Talk Data to Me: Does Using a Mobile App Impact Substitute Fill Rates?

Back in 2020, we explored the importance of substitute teacher engagement in maximizing your organization’s absence fill rate. But what about the way substitutes accept jobs in your district? Can that impact fill rates as well?

Spoiler alert: Yes.

Data from a Frontline survey of substitute teachers tells us that substitutes prefer to receive absence notifications through a mobile app rather than text message, phone call, or internet browser by a ratio of 4:1. That becomes even clearer when you look at fill rates for schools where substitutes have adopted mobile.

Eighteen months ago, Frontline’s mobile app began allowing substitutes to view, filter, and accept jobs right from their phones. Data from the Frontline Research & Learning Institute shows the relationship between substitute mobile adoption within a school organization and that organization’s absence fill rate. The data below reflects over 4,000 organizations where substitutes have been using the mobile app since November 2020.

Key Terms

Substitute Mobile Adoption – the proportion of an organization’s substitute teachers that have filled at least one absence via the mobile app
Fill Rate – The proportion of absences requiring a substitute that are filled by a substitute teacher

There is a clear positive relationship between substitute mobile adoption and fill rate. The larger the proportion of an organization’s substitute teacher pool that fills absences via the mobile app, the higher that organization’s fill rate tends to be.

“Hold up,” you might say. “You can’t be sure that’s happening because the substitutes are using the mobile app.”

Sure, there may be other factors at play. Higher substitute pay, school culture, and even whether or not a district is located in a current COVID hot spot may impact fill rates. But given that mobile functionality makes it easier to accept jobs and that substitutes overwhelmingly say they prefer a mobile app to receive notifications, the data here points to increased substitute engagement. And we do know that a more engaged substitute pool leads to higher fill rates.

• Podcast: No Substitute for Customer Service.
  How Spring Grove Area School District built a reputation for being a great place to work.
• Recruiting Substitute Teachers: A Data-Informed Approach.
  If you’re struggling with a substitute shortage, here are some recruiting strategies that work.
• Why Substitutes Work in Your District (or Not) — and What You Can Do About It.
  How do substitutes choose where to work? It’s not why you might think.
• White Paper: Changing Perceptions: Substitutes as Educators.
  How to change the perception of substitute teaching.
• Want to be able to track your district’s substitute mobile adoption?
  Frontline’s Human Capital Analytics allows you to do just that! Track how substitutes are filling absences in your district over time and its impact on fill rates alongside other powerful analytics from historical data from Frontline’s Absence Management, Recruit & Hire, Frontline Central, and Professional Growth with intuitive, interactive, and actionable insights dashboards. For more information, click here!