Preschool Teacher Recruitment Tips For Finding The Perfect Fit

Choosing the right preschool teacher is more than filling a position. It's making sure children get the proper guidance, care, and educational experience in the most critical years of their development. Preschool teacher recruitment requires due diligence in weighing qualifications with personality and your center's values.

Whether you are running a small community daycare organization, a private preschool, or a larger educational institution, choosing the right hiring techniques—or working alongside a recognized childcare staffing agency—can help alleviate the burden of recruiting qualified candidates.

Key Qualities to Look for in a Preschool Educator

In this guide, we'll provide helpful advice, benefits, and methods to help you find ideal candidates to suit your particular preschool teacher hiring needs.

1. Clearly Define the Role and Expectations

Before starting the preschool teacher recruitment process, you must be clear about what the job entails. Consider:

• What age group will the teacher be handling?

• What educational qualifications are required?

• Are you prioritizing a teaching style or personality type?

• Do you have a specific training or certification (e.g., CPR, bachelor’s degree in early childhood education)?

Important: Write a clear job description so candidates know what your positions and expectations are. This will help you spend less time filtering an abundance of potential applicants.

2. Think About More than Qualifications

Qualifications can be key, but the best preschool teachers also exhibit patience, empathy, and creativity. The teacher's ability to bond with a child and thus create an engaging and emotionally safe environment for a child to learn, may be more valuable than their resume.

Soft skills you may want to take into account could include:

• Child and parent interaction

• Classroom management

• Ability to change styles of teaching and when to utilize them

• Emotional intelligence

3. Consider using an Educational Recruitment Agency

If you find the search for the right applicant to be a tough task, maybe you should consider looking for help. Educational recruitment agencies or nanny recruitment agencies are great resources. 

They have a pool of prescreened candidates (as many agencies would typically conduct a criminal background check for their safety) and minimize some of your time, but also ensure that you are only meeting with the most qualified applicants.

Benefits of Partnering with Clientilo:

• Access to a wide talent pool of experienced educators

• Pre-vetted candidates with background checks

• Faster hiring turnaround

• Expert advice on market salary and benefits

4. Conduct Behavioral Interviews

A resume can only tell you so much. Behavioral interviews—where candidates explain how they handled real-life teaching situations—help reveal their problem-solving skills, patience, and ability to manage challenges.

Example questions:

“Tell me about a time when you had to calm a distressed child.”

“How do you handle a child who refuses to participate in group activities?”

5. See Trial Classes

When you can, ask high-quality candidates to teach a snippet of a lesson to children. This is a great way for you to see their teaching style, classroom management, and interaction with the kids live.

6. Offer Competitive Salary and Benefits Packages

There can be difficulty recruiting quality preschool teachers given the demand to find candidates. You may need to build a take in potential candidates. Including: