Recruitment Operations Specialist

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is the third-largest school district in the United States, serving over 350,000 students in 600+ schools and employing nearly 36,000 people, most of them teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life. In order to fulfill this mission, we make three commitments to our students, their families, and all Chicagoans: academic progress, financial stability, and integrity. Six core values are embedded within these commitments - student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning.

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has established ambitious goals to ensure that every child in every school and every neighborhood has access to a world-class learning experience, resulting in graduation from high school college- and career-ready. The Talent Acquisition Team supports this vision through a wide variety of recruitment projects, initiatives and activities that focus on the identification of top talent for CPS' central office and more than 500 Pre-K-12 district-managed schools.

Our Team is focused on...

• Achieving a 98.5% or better staffing rate district wide for school-based teacher vacancies on the first day of school by cultivating, maintaining, and growing a network of contacts to help identify qualified candidates including optimizing field experience and student teaching for nearly 1,000 students majoring in education annually.
  
  
• Creating a culture that shifts our timeline of hiring to earlier in the year by supporting principals, assistant principals, and other hiring managers across the district in sourcing, interviewing, hiring, and staffing the highest quality candidates in the spring and summer.
  
  
• Building comprehensive educator pipelines both through internal programs for training new teacher candidates and through partnerships at local, regional, and international levels.
  
  

Our new (Recruiting/Operations) Specialist will...

• Contribute to the full life cycle recruitment process such as job posting, screening, in-person interviewing, connecting hiring managers with candidates, and supporting hiring and staffing year round, with a special emphasis on early hiring (spring/summer); including carrying a recruitment portfolio to support overall team goals.
  
  
• Develop, implement and review operational policies and procedures and guide the internal team and external candidates in understanding operational and technical intricacies of multiple programs.
  
  
• Contribute operations information and recommendations to strategic plans and reviews; prepare and complete action plans; identify operational risks and trends; conduct data analysis and provide reports on optimizing the recruitment experience for candidates.
  
  
• Quickly assess and prioritize requests and issues both from candidates and from the internal team as they arise on a day-to-day basis.
  
  
• Collaborate with University Partners to enhance the pre-service preparation of student teachers, with a focus on strengthening data collection and analysis, selecting and training of mentor teachers, expanding professional development for student teachers, and hosting additional engagement activities.
  
  
• Build effective partnerships and manage relationships with key organizations and vendors.
  
  
• Plan and execute program events in partnership with the Recruitment Manager and other Specialists, including securing vendors, venues and materials and managing technology for effective presentation.
  
  
• Support team initiatives to maximize effectiveness of multiple new programs in the Talent Office.
  
  

Key Competencies...

• Adaptability - you are comfortable working in a fast-paced environment that includes multi-tasking, managing a diversity of initiatives, and quickly changing gears to focus on evolving priorities.
  
  
• High Work Standards - you pay close attention to the details, accuracy and completeness of your work, show concern for all aspects of the job, and follow up on work outputs.
  
  
• Dynamic Approach - you generate energy within our team and with stakeholders for new challenges while maintaining high levels of productivity and enthusiasm for day-to-day tasks.
  
  
• Initiative - you proactively identify opportunities for our team to advance, and get to work making those improvements a reality.
  
  

Qualifications...

Type of Education Required:

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college preferred
  
  
• 2+ years professional experience in recruiting (high-volume preferred) or program coordination
  
  

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail (including proofreading, editing, data entry and presentation), and an ability to consistently deliver high-quality work products.
  
  
• Strong problem-solving and critical thinking abilities, combined with strong initiative and a team player attitude.
  
  
• Strong interpersonal skills, including confidence and ease with individuals at all levels throughout the organization and externally.
  
  
• Ability to be flexible and quickly adapt to change.
  
  
• A customer-service based approach to candidate management that is also highly collaborative and results-oriented.
  
  
• Strong service and support orientation towards schools and school communities.
  
  
• Comfort and efficiency in time management and handling key tasks and projects to effectively manage projects to completion.
  
  
• Demonstrated success working in a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment.
  
  
• Must be able to travel to various locations around the city and work flexible hours, including evening hours and occasional weekends.
  
  
• Knowledge of operations, budget/finance, management and organizational development
  
  
• Ability to build collaborative relationships with a variety of constituent groups, including external partners, to ensure the entire system operates in the most effective manner possible to support schools and principals
  
  
• Ability to define problems, analyze data, and outline valid conclusions and action steps
  
  
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office/Google Suite (specifically Excel/Sheets, PowerPoint/Slides, Word/Docs), Salesforce CRM, and Taleo ATS.
  
  

Residency Requirement:

• As a condition of employment with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), employees are required to live within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago within six months of their CPS hire date and must maintain residency throughout their employment with the district.