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Small District
Hewlett-Woodmere School District, New York
 
Situation
Personnel staff at New York's Hewlett-WoodmereSchool District was devoting countless hours to opening, sorting and filing paper applications from applicants for teaching, administrative and support staff positions. Director of Human Resources Kathleen Anderson knew there had to be a more efficient way to manage receiving, tracking and evaluating applications. While attending the 2001 American Association of School Personnel Administrations conference, she saw a demonstration of SearchSoft Solutions' Applicant Tracking System.
 
Solution
Anderson returned to her district and enthusiastically told her superintendent about SearchSoft Solutions, an industry-leading online platform for improving and simplifying the process of identifying and hiring the best teachers, administrators and support staff. Developed specifically to meet the unique personnel needs of K-12 schools, SearchSoft's Applicant Tracking System allows principals, personnel directors and other authorized administrators to collect, search, retrieve and track job applications online quickly and easily so they can focus their energy on interviewing and hiring high quality school personnel. The Applicant Tracking System also offers qualified teachers and other school personnel with an easy way to submit their application materials online.
 
Anderson moved quickly and Hewlett-Woodmere deployed SearchSoft in January 2002, making the decision to accept online applications only. Anderson says that the transition to the online applicant tracking system was "easy." "When you make a change like that it can be overwhelming," she says. "But this was so easy. Within a few days, we were up and running." Anderson says using SearchSoft quickly moved the district from having stacks of paper files to an efficient system for managing application receipt, tracking and management.
 
Now, instead of coming to the personnel office to sort through paper files, Hewlett-Woodmere principals can log-in to SearchSoft, anytime, anywhere and review applicant files immediately upon receipt. Anderson says that the principals are particularly excited about the way that they can access SearchSoft because it saves them valuable time when they are hiring new teachers and staff.
 
"SearchSoft is absolutely amazing," she concludes. "I think every school district should use it."
 
The search capabilities in SearchSoft allow Anderson and district principals to identify applicants for hard-to-staff positions. For example, she needed a high school French-Spanish teacher. In the past, she would have spent hours looking through paper applications for this unusual combined certification. Using the Applicant Tracking System, she did an online search and in seconds identified several qualified candidates.
 
SearchSoft has even helped Anderson reduce the amount she spends on advertising job vacancies. Traditionally she has run a large advertisement in the January New York Times Career and Education section to recruit new teachers. But now with SearchSoft, Anderson purchases a smaller ad because she simply lists the link to the job descriptions online rather than publishing the descriptions in the paper.
 
Hewlett-WoodmereSchool District uses SearchSoft's Subscription model. The district pays an annual fee for use of the Applicant Tracking System, while software, hardware and database are maintained at SearchSoft's data center, significantly reducing hardware and support costs and ensuring that it receives all product enhancements and updates. SearchSoft also is available for purchase in an installed model.
 
Results
SearchSoft has truly changed the way that Hewlett-WoodmereSchool District operates. Valuable staff time that used to be spent opening and filing paper applications now can be devoted to the recruitment and hiring process. Funds previously spent on expensive, large newspaper advertisements can be reallocated and, best of all; principals have a powerful tool for hiring the best possible teachers and support staff for their schools. In fact, since January 2001, Hewlett-Woodmere has received over 9,600 online applications.
 
"Our school board and superintendent are pleased with the SearchSoft system because they believe accepting online applications makes a positive statement about our school district," Anderson says. "We expect our teachers to be technologically advanced and applying online is the first step in demonstrating that ability."
 
"SearchSoft is absolutely amazing," she concludes. "I think every school district should use it."