Recruiting New Partners

1. Recruiting New Partners The ABC’s of recruitment

2. Needs Assessment Before you can recruit partners, you need to know what you need

3. Needs Assessment Formal Needs Assessment is the process of discovering what teachers and other staff need from outside sources that will help propel your school toward meeting school goals

4. Pre-needs Assessment Prior to conducting a Needs Assessment, you and your team must insure that school personnel have an understanding of how partnerships can support their efforts

5. Pre-needs Assessment Help teachers understand the wide range of options for business partnerships • Some teachers may only think of incentives when asked what they need from partners • Others may only ask for classroom assistance such as that gotten from VAST volunteers • Explore the opportunities for using partners in “project learning” activities • Distribute Partner Teacher Grant Application • See PowerPoint on Partnership Activities

6. Needs Assessment After preparing staff, conduct a school-wide Needs Assessment in cooperation with Staff Liaison for Volunteers • Community Involvement Needs Assessment is available in the web site at www.browardpartners.com • Make sure everyone understands that you will make every attempt to fulfill needs, but that you are making no promises

7. Prioritize Needs Work in a team to prioritize needs • Different groups at school may have different priorities • Make sure team represents all groups • Use SIP objectives to prioritize • Be prepared to justify the priorities

8. Prioritize! I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. • Bill Cosby (1937 - )

9. Matching Needs to Resources Look at existing resources first to fulfill identified needs • Existing Partners and Volunteers • May wish to take on new roles • May be able to help with recruitment • Talk to current Mentor and Not-for-profit Organizations • Don’t silo resources - we should all be working together • Teachers/staff • Teachers and other staff may mentor and tutor

10. Recruiting for Priorities Go after the most pressing needs first • The most pressing need may be hardest to find • If you do choose to go after easier to get resources first, such as incentives, don’t loose site of your priorities

11. Preparing for Recruitment Seek help with recruitment efforts • Ask administrators, teachers, parents and volunteers for assistance • Others in your school may enjoy and/or have experience selling • Recruiting partners is SALES • Have a positive attitude • Believe in what your selling • Keep in mind that it’s OK when someone says NO. They are not rejecting YOU

12. Needs Acquisition When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either • Leo Burnett

13. Targeted Recruitment Target businesses or organizations that you think are most appropriate for program development and the fulfillment of identified needs • To get volunteers and mentors, target business with employees who are not involved with customers • tellers,sales people, grocery store clerks, restaurant personnel, etc. generally do not get work-release time • To get incentives, target restaurants and places that your students frequent • Look in your geographic area, it is generally their sales area

14. Targeted Recruitment • To get curriculum support, target a business that connects to the curriculum that you want supported. For example • Banks and math classes or Life Skills • Law offices with Debate Club • Technology with systems classes • General business with interviewing skills, writing, team work, planning, time management

15. Preparing for Recruitment Research the targeted business or organization prior to recruiting • Check the internet • Do you think they have the resources and capabilities that you are seeking? • How many employees do they have? • What types of jobs do these employees have? • Is their Community Involvement philosophy or policy listed? • Ask yourself, if I were the business owner, WIIFM? • why would I want to partner with the school?

16. Recruitment • Recruit only for jobs/activities that you actually have • Have job descriptions for volunteer opportunities • Be timely • If the job/activity doesn’t start until after FCAT, don’t recruit in August and make them wait

17. Recruitment • Network with existing partners, parents, volunteers and school staff • You never know who knows whom until you ask • Identify a starting and ending date • Your partners may stay with you forever but may want to know there is an end date when they first sign on

18. Recruitment Be prepared to answer questions • How will their involvement benefit students? • What do they get out of the partnership? • What are your school demographics? • What do other similar businesses do with other schools? • You may contact Partners In Education for this information

19. Recruitment Read body language and be prepared to shift gears • You may be there to ask for help with math tutoring, but body language is telling you that you’re not connecting

20. Recruitment • Why do you need business partners? We didn’t have them when I was in school. • What’s that FCAT all about? • What’s happening with the class size amendment? • Don’t you get Lottery money? • Why do you people need more money? Don’t you get enough of my tax dollars? • Why do students need incentives to read more? Shouldn’t they just learn because the have too? Sometimes, the questions you get from the recruitee are in left field. Be prepared for everything….. • These are just a sample of questions • asked at actual recruitment meetings.

