Teacher Recruitment

Every independent school should ask the question: “What is the quality of our faculty and staff and what are our hiring criteria?” As you can tell from the above, we believe this is the second most important factor in a school’s success (second only to the recruitment and selection of a headmaster). We recommend being as far-reaching and assiduous in searching for an eighth grade social studies teacher as you are in finding your headmaster and management team, because any school is only as good as its weakest link.

Thus, as with any executive search, we believe a school (or its designated partner) should call as many individuals in the school business and begin sourcing for talent for any and all positions. When we do so on behalf of schools – again, whether it is a headmaster search or a Spanish position – we ask our sources two questions: first, whom do you know who might fit well this particular job description; and second, whom do you know who might know of someone who might fit well this job description. The school’s goal should be to develop an initial list of prospective candidates. This list could number as many as 40 to 50 individuals, but may only need to include a dozen or so. The school may have made as many as 150-200 sourcing calls, though most effective searches average about 100 calls.

To give you an idea, in our current head football coaching search, for which we are now down to two finalists, we’ve made well over 200 calls, started with a pool of 140 candidates, and interviewed in person approximately 15. The final selection will be yet another case of our families (and the families of neighboring schools) wondering “how in the world did they get him to come to Forsyth Country Day School?”

Executive / Faculty Search

NewSouth AssociatesNS offers traditional retained search consulting services, particularly for upper management positions, for companies, colleges and universities, independent schools, churches, and other eleemosynary institutions throughout the southeast. Our search process takes approximately 90 days to complete, though each search varies in length, and our clients’ satisfaction is guaranteed.

Our head searches begin with an opportunity statement, the result of a series of interviews with teachers, students, administrators, and Board members concerning the school, its current needs, its history, its current operations, its perceived strengths and weaknesses, and – perhaps most importantly – the expectations of the new head. Once finalized, this document is used as the main recruitment piece in confidential conversations with candidates. It also eventually serves as a Board charge for its new chief executive officer.

Next, we start the process of calling those sources and others who can help us develop an initial list of prospective candidates for a position. Some searches have required as many as 200 “sourcing calls”; however, most of our searches average 100-150 phone calls. Through these contacts, we will develop a list of 30 or so potential candidates. But the process does not stop there.

After narrowing the list of 30+ candidates to ten or twelve, NewSouth AssociatesNS will then engage each in a lengthy one-on-one in-person screening process, allowing us to cull the list to the top three or four finalists. We complete detailed write-ups on each of the finalists and send the reports to our clients. Our goal, in essence, is to make the client’s decision a challenging one! The client and its search committee will then select a candidate to fill the opening. NewSouth AssociatesNS is prepared to act as the negotiator between client and the chosen candidate(s) if so requested by the client.

If you are interested in learning more or engaging NewSouth AssociatesNS to handle your next search – whether for a headmaster, development director, or key faculty member – please contact David Bowman at 336.946.0265.

The first step in any NewSouth AssociatesNS executive or administrative search is to learn about the institution we are serving. We believe that only when we are able to clearly understand and articulate the client organization’s character, mission, philosophy, and people will we be able to help find the right candidate for any given position.

Once we’ve gained this understanding, we go to our extensive source list with a well-written position description that encapsulates our understanding of the client and its needs. After we have used our sources to develop a list of primary candidates, we review their qualifications and begin the interview process, which is unusually thorough: we meet every candidate we present either at Forsyth County Day School, where we are based, or we travel to meet with them, usually in tandem. We interview each candidate extensively, and they always speak to three or four of our consultants, enabling us to gain a 360-degree view of the candidate as both a professional and an individual.

The finalists are evaluated in writing and fully vested by our consultants. The write-ups reflect the candidates’ answers to our extensive questionnaire, the information presented on their resumes, and – most importantly – our professional opinion of them, or the value of our experienced professional judgment, which provides a quality understanding of how these people can meet your institution’s needs.