Cut Time Spent Calling Subs In Half With Substitute Management Software

Is there a single administrator or secretary out there who doesn’t dread hearing the phone ring at 5 am on a Monday morning. It’s usually nothing serious, a minor illness of a staff member. But nevertheless it disrupts your sleep and starts your week off on a less-than-positive note. And then there’s the inevitable process that follows: call sub after sub, waking them too at 5 am, in hopes that they’ll be willing to drag themselves out of bed, last minute, to come teach a class. What if I told you there’s a way school districts can eliminate these calls entirely? It’s true: substitute automation through online substitute management software.

Read on to learn how to cut the time spent calling subs in half with substitute management software.

What is Substitute Management Software?

Substitute management software is an online management system where teachers can input absences, substitutes sign up for work, and administrators review and approve leave at their leisure. The software provides a track record of absences and accounts for leave in a 100% paperless fashion. It increases substitute fill rates and eliminates or considerably reduces the need to call substitutes for scheduling purposes. It empowers substitutes by putting them in charge of their own schedule, visible through the software’s schedule at a glance feature.

Long story short: substitute management software is a leading provider of returned time to administrators, teachers, and substitutes that was previously spent on the phone.

How Does It Work?

Everyone at school receives a login to the substitute scheduling software: teachers, substitutes, and administrators. When a teacher is sick or needs to take leave, he or she will login to the system and create an absence. Once the absence has been created, it will appear for available substitutes to fill through automated notifications. Substitutes no longer have to sit by the phone waiting for a call in order to book work. They can go about their lives, allowing notifications to arrive automatically and book work in seconds. Everyone already has a phone in their pocket or hand; substitute management software uses this advantage to reach subs on their devices automatically.

Is It Right For My School?

Automated substitute management software is perfect for any school that has a teacher sick leave policy, no matter how large or small the school. While administrators want teachers in their assigned classrooms every day, illnesses do occur, and they are unavoidable. If you struggle to keep up with substitute assignments during the peak sick weeks each winter, or having staff out for professional development proves too much for your substitute scheduling, then substitute scheduling software is right for you. Because it’s 24/7, there’s no need to sit by a phone or field calls and texts at all hours of the day and night. And subs are found to fill vacancies immediately no more phone tag or missed calls. There’s no more wondering if a class is going to be covered and by whom.

How Substitute Management Software Improves The Lives of Administrators and Secretaries

No more phone calls. No looking up numbers, leaving messages, playing phone tag. These are behaviors of the past. Today’s administrators and secretaries need to spend their time working for students, not staffing issues. Substitutes can offer to fill jobs that work on their time schedule. That means administrators no longer need to worry about shuffling personnel around. ??The substitute keeps track when he or she is booked, only taking on new positions when their time allows.

Substitute management software also provides teachers and administrators with a paper-free record of absences and leave balances. No more thumbing through papers and adding up leave hours to determine a balance. This is how mistakes happen. And no teacher or administrator likes to hear those dreaded words: leave without pay. Don’t be caught in a situation where you’ve exceeded your sick or personal leave allowance but didn’t know it. Use this automated software to count and keep track of these important details so you don’t have to!

Lastly, substitute management software provides important insights into absence trends and substitute fill rates. