Teacher Workforce: How to Onboard and Retain Career Changers
| by Hannah Sparling
The first few weeks can make or break a teacher’s career in your district. A positive onboarding experience sets the teacher up for years of success. A negative experience, however, could push the teacher to spend her breaks applying for other jobs.
Especially with career changers, where it’s not only a new job but an entirely new career, a well-thought-out, supportive onboarding process is a must.
Below are 7 tips to improve your onboarding process for career-changer teachers, leading to increased job satisfaction, higher teacher success, and better retention rates.
#1 Provide a School Guide
Remember that what seems obvious to you, a veteran educator, will be completely new to a career changer. Think about school policies, educational acronyms, dress code, even something as simple as what teachers at your school tend to do for lunch — do they pack, buy from the cafeteria, order takeout?
As a career changer, everything is new, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Having a guide to refer back to can make a huge difference.
Tips:
- Deliver the guide ahead of time so your career changers are more confident for Day 1.
- Try to strike a balance between providing all the information your career changers may need and overwhelming them. If your guide is 1,000 pages long, it’s probably going to have the opposite-than-intended effect.
- Include a section on school technology. What email system do you use and how do your teachers log in? Is there a timecard they need to punch? Are there codes to unlock the school building or classroom doors?
#2 Assign a Strong Mentor
So much of your career changers’ experience will depend on their interactions with other teachers. Are those teachers positive and excited about the work they’re doing? Are they eager to help? Or are they doom-and-gloom, down-on-education?
A strong mentor gives your career changers a go-to peer for questions and can also inspire and encourage them. As a school leader, your door should always be open. But sometimes, a career changer will be more comfortable going to another teacher instead, so make sure they have that option.
Tips:
- Offer a stipend to mentor teachers. This ensures they’re invested in the process and also rewards them for the time and dedication they put into supporting your career changers.
- Introduce your career changers to their mentors ahead of the school year so they don’t have to wait to ask questions.
- Make sure your career changers and mentors have dedicated time with each other. Maybe you could give them an extra planning period every other week or find coverage for their lunch duty so they can spend that time together instead.
#3 Schedule Regular Check-Ins
Be proactive about asking your career changers what’s going well, where they’re struggling, and how you can help. You’re an experienced educator, and chances are, whatever they’re facing, you’ve seen it before. Use that experience to their benefit.
Tip:
- Use a mix of formal and informal check-ins. Some people do better with a scheduled meeting and a set agenda, while others feel more comfortable during an informal chat.
#4 Simplify the Certification Process
The process of earning a professional certification can be daunting. Give your career changers a streamlined checklist with deadlines and check in often to make sure they’re on track.
Make sure you know the certification process forward and backward so you can confidently answer their questions.
Tips:
- Partner with a college or university to get your career changers a tuition discount for their Educator Preparation Program.
- Offer test prep for certification exams.
- Check in regularly with the state department of education to ensure you’re on top of any changes to the certification process.
#5 Embrace Career-Changer Creativity
One of the greatest strengths of career changers is the diversity in their backgrounds and experience. Your career changers will probably teach differently than teachers who took a traditional path to education — and that’s a good thing!
As much as possible, give your career changers autonomy to run their classrooms. Make sure they have the support and guidance they need but allow space for their energy, fresh perspectives, and ideas.
#6 Communicate with Variety
Just as teachers differentiate for students, school leaders should differentiate for teachers. For career-changer onboarding, this means making sure your teachers have the information they need in different formats. Try a mix of written guides, videos, and in-person sessions.
Career changers have to take in so much information during their first few days and weeks. Varied formats and communication methods will make it much more interesting and easier to absorb and retain.
Tip:
- Ask your career changers how they learn best, and tailor your communications based on their responses.
#7 Offer Ongoing, Robust Professional Development
Strong professional development is crucial for teacher retention. If your teachers are stuck professionally — not learning, not growing — there’s little reason for them to stay with your district.
From Moreland University instructor Taylor Williams:
“Professional development is becoming a bigger and bigger factor in teacher retention and teacher support. It’s not just, ‘Oh, it’s a thing we have to do.’ It’s something that can really be a very big ally when holding on to those teachers.”
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