Posted on February 17, 2013

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National Recruitment Director

Stand for Children – a bold independent voice for public education reform – seeks an innovative and accomplished recruitment leader to build a best in class staffing function that is the preeminent talent acquisition department in the non-profit sector.

With significant challenges facing America’s urban school districts, there is both a moral and an economic imperative to transform the broader system to allow outstanding teachers to do great work and enable students of all backgrounds to learn and thrive. At Stand, we believe all children deserve an equal opportunity to succeed in life. Education is the key that unlocks the door to success, but far too many children, through no fault of their own, aren’t getting the education they need to make it in life. We are passionately committed to righting this wrong, and relentlessly dedicated to finding the very best people to carry out this work.

Stand for Children seeks to find a passionate, proven recruitment leader with a strong track record of leading high functioning recruitment teams to ensure that our nation’s most pressing issue continues to be addressed by world class talent who can achieve tremendous impact on behalf of children. The National Recruitment Director will have the exciting opportunity to bring this laser focus on people and results to drive the vision, strategy and execution of all recruitment across a rapidly growing distributed organization. S/he will serve in a key leadership role organizationally and as a member of Stand’s talent team, focused on strategically recruiting and aligning talent, systems, and processes to empower all staff to reach their potential in service of Stand’s mission.

THE ORGANIZATIONS

Stand for Children is a powerful voice for students. Our mission is to ensure that all children, regardless of their background, graduate from high school prepared for, and with access to, a college education. To date, Stand for Children’s eleven state affiliates (AZ, CO, IL, IN, LA, MA, OK, OR, TN, TX, and WA) have won more than one hundred sixty victories that have impacted the lives of millions of children, work which has included playing a key role in passing important education legislation in five states in 2010 and six states in 2011.

The Stand for Children family consists of two separate organizations—Stand for Children, a grassroots membership lobby for children exempt under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, and Stand for Children Leadership Center, a leadership development organization exempt under section 501(c)(3).

Stand for Children and the Stand for Children Leadership Center work together to:

• Educate and empower parents, teachers, and community members to demand excellent schools;
• Advocate for effective local, state, and national education polities and investments and ensure that those policies impact classrooms and students; and
• Elect courageous leaders who will stand up for our priorities.*

We stand for achievement and access.

We stand for achievement by all students, through quality early childhood education, effective, empowered and supported teachers and principals, engaged families with high expectations, and other strategies that provide students the tailored instruction and support they need to graduate high school ready for college.

We stand for access to high quality schools for all students, especially students in poverty, students of color, and students learning English. To expand access to all students, we advocate for effective educational leadership at all levels, sufficient and effectively spent school funding, and clear, accurate information about how schools are performing for parents, educators, and the community.
THE POSITION

The National Recruitment Director will be charged with ensuring that the recruiting department meets organizational hiring targets by placing top notch talent into every open role within eight to twelve weeks. While significant progress has been made in building a recruiting function from scratch over the last three years, some key improvements must be made to ensure that the recruiting function is prepared to scale in a cost-effective manner and continues to attract the highest caliber talent, given aggressive organizational growth goals.

The National Recruitment Director will oversee the following:

Managing and developing a high performing recruitment team:

• Lead the recruitment team, including providing oversight and establishing a people development team culture; this includes driving team meetings, managing key staff, and developing leadership within each member of the recruitment team;
• Ensure that the recruiting team is thoughtfully structured and staffed to meet the organization’s staffing needs, including evaluating different approaches and pros/cons of each (e.g. centralized vs. decentralized, high volume vs. high value, etc.);
• Ensure that the recruiting function is tracking the right metrics and manage the function to aggressive time to hire, diversity, customer service and operational targets which are currently measured and reported to executive leadership;
• Drive accountability for members of the recruitment team aligned with metrics and performance goals; and
• Serve as a member of a four person talent leadership team.

Overseeing and building a best-in-class recruitment and hiring process:

• Assess the recruiting function, including key metrics and processes, to identify key bottlenecks in the process; make recommendations for how to adjust the recruitment strategy to ensure operational excellence;
• Ensure hiring processes support both a highly positive candidate experience and recruiter/hiring manager efficiencies;
• Build a recognized “employer of choice” employee brand/value proposition that will attract and retain top talent at all levels;
• Strategically utilize alternative recruiting practices such as search and research firms for senior leadership and/or difficult to fill roles; and
• Ensure that the selection and assessment process for each role is designed to vet up against the most critical skills and experiences to be successful within any given role.

Partnering and strategizing with staff to build the right teams at the right time:

• Improve workforce planning and revise recruiting plans and processes to reflect hiring requirements, including creating a system for updating projections on a quarterly basis, based on updated hiring forecasts from hiring managers;
• Drive and implement a passive candidate sourcing strategy, including developing in-house capacity to aggressively and proactively headhunt for all mission critical positions; and
• Improve the engagement and recruitment know-how of hiring managers, including assessing the general ability of hiring managers across the network and implementing the necessary training to ensure that each is capable of supporting sourcing, driving decisions on all roles which they hire for, and effectively updating and using Stand’s applicant tracking system.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• A minimum of 8 years of progressively responsible management experience within a company or organization known for exceptional recruiting results; the ideal candidate has led a top notch recruiting function in the midst of significant growth and/or has deep experience at an aggressive recruiting shop or top notch executive search firm;
• A visionary operator capable of determining the right strategic objectives and ensuring operational excellence up against key goals and priorities; the ideal candidate will bring large system thinking and strategic planning skills coupled with hands-on operational/implementation experience and an ability to align processes and systems to achieve aggressive recruiting targets;
• Strong critical thinker who effectively collects, analyzes and uses data to inform key operational decisions;
• Superior communication skills with an ability to articulate a clear and compelling vision and lead others toward achieving this vision;
• A proven track record in developing leadership within direct reports and developing high performing teams;
• Prior experience working within a distributed organization;
• Prior experience using applicant tracking systems;
• Broad knowledge of employment law;
• Up to 25% travel to state offices located throughout the country.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Sales or marketing background and proven experience in driving a sales and marketing approach to recruiting;
• Experience leading executive searches strongly preferred;
• MBA, related Master’s degree, or HR/Business Certifications are desirable (SHRM, LEAN/Six Sigma, etc.).

COMPENSATION

Competitive salary, commensurate with experience. Stand for Children is proud to offer excellent benefits: full health and dental coverage; life insurance, long- and short-term disability and long-term care coverage; 401K with a match plan; flexible spending/benefits plan; holidays and vacation accrual.

Application Instructions Stand for Children and Stand for Children Leadership Center are equal opportunity employers and candidates of color are strongly encouraged to apply. To apply for this position, please go to http://stand.org/careers to complete our online application. No calls please.