Why your next School Business Manager probably won’t apply
A pattern we see time and again with school support recruitment is that its rarely the number of applications thats the issue, but the relevancy of those application that is.
The strongest School Business Managers, Finance leads and Operations professionals are typically already in post, busy, visible and valued, not spending their evenings scrolling job boards. That doesn’t mean they wouldn’t move, but it does mean they’re unlikely to come across your role in the usual way.
After 20 years in recruitment and the last 12 focused specifically on education, that’s something I’ve come to understand really clearly. The market you see isn’t the whole market from reactive advertising. Tapping into those candidates that aren't actively on job boards is where experience and network starts to matter. Over the years, I’ve had hundreds of conversations that have ended with some version of “if you ever see something like this, let me know.” Those conversations don’t show up on a job board, but they’re there and they’re often where the strongest appointments come from. Advertising still has its place, and it will attract active candidates, but that can range from those ready to move, those testing the water or plainly, those without the requisite experince for the role. Passive candidates don't tend to be driven by urgency or generic messaging, but by clarity, credibility and the sense that a move is genuinely career enhancing. That usually comes through conversation and trust rather than application. So whilst small shifts like being clear on what “great” looks like or using networks more intentionally do help, the reality is often that the person who could make the biggest impact on your school’s operations isn’t actively applying anywhere. Instead, it becomes a case of everything aligning perfectly….the right person seeing the advert at exactly the right moment, in exactly the right place, when they happen to be open to change. In a busy, competitive market, that kind of timing is rare. The strongest appointments are far more often the result of intentional reach, established relationships and knowing where those people sit before the role ever goes live.
