The Real Reason Most EdTech and Education Suppliers Make Mis-Hires (and How to Avoid It)
When a hire doesn’t work out, it’s easy to blame the candidate.
But in my experience, mis-hires are rarely about the person. The most common reason I see businesses make hiring mistakes is poor planning.
And I’m not just talking about job descriptions that need tightening. I’m talking about a deeper issue: a lack of clarity around what the business truly needs.
The Most Common Mistake (and the Most Costly)
Mis-hiring usually starts with a vague idea of needing “someone in sales” or “a marketer to grow the brand.” However, without clearly identifying the objective of the role, the skills required to meet it, and the type of person who will thrive in the business, even the most talented candidate will struggle.
In fast-paced EdTech and education supplier environments, where resources are stretched and every hire counts, this mistake is especially costly. A mis-hire wastes time, drains budget, slows growth, and can damage internal morale. And when it happens, the same cycle often repeats: unclear planning → wrong hire → underperformance → start again.
How We Help Our Clients Get It Right
At Connecting Education, we’ve developed a three-step planning process that ensures our clients hire the right people for the right reasons—every time.
🔍 1. Vacancy Plan
Before any recruitment begins, we deep-dive into your business:
What’s the real objective of the role?
What are the key deliverables expected in the first 6–12 months?
What does the day-to-day actually look like?
How does this role connect to your wider goals—growth, product, partnerships, impact?
This ensures the vacancy is fully qualified and understood across all stakeholders.
🧠 2. Persona Plan
Next, we build out the candidate profile:
What skills, experience, and qualifications are essential?
What kind of personality traits will fit your team culture?
What does success look like in this specific context?
We create a clear picture of who you’re really looking for—and just as importantly, who you’re not.
📡 3. Channel Plan
Finally, we map out:
Where this person is most likely to be found (e.g. are they in another EdTech? An education charity? A tech-for-good business?)
What messaging will resonate with them?
How do we make this role stand out in a competitive market?
This plan guides our outreach, advertising, and candidate engagement strategy.
Why It Matters
Good recruitment isn’t just about filling roles—it’s about finding the right person for the right job at the right time. That only happens when you start with a solid foundation.
For EdTechs and education suppliers, where team members often wear multiple hats and impact is a key part of the mission, getting that alignment right is crucial. You can’t afford to guess. You need to be strategic.
We Don’t Just Recruit—We Advise
We believe in long-term partnerships, not one-off placements. That means we’re not afraid to challenge the brief when something doesn’t add up.
In fact, there have been times when, after going through our planning process, we’ve uncovered that the role a client wanted to hire for wasn’t quite right. Instead of pushing forward to chase a fee, we’ve agreed not to launch the vacancy, and to revisit it at a later stage once the business objectives are clearer.
That decision has cost us in the short term—but it’s the right thing for the client, and that’s what matters most.
At Connecting Education, we’re far more motivated by delivering successful outcomes than ticking boxes. We bring deep market insight, honest advice, and a strategic approach to every search because that’s how you build great teams—and great companies.
Final Thought
Mis-hires aren’t just frustrating—they’re expensive and disruptive. But they’re also avoidable.
If you’re growing your EdTech or education business and want to make sure your next hire is a success, start with a plan—or better yet, let us build one for you.
At Connecting Education, we don’t just send CVs. We partner with you to understand your goals, shape the role, and find the people who will move your business forward.
Want to learn more about how we do it?