Renton School District’s mission is for each student to graduate with options, fully prepared to participate in our democracy. Finding, hiring and retaining great teachers are the first steps toward achieving their mission of preparing students for the future.

Running Short On Time, Data, and Teachers

A few years ago, the Human Resources department relied on a cumbersome paper-based system to manage their recruiting and hiring. It was a heavy lift that was tough to keep up with. Because of the time it took a requisition for a position to be submitted, reviewed, signed and posted, there was always a chance that potential applicants had already signed with other districts before the posting even went up. Data on hiring trends wasn’t readily available — the staff had to request reports from their HR system vendor to get it.

Not only that, but a teacher shortage in the area often left several positions unfilled at the beginning of each school year. Clearly, it was time for a change.

“For the last two years, we have started the school year with a teacher in every classroom, which hasn’t always been the case.”

Tracy Gibbs, Recruitment and Staffing Coordinator

Improved Recruiting With a Lighter Lift

To curb these issues and find a better way of doing things, Renton School District implemented Frontline Recruiting & Hiring about three years ago. By watching videos, following instructions given in each module, and asking for guidance from Frontline’s client success staff, the HR team implemented their new system in under six weeks. It seemed pretty scary at the time, but looking back, they feel proud of their success.

Afterwards:

• The district has started every school year with a teacher in each classroom.
• The number of staff required to handle the administrative side of recruiting and hiring dropped from from six to three.
• The district now easily recruits teachers from other areas, with about 50% of certified staff coming from out-of-state.

 “It’s good to think of the future. HR’s an ever-changing field, and the needs of school districts are always changing. What are we going to need two years from now? Five years from now? We know that Frontline’s continuing to grow and they have other modules that we can implement down the road as our needs change. That’s a good feature, something else that stood out.”

Tracy Gibbs

Faster Hiring To Stay Ahead of the Competition

Renton School District has found a way to stay a few steps ahead of the competition by changing how they recruit and hire candidates.

Having Frontline Recruiting & Hiring has proven to be a huge advantage. If a principal has interviewed several strong candidates for a position and completed reference checks on each one, but can only hire one teacher, the results are all stored online. Other principals looking at applicants can access not only the reference checks but all the interview questions and responses without having to duplicate the work.

Because of the teacher shortage, the district has hired about 50% of their certificated staff from out of state. Since other districts are doing the same thing, it often comes down to how fast they can identify, interview and hire candidates.
When HR recruiters attend out-of-state recruiting events, they encourage all potential applicants to fill out a quick online form with their contact information. If they meet an outstanding candidate, an interview is done right there at the job fair. Since the interview results are stored online, recruiters can alert principals back in Renton. If a candidate looks like a great fit for a school, he or she can be hired on the spot.

“The speed and efficiency that we can move through the process of hiring a candidate, from posting the position to interviewing to the online hiring paperwork, is just amazing!”

Tracy Gibbs