This might sound familiar.
It’s late July. A teacher gives notice, or a last-minute resignation rolls in. Suddenly, you’re drafting role descriptions, scouring job boards, and reading resumes over your lunch break.
Hiring under pressure isn’t just stressful, it’s unsustainable. And if you’ve ever filled a role with someone who was “fine for now” only to be hiring someone else again six months later, you already know the cost.
Short on Time? Here Are Five Quick Takeaways
- Reactive Hiring Is a Common Issue – No matter the reason, you’re not alone in wanting to break the cycle.
- Quick Hires Are Costing More Than You Think – Leadership whiplash, fast turnover, and staff overload contribute to burnout and cause problems down the road.
- Flip Your Approach – The key is to move from reactive hiring to proactive recruitment.
- Make Connections – Build relationships year-round and start connecting with potential hires before roles open up.
- Rethink Interview Processes – Focus on two-way conversations, practical questions, and quick followups.
It’s not that you want to be scrambling to hire people at the last minute.
Maybe a resignation hits late. Maybe enrollment shifts catch you off guard. Maybe you’re still waiting on a transfer request that’s been “in process” for weeks. Maybe things are just so busy that it’s been pushed to the bottom of your plate too many times.
Whatever the trigger, the result’s the same: you’re hiring reactively. That means less time to screen, fewer qualified candidates, and way more guessing when it comes to making hiring decisions.
Let’s look at why reactive hiring causes problems and how you can shift into a smarter, calmer hiring rhythm that helps build a more stable and functional learning environment.
What It’s Really Costing You
Looking beyond the stress and time-crunch uncovers some of the deeper institutional costs of a last-minute hiring scramble.
1. Your Best People Carry Too Much
When roles stay open—or get filled by someone who isn’t ready—your strongest teachers pick up the slack. Their willingness to step us is massively appreciated, but it’s rarely sustainable.
One minute they’re helping the new hire catch up on curriculum pacing. The next, they’re covering someone else’s homeroom again. Give it a few weeks, and the quiet frustration starts to show. That’s when your top talent starts thinking about looking elsewhere.
2. New Hires Start Behind—and Often Stay There
When someone’s brought on late, they’re already playing catch-up. They miss onboarding. They meet their students without lesson plans. They walk in on day one already overwhelmed.
No matter how strong their skills, that rushed start lingers. It can take months to stabilize—if they last that long.
A bad first impression isn’t just hard on them. It’s tough on your whole team. Teachers, students, and even parents pick up on the uncertainty.
3. Turnover Gets Expensive
Every time someone leaves it costs time and energy, which can translate to actual budget dollars.
There’s the time you spend posting and reviewing applications, conducting interviews, training replacements, and smoothing over the disruption with parents and students
Not to mention the hit to consistency in the classroom. It’s a lot of invisible work that goes unacknowledged—and it adds up.
4. The Student Experience Suffers
Here’s the hardest part: the kids feel it, too.
When you cycle through teachers mid-year or rely on rotating substitutes, it chips away at learning momentum. Routines get lost. Relationships don’t form. Students stop expecting consistency—because they haven’t seen it in a while.
And once your community starts noticing that unsteadiness, it becomes harder to restore trust. Parents start asking tougher questions. And staff morale takes another hit.
5. You’re Pulled Away From Leadership Work That Matters
When you’re constantly backfilling positions, you lose time for big-picture work. Things like planning for next year, supporting teacher development, rolling out schoolwide initiatives, and building the culture you want to see.
Instead, your calendar becomes a patchwork of urgent interviews and sub coverage. The work you wanted to do—the work that could actually make the hiring cycle less painful—gets pushed back again and again.
Want to see how our flexible recruitment solutions can work on your budget? Let’s talk about our sliding scale (or even free!) options.
What If You Flipped the Script?
Instead of waiting for a role to open, imagine having a running list of people already interested. Instead of hiring to fill a gap, imagine hiring to strengthen your team.
This shift—from reactive hiring to proactive recruitment—doesn’t mean more work. It means better timing, better decisions, and better outcomes. Starting with the right hire makes everything else easier.
Here’s What That Looks Like in Practice
1. Build and Nurture Connections
The best candidates are rarely the ones urgently applying. They’re often passively curious, paying attention to the schools that share their values and priorities.
If you start conversations early—through social media, casual chats, or even just showcasing your school’s culture online—you create awareness. You build a community of people who can recommend you when a role opens up.
2. Build a Recruitment Pipeline
You don’t need fancy software for this. A Google Sheet will do.
Make note of a standout sub who gets kids excited. Stay in touch with a student teacher with a natural classroom presence. Keep a list of past applicants who impressed you.
Send an occasional check-in. Let them know they’re on your radar. That kind of attention pays off when timing does line up.
3. Rethink the Interview Process
Most interview processes were built for convenience, not connection. If yours feels like a checklist, it might be time to update up your approach.
- Make interviews two-way conversations, not pop quizzes.
- Let candidates see your campus, meet the team, and feel the culture.
- Ask practical questions, not far-reaching hypotheticals.
Keep your communications with candidates transparent and active—there’s no need to wait if you’ve found someone you’d like to move forward with.
4. Don’t Rely on Job Boards Alone
While job boards have their uses, you shouldn’t expect your best results from posting a job listing and waiting passively for responses.
Sure, you might meet the perfect candidate there. But you’re working against limitations—job boards can be costly, prohibitively generic, and a poor way to build connections.
Instead, look at leveraging your school or district’s website, niche education job boards, career fairs, and recruitment partners.
The Payoff: Hiring on Your Terms
Picture this: it’s spring, and your roles for next year are nearly full. You’re meeting with incoming staff, not still scrambling for them. Your team feels supported, not stretched.
You’re finally leading, not reacting.
That’s the result of hiring early and intentionally—not scrambling and settling.
Schools that hire with intention hire with confidence. Because the right people are out there. The difference is whether they find you before someone else does.
We help schools avoid reactive hiring with cost-effective recruitment partnerships. See how we can find you the best educators for your students. Let’s Connect.
About Phaxis Education Services
Phaxis Education Services is set to revolutionize the way academic schools and institutions connect with exceptional talent. Officially launched in May 2024, this division is dedicated to supporting the education sector by bridging the gap between special education services and top-tier professionals. We aim to make a significant impact by filling critical roles within school systems and institutions, ensuring that each placement contributes positively to the educational environment and, ultimately, the lives of the children served. See new open positions in education on our Careers page and let us help you find the right role for you.
