CASE STUDY:
Puyallup School District
Finding excellent teachers for every classroom.
Puyallup School District at a Glance:
Location: Puyallup, Washington
PreK-12 Enrollment: 23,000
Teachers & Staff: 3,703
Facilities: 32
Solutions Used:
- Frontline Recruiting & Hiring
The Challenge:
The community of Puyallup depends on having excellent teachers in every classroom, ready to educate and inspire students to reach their full potential. Facing a growing teacher shortage, Puyallup School District had to find a way to attract and recruit quality teachers. As one of the largest districts in Washington state with an enrollment of 23,000 students and climbing, hiring teachers and specialists is a top priority.
Hampered by recruitment software that became obsolete when the provider went out of business, only to be replaced by a system that didn’t work, the district worried that frustrated applicants would look elsewhere. Faced with the possibility of a new school year starting with unfilled teaching positions, finding the right solution was critical.
The Results:
“This year we started with a teacher in every classroom, and I can say that Frontline Recruiting & Hiring was a contributing factor. There are many years that we haven’t done that.”
Tina Konsmo, Director of Human Resources Systems and School Support
As soon as Puyallup went live with Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, the very first applicant came through from K12JobSpot, an online job board hosted and managed by Frontline. With Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, job postings have a much broader reach than in the past when the HR staff relied on the district’s website to list openings, attracting more quality candidates and deepening the applicant pool. Puyallup hired over 150 teachers that year and filled all their support staff positions at the beginning of the school year.
— Tina Konsmo
The Solution:
Having worked her way through all the different desks in the HR department over the years, Tina Konsmo has a unique perspective and a clear understanding of the district’s staffing needs. When the decision was made to find a new recruitment program, she started the search for the best solution.
Decision Process
Because everything they do in HR flows to payroll, accounting and other departments, Puyallup depends on strong IT support. The district relies on input from the HIP team (HR, IT and Payroll), a decision body that works together on all major tech adoptions to make sure new programs will work well with existing systems. They reviewed several different products, keeping an eye out for functionality with their current systems along with ease of use for applicants and the administrators doing the hiring. Since the district’s current HR management system provider had already partnered with Frontline, the team knew their existing system would integrate easily with Frontline Recruiting & Hiring.
Implementation
When the HIP team decided to go with Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, they agreed on a five-month timeline. District procedure is to start a transition four or five months ahead of time to allow each department to get their testing done before full implementation. During the launch process, HR staff found they were missing an important function that put applications on hold if further review was needed before they qualified as candidates. Their Frontline consultant collaborated with the HR team to create the exact pipeline they needed.
“Our consultant was amazing, and I cannot rave more about him. He answered our questions so well and in such detail. He got to know how we tick.”
– Tina Konsmo
Positive Outcomes
First impressions count. At career fairs, Puyallup recruiters encourage applicants to submit their applications early and potential candidates are delighted to learn how easy it is to apply online.
In the past, candidates had to complete and submit a separate application for each opening. Filling out job applications could be tedious and time consuming, which limited the number of people willing to take the time to apply to more than a few districts. Thanks to Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, posting jobs and hiring candidates are much faster than in the past.
Now, not only are more candidates applying for positions, but they find the system simple to use. Thanks to a carefully planned program design, applicants can quickly upload all the required documentation, tweak their applications and send them out to any district. They can apply for multiple positions in Puyallup or in neighboring districts that also use Frontline’s applicant tracking system, and transfer their information and documents into each application without having to duplicate their efforts.
At the other end, HR staff can customize categories within postings to meet their needs. As soon as letters of intent are issued to student teachers, a posting is created that funnels their applications into a separate group. Administrators use the sort options to quickly identify candidates with the precise endorsements, skills or degrees they are looking for. As soon as an applicant is hired, their documentation is pushed over into payroll and accounting software, eliminating the need for additional paperwork and saving hours of time.
“One thing about Frontline Recruiting & Hiring that has been amazing to us is my HR technician does not have to answer all the questions about the system. Frontline answers all the questions. It’s released her time to be able to work on other things and assist the applicants because she’s not having to manage an application system.”
– Tina Konsmo
Planning for the Future
Pleased with the results they’ve achieved using Frontline Recruiting & Hiring, Puyallup plans to add Frontline Absence & Time. One of its many useful features is that the system syncs with Frontline Recruiting & Hiring. As soon as a new employee or substitute is hired, the click of a button will create a profile in both programs. Most importantly, when teachers are absent, administrators know they’ll have qualified substitutes in classrooms so student learning won’t be interrupted.
About Frontline Education
Frontline Education is a leading provider of school administration software, empowering strategic K-12 leaders with the right tools, data and insights to proactively manage human capital, business operations, student information and special education.
Educational organizations representing over 80,000 schools and millions of educators, administrators and support personnel have partnered with Frontline Education in their efforts to develop the next generation of learners. Frontline is dedicated to driving engagement across K-12 school systems and supporting the continuous improvement of employee effectiveness and efficiency with solutions for proactive recruiting and hiring, absence and time, professional growth, student information systems, special education, school health management, payroll, benefits and financial management.
Frontline Education corporate headquarters are in Malvern, PA, with offices in Roseville, CA; Salinas, CA; Andover, MA; Walled Lake, MI; Rockville Centre, NY; Williamsville, NY; Brecksville, OH and Austin, TX.
Learn more at www.FrontlineEducation.com