Lead Outreach
Under Interview there will be a time, date, and scheduler for the interview
What is the difference between Part Time and Daily Supply?
Part Time = Consistent schedule with non-traditional hours or days. For example, M-F from 3pm-6pm in an after school program.
Daily Supply = Day to day substituting roles
Where would this note go?
11/10/25 Sydney: Completed day 1 cadence
Candidate Notes
When should all notes be completed?
By end of day everyday
"I haven't worked in schools before, but my little brother has autism. So I've basically been raising him and my other siblings since I was a kid."
What would you ask to learn more about their experience?
Asking questions to understand what "raising" has looked like.
Ex. "That's great to hear! Can you tell me about about what that looked like?" / "Thank you for letting me know! Have you had any experience helping your siblings with homework or anything school related?" / "That's great! I've had folks with personal experience be great paras before, so I'd love to know more about how your experience has an older sibling has prepared you to support children in the classroom. Are there any approaches that you've used with your siblings that you could see yourself using with students?"
Sometimes, folks can use vague language to describe their experience or at times inflate it, so we want to get a better sense of what that support looked like. Was it watching the kids for a few hours each day after school or was it being a primary caregiver? Can their experience transfer to a classroom environment?
Day 1 and Day 3
True or False:
Additional quality questions or hypotheticals can be asked during the interview if you are unsure about an educator's quality
True!
Where would this note go?
First Impression of Candidate: Friendly candidate recently moved to the area; ~4-5 months of previous para experience as a float; EMT background gives her strong emergency/medical baseline knowledge.
Internal Notes
If a very qualified educator has a specific work schedule (ex. can only start at 9AM), how can you check if there are schools or roles that would accommodate it?
"I want to work in schools because I like working with children."
What would you ask to learn more about their motivations?
Motivation is important for all educators, and for surface level answers we want to dive deeper and ensure that they are passionate and excited to work with children in a gen ed or SpEd environment!
Ex. "That's great to hear, can you tell me about your favorite part about working with children?" / "Thank you for letting me know, can you tell me about what you are most looking forward to about getting in the classroom?" / "Amazing, can you tell me about your biggest accomplishment working with students?"
What admin happens after a successful lead outreach call?
Notes from the conversation go into Internal Notes, and a note that the IwZ was booked goes into the Candidate Notes
What admin happens after a successful update call?
After the Update Call is booked, send the Update email so the educator is prepared for the next call
Where would this note go?
Key Skills for DS: Float experience, comfortable with K-8, BLS/CPR certified.
Availability: Available M-F; open to both advance notice and morning-of calls.
Daily Supply Notes
How can you set up your calendar to prevent new bookings (ex. if you are sick or on leave)?
Go to Google Cal > Add OOO event!
If you are sick, please take time to rest! If you can, send a message to your educators to reschedule. If not, send a message to your lead (or if they are out/not online, a senior TSO on your team) to let them know and they can organize coverage!
"I would approach the student and grab their hands to make sure they cannot hit anyone else, and then help them take deep breaths so they can calm down. If they really needed it, I would give them a hug. After they were calmed down, I would check in with them to see what caused the escalated behavior and coordinate with the teacher or other staff to remove what triggered the behavior in the classroom."
What would you ask next?
Sometimes, educators can give answers that don't align with school expectations or policies and that's okay!
The important thing to do here is clarify and probe.
For example:
"Deep breaths and coordinating with the other staff is great, however, our schools have a no touch policy. Are there any other approaches you would use to de-escalate?"
It would be important to see if the educator can still de-escalate and not rely on being able to hold the student or take their hands. For example, would they be able to have other students move away if the situation required it? Would they grab an item the student liked to get their focus, and speak in a calm voice when talking to the student?
What happens after an unsuccessful lead outreach call?
The relevant notes are input in Internal Notes and the profile is set to negative with the date and name of the TSO included. Then, a DQ email is either sent or scheduled to that educator.
What happens after an unsuccessful Interview with Zen call?
The educator is sent a DQ email and the profile is set to negative.
Setting to negative ensures they do not receive marketing or re-engagement updates if they are neg perm!
Where would this note go?
#process-update#
Suitability call notes
If you call an educator for an IwZ using the phone number on their profile, and the call goes to a different number, can you find another phone number for them?
Yes! When this happens, go to the Google Invite link and check that the number listed on the invitation is the same as the profile. If not, call the number from the invitation. If the invitation has the same number, send an email to follow up and get an updated number.
An educator who has been inactive for 10 months is active on the platform again and is looking to re-engage. When you review the profile, you see that the educator received a mix of negative and positive feedback from their previous position, including the educator being on their phone throughout the day and some schools did not give details. From the AM side, there was also a concern on attendance.
This person was never set to neg temp or neg perm.
What would you do next?
For re-engaging educators who have worked with Zen previously, it's best practice to review the Candidate Notes and Feedback. If it isn't clear about whether or not they should be brought back on board, tag AMs in your regional channel to get their thoughts.
If they are approved to move through, complete a new IwZ and add into vetting notes that they were re-interviewed and flag your lead.
Where can you go to find additional leads?
Trevor reports: outreach tracker, live lead status
Speaking to your lead! There are thousands of leads that apply and they can pull relevant Trevor reports
How do you cancel an IwZ? Why would an IwZ be cancelled?
On the Google Invitation, you cancel if the educator was a no show and send follow up email.
True or False:
If the educator changes their preferences during onboarding, their notes and Matching cannot be updated.
False! Educators can change their availability or preferences at any time, as TSOs we have to check that their notes and Matching align with their new preferences. For example, if someone originally applied for LT but can only do DS, then the TSO would add an update note above the original interview notes to indicate that.
In Internal Notes:
11/10/25 Sydney: Educator is only available for MWF DS going forward
Then, Matching would be updated from Full Time to Daily Supply
If an educator has multiple profiles, what needs to be done?
1. Confirm which email the educator prefers to use. That email = the profile they will use.
2. Neg perm the duplicate profile and include a note that it is a duplicate profile
3. Have the educator log in on the their new profile to confirm they can access it
An educator is DQ'ed for poor quality candidate after an interview and then creates a new profile. The second profile is under a different last name, and the Interactions tab does not pull the previous conversation history.
Using the new profile, they book a new IwZ with a new TSO. In the new interview, there aren't any concerns and they are pushed through.
Afterwards, the original TSO flags that they had already DQ'ed this person.
What would you do next?
This is a gray area! Ultimately it is best to get a second opinion from another TSO or your lead.
If you find the the educator is suitable, and you want to push them through to another TSO to complete vetting and obtain references you can. This happened in MSP and it wasn't noticed until much later in the process. That educator has since received 2 pieces of positive feedback and 2 neutral that were coaching opportunities.