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Case Study

A Better HR System to Serve Employees

Why Whitehall-Coplay School District uses Frontline to manage recruiting and hiring, onboarding, employee records, benefits, position management, professional learning, employee absences, and time tracking.

Whitehall-Coplay School District Hero Image

District Background

Kristen Riedy is one of just two people in the Personnel Department at Whitehall-Coplay School District in a growing suburban area in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. Hiring and onboarding new teachers and staff and serving existing employees keeps Kristen and the rest of the Personnel Team quite busy. “We like to joke that summers are a busy time, but it’ll die down in the fall. And I’m still waiting for that to happen.”

In the past, the district used several different systems to manage employee information. People applying for positions at Whitehall-Coplay would submit paper applications, and onboarding involved actual stacks of papers. “We’d have people come in and I’m literally handing them a phone book full of paperwork to complete,” Kristen says. A paper filing system was managed using spreadsheets, which got messy, information was easy to overlook, and sorting and correcting files was time consuming. “It was not a very efficient process, I’ll tell you.”

Having used Frontline’s Absence Management for a long time (“I’ve loved it from the beginning, it’s simple, it’s easy to use”), the district decided to bring all employee information into Frontline, adding Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, Frontline Central, Time and Attendance, Frontline HRMS, and Frontline Professional Growth. “I couldn’t be happier that we’re doing one system,” Kristen says.

Adding Frontline: A New System

Kristen quickly became the resident Frontline expert in the district. Implementing such a wide array of new systems certainly brings change, and she wanted to support employees through it. She began compiling resources from Frontline’s Learning Center, using QR codes to direct employees to instructions for completing tasks in the system, such as entering an absence or accessing their employment files. “Because of Frontline’s resources, I’m able to better train our staff when they have questions, and that, I think, went a long way,” she says. “The Learning Center through Frontline has allowed us to train our employees to be able to utilize the system for their benefit.”

“Now that we have been in it for a year, no complaints. Now I get, ‘Hey, I’m in Frontline.’ I found that our employees are taking more charge of their information and they know that I’m a resource for them.”

Kristen Riedy Photo

“What I’m hearing when I’m going into meetings with my coworkers, or even meetings at the schools that we have, is very positive feedback.”

Kristen Riedy
– HR Specialist

Results

Better Organization

With easy access to employee information and the ability to support employees in using the system, Kristen says the Personnel Team is more effective. “As a whole, it has made us become better organized, now that we have a solid foundation of a department, which I believe Frontline helped to give.

“From our principal side, we’ve had nothing but good reviews. When you’re a principal, your day can start out very well planned and go south quickly, so the principals are raving about it. They’re able to see who’s coming in for an interview, whose PPID number they need, what evaluations they need to do, who’s out. I think from their point of view it’s huge.”

More Applicants

With Frontline Recruiting & Hiring and Proactive Recruiting, Whitehall-Coplay expanded its recruiting efforts. “We’re getting more applicants than ever, so that’s a huge plus. We’re able to reach a broader area.” They have even had applicants from other continents. “I think one of the reasons that we’ve had our bump in hiring is that our process is easy. We make it easy and accessible. When you’re job hunting, the worst part is that it’s like a full-time job.”

Easier Onboarding

When new employees start in the district, information from their application in Recruiting & Hiring automatically populates in Frontline Central, so they can hit the ground running. “I’ve had people comment, ‘We’ve uploaded everything.’ I can see that. Then when they’re hired, it comes right over to Frontline Central, so it’s a one-stop shop.” Because Central is the hub of all the various Frontline solutions the district uses, Kristen says it makes it easier get new employees set up and show them where to find all their information.

“We’re no longer having to log into 100 different places to get all this information that we need. We’re coming to one spot. It’s a one-stop shop. And I think the ultimate [impact] with the employees is that they can save time.  They’re not having to sit and remember 10 different places to go.”

Kristen Riedy
– HR Specialist

Position Management

As new employees are hired into positions, or as existing employees transfer to other positions within the district, the position management functionality in Frontline HRMS ensures that the Personnel Department has a firm handle on what’s happening. “I have pulled so many reports that I can’t even tell you how amazing it was to be able to have that information at your fingertips. Before, it would be weeks’ worth of spreadsheets and data review.  Now, we track it and transfers and pay grades and everything.”

Simple Benefits Enrollment

Although Kristen doesn’t directly handle benefits enrollment at Whitehall-Coplay, she has interacted with employees about the process. “As HR, you get a lot of the feedback, whether good or bad, and I’ve actually had a really good response from people saying, ‘Wow, that was easy.’ They’re able to sign up for benefits from the comfort of their own homes. Before, they’d have to come in, schedule a meeting, sit down, and it just took a chunk of time.”

Professional Development

Although Whitehall-Coplay is newer to Frontline Professional Growth, employees are beginning to realize how Frontline helps them track their own professional learning. “Our employees love that they can go on and sign up for their professional development days, their hours to track their classes,” says Kristen. “It quickly went from, ‘Why are we doing this?’ to ‘This is awesome.’ They’re at the one-stop shop. They’re not having to go to 10 different places. They come here and I think it allows them to communicate better with the Teaching & Learning team as well.”

Change Management

Kristen has some advice for school districts that are implementing new Frontline systems: “The pieces will come together. The puzzle will be complete. Stay the course and don’t let that be overwhelming. One piece at a time. We like to say around here, try not to eat the whole elephant, start with one bite at a time, because ultimately, I am very glad that we decided to go down this path.”

“We did a total 180 from where we were just by saying ‘yes’ to having this system.”

Kristen Riedy
– HR Specialist


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About Frontline Education

Frontline Education is a leading provider of school administration software, connecting solutions for student and special programs, business operations and human capital management with powerful analytics to empower educators. Frontline partners with school systems to deliver tools, data and insights that support greater efficiency and productivity, enabling school leaders to spend more time and resources executing strategies that drive educator effectiveness, student success and district excellence.

Frontline’s broad portfolio includes solutions for proactive recruiting and hiring, absence and time management, professional growth, student information systems, special education, special programs, Medicaid reimbursement, school health management, inventory control and asset management, payroll, benefits and financial management, and analytics solutions that help district leaders tap into their data to make more informed decisions for the benefit of their students and communities. Over 10,000 clients representing millions of educators, administrators and support personnel have partnered with Frontline Education in their efforts to develop the next generation of learners.