Before submitting an application, many will have already formed an impression of a school. They have visited the website, explored its values, read about its priorities and started to build a picture of what it might actually be like to work there. They are not simply asking: “Can I do this job?” They are asking: “Can I see myself working here?” The results of the State of HR in Education 2026 suggest schools are already recognising this shift. Many reported investing in staff wellbeing initiatives, flexible working and professional development opportunities as part of their response to workforce challenges. While these initiatives are often discussed in the context of retention, they also play an important role in attraction. They shape how prospective applicants perceive a school and whether they choose to engage with an opportunity in the first place. Employer brand matters more than ever The term “employer brand” can sometimes feel more at home in the private sector than in education. Yet the concept itself is straightforward. Whether schools realise it or not, prospective applicants form opinions about what it might be like to work there long before they submit an application. Those impressions are shaped by leadership, culture, professional development opportunities, wellbeing support and the experiences of existing staff, but also by what candidates see online. School websites, social media channels and wider conversations across digital platforms all contribute to the reputation a school builds as an employer. Every school has an employer brand. The question is whether it is being actively communicated or left to chance. In many ways, employer brand is simply the answer to a candidate’s question: “Why should I choose this school over another?” This matters because salary is not always the deciding factor. In fact, the State of HR in Education 2026 found that half of schools identify salary and benefits as the biggest barrier to attracting high-quality candidates. Most schools cannot solve that challenge through pay alone. What they can do is communicate clearly what makes their school a rewarding place to work. Whether that is professional development, supportive leadership, flexible working opportunities, staff wellbeing or a strong sense of purpose, schools need to ensure those strengths are visible and understood by potential applicants. For many education professionals, purpose remains one of the sector’s greatest strengths. The opportunity to make a meaningful difference to the lives of children and young people is something many other sectors simply cannot offer. In a competitive market, that sense of purpose can be one of education’s most compelling recruitment advantages. Small barriers create big recruitment problems When schools struggle to attract candidates, attention often turns to advertising and outreach. Yet some of the most significant barriers can be found within the recruitment process itself, such as: Lengthy application forms. Duplicate requests for information. Unclear timelines. Slow communication. Individually, these issues may seem minor, but collectively they can have a significant impact on whether candidates remain engaged. Imagine two schools advertising similar roles. One provides a straightforward application process, clear communication and timely updates. The other requires candidates to navigate a lengthy process with little visibility of what happens next. It is not difficult to predict which experience applicants are likely to prefer. This becomes even more important when time-to-hire/recruitment timelines are increasing, with only 20% of schools saying they typically fill a vacancy within four weeks, down from 25% last year. If only a small proportion of schools are now filling vacancies within four weeks, schools cannot afford to lose strong candidates because of avoidable friction in the recruitment process. Candidate experience is often overlooked, but in a competitive market it can make a meaningful difference. A strategic approach to recruitment The recruitment pressures facing schools are structural rather than short-term. Competition for talent, changing candidate expectations and longer hiring timelines mean workforce attraction now needs to be treated as a strategic leadership priority. The survey findings indicate that schools are beginning to respond by investing in their employee proposition, reviewing recruitment processes and paying closer attention to what candidates value. The next step is to bring these activities together within a clear workforce strategy aligned to future skills, capacity and organisational priorities. This means moving beyond isolated recruitment campaigns and taking a planned approach to demand. Schools can identify likely vacancies and capability gaps earlier, define a compelling employer proposition, build relationships with potential candidates and use recruitment data to understand which channels, messages and processes deliver the strongest outcomes. The schools attracting the strongest candidates are not necessarily those with the largest budgets or the greatest number of vacancies. More often, they are the schools that communicate their values clearly, provide a positive candidate experience and think about recruitment as a long-term priority rather than a short-term task. For years, recruitment has largely centred around vacancies. A role becomes available, an advert is published and the search begins. Success should therefore be judged not only by whether a vacancy is filled, but by the quality and diversity of the candidate pipeline, time to hire, candidate experience, retention and the school’s readiness to meet future workforce needs. Trusted recruitment partners can support this shift by combining sector insight, market reach and talent-pool management with the school’s own workforce planning. Used strategically, that partnership can reduce reactive hiring, improve decision-making and create a more sustainable supply of future talent. They recognise that successful recruitment is about more than advertising jobs. It is about building relationships, strengthening reputation and creating an environment where talented people want to work. The strategic question is no longer simply how to fill the next vacancy. It is how to attract talent, build the workforce, reputation and recruitment capability the school will need over the coming years. In a competitive market, that may be the most effective recruitment strategy of all. About UK Teach UK Teach helps schools attract, engage and connect with education professionals across the UK. Built on 26 years of education recruitment experience through Kent Teach, UK Teach supports schools with vacancy advertising, talent attraction and talent pool management to help create stronger, more sustainable recruitment outcomes. Find out more: www.ukteach.com Email: contactus@ukteach.com Source: State of HR in Education 2026, published by HR Connect. Want to read the full report? The full State of HR in Education 2026 Report will be published in November 2026. 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