21. Recruitment Every recruitment meeting is an opportunity to educate someone on the value of public education in general and your school in particular

22. Recruitment Even if you don’t get a new partner, you may just make public education a new friend

23. What’s in it for me? Know the Benefits of partnerships for • Community • Partner • School • Student

24. Partnerships Partnerships require a culture that reinforces community involvement • Both school and partner should recognize that a well-run community involvement initiative is a win/win program for schools, for businesses and for the community

25. Benefits to the Community Partnerships • Improve the economic environment and the ability to draw new businesses • Provide for economic growth • Lower dropout rates, which are associated with lower crime rates, less unemployment and fewer welfare recipients

26. Benefits to the Business Partnerships • Enhance the business’s community image • Provide a better prepared workforce • Improve employee morale and training • BellSouth would send entry level managers to speak at middle school on the theory that if they can speak to a classroom of middle school students, they can present to anyone • Aid in customer and employee recruitment and retention

27. Benefit to the School Partnerships • Provide teachers with ideas for innovative approaches to learning • Provide added human and financial resources to schools • Reinforce school message that education is important for life • Improve employee morale knowing that the community values what they do

28. Benefit to Students Partnerships • Relate school to “real life” by utilizing the business as a focus to delivering academics • Deliver a unified message that the community cares about students’ academic success • Provide opportunities for greater career awareness • Increases student self-esteem • Enhance learning opportunities in non-traditional settings

29. Motivating Factors for Corporate Citizenship Company CEOs agreed that good corporate citizenship is good business • 82% state that good corporate citizenship helps the bottom line • 74% believe that the public has a right to expect companies to act as good citizens 2004 survey of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

30. Types of Recruitment Direct • In person, face to face • Telephone Indirect • Letter • Poster • Brochure • Newspaper Article • Public Service Announcement • Displays at local stores and malls

31. Recruitment Recruiting new partners in never easy. But finding the right resources to help your students in always rewarding.

32. Direct Recruitment • Is person-to-person contact • Is the most effective form • Emphasizes communication between the recruiter and the prospective recruitee • Provides for two-way communication • The best Direct Recruitment is face-to-face rather than by telephone

33. Direct Recruitment • Cold calling is arriving at the business’s door without an appointment • Very difficult to meet with the “right” person in a cold call • The “right” person may be busy or preoccupied during your visit

34. Direct Recruitment Instead of cold calling • Start with a telephone call to get an appointment • The person on the telephone may help you identify the right person with whom you should meet

35. Direct Recruitment The “right” person to meet with is the one able to make decisions on behalf of the company Always send someone who can answer specific questions and has the authority to commit to the partnership on behalf of the school

36. Direct Recruitment The recruiter should be very knowledgeable about the school and the potential partnership placements and programs • the requirements for specific placements such as mentoring • number of people being requested • times of available volunteer jobs

37. Direct Recruitment • knowledge of available training and orientation • school and district policies • budget, transportation issues • class scheduling • other issues that may come up in conversation

38. Direct Recruitment • The recruiter should follow each meeting with a letter of thanks • Summarize what was agreed to and next steps if appropriate

39. Direct Recruitment Telephone Recruitment • You may try to recruit by telephone • May be more difficult to conduct a meaningful discussion on partnerships by phone • However, a telephone call is a great way to introduce the idea and schedule a face-to-face meeting • No real partnership plans can be made without meeting the person you are attempting to recruit

40. Keep your eye on the objective The strength of the United States is not the gold at Fort Knox or the weapons of mass destruction that we have, but the sum total of the education and the character of our people. • Claiborne Pell (1918 - )

41. The Close The hardest part of any recruitment is the close • You must leave with a plan for further action • The plan may be to start developing activities • Hold that next meeting at school • It will help you gauge the partner’s willingness to visit in the future • It will give you the opportunity to introduce the potential new partner to others

42. The Close The Plan you leave with may be to meet with someone else • You may not have meet with the real decision maker • Some companies may ask someone to “prescreen” your request and only bring to management if they like what they hear • Some companies have employee councils that decide on their community outreach. Once the management person likes your presentation, you could be asked to bring it to the employees

43. Making the Sale A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug. • Patricia Neal

44. Indirect Recruitment • Indirect recruitment may be a letter or any other written method of communication • Is less effective because it requires the recruitee to take action to contact you • Indirect recruitment serves as a good public awareness activity • It gives the person or persons you are trying to recruit prior knowledge of who you are and what partnerships are about

45. Indirect Recruitment • Don’t count on indirect recruitment to bring in new partners • On average, less then 5% of brochures mailed result in any return • 1,000 mailed brochures may not bring in one new partner • Think of indirect recruitment activities as public relations

46. Recruitment The process of recruiting new partners may give you skills you never dreamed of attaining.

47. Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. • John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963)

48. Follow-up Once you have successfully recruited a partner and you have agreed to planned activities, it is essential that YOU follow through and schedule them to start.

49. Follow-up Partners are yours to harvest You can let them die on the vine or you can nurture them and insure a rewarding experience for all

50. Post Test • What was the last company you successfully recruited? • Did you actively recruit this specific business and why? • What does that company do with your school? • Do these activities meet an identified need? • How did the steps you took to recruit compare and contrast to the steps outlined in this presentation?