Today’s Lesson: Christina Schools and Kelly Educational Staffing®
What happened when Delaware’s largest school district needed substitute teachers and discovered that internal resources were not enough to respond to a burgeoning demand? They turned to Kelly Educational Staffing for a solution.
The local Kelly branch began by launching a comprehensive recruiting campaign to target 100% of the eligible workforce. The result? More than 370 new substitute teachers were hired for the district within the first 90 days.
And to ensure that substitute teachers are ready for the first day of school – every day, Kelly provides them with job aids:
- A free Substitute Teacher Handbook
- Orientation and training on topics such as classroom management, being well-prepared and professional, and legal and health issues
- An official school calendar
- Extra timesheets
- A toll-free number to call for additional support
Full-time teachers and school principals know that their classrooms are being managed by reliable, well-trained substitute teachers.
THE ISSUES … THE CHALLENGES
As the largest district in the state, Christina schools require a large pool of substitute teachers. And the personnel director for the school district knew she was spending more and more time managing the substitute teacher recruiting process. This effort was taking time away from recruiting full-time teachers — the department’s key function for the 26 schools (typically staffed with more than 1,600 full-time teachers) in the district.
The district had concerns about using a private staffing company: cost, response time — could a private supplier respond quickly to staffing needs that change sometimes daily? And how would the current base of on-call substitutes be transitioned? The district’s leadership then asked the pivotal question: How could Kelly successfully recruit and meet the substitute teacher staffing needs for such a large district?
WHY CHRISTINA SCHOOLS CHOSE KELLY
First, Kelly conducted a thorough needs assessment of the issues facing the school district. Included was an analysis of how a substitute teacher shortage impacts the district’s full-time teachers and the hidden costs associated with it.
To better explain the benefits of using Kelly to meet the district’s staffing needs, Kelly emphasized that staffing has been our core business for more than 50 years. Kelly’s basic tenets of continuous recruiting and training, coupled with our extensive candidate database (fortified by very active web recruiting), plus the appeal of the Kelly name and benefits to prospective candidates, remain consistent factors in our ability to fulfill the terms of the contract. Fortunately, the district agreed.
Kelly’s winning staffing plan featured recruiting tactics designed to reach a large audience in a short amount of time. Everyone and everything from school secretaries to school sports programs, to PTA Open Houses and newsletters for retired teachers, to press releases, direct referrals, and radio spots — all were used to attract qualified candidates. Also included were significant recruiting incentives. Additional benefits are now available to substitute teachers, including weekly pay, a 401K plan, eligibility for health care and vacation coverage, and more.
And, to successfully transition current substitute teachers, Kelly used a formal "best practices" implementation process that included convenient group registrations and orientations held in school auditoriums.
The consistently positive feedback Kelly Educational Staffing continues to receive from this district, including a satisfaction rating of more than 99% with the performance of our substitute teachers, has fueled the interest of other local schools. Kelly was recently awarded exclusive contracts with two prestigious charter schools in the area and another large, Delaware public school district. Others are currently evaluating our bids.
It pays to do your homework. And we do.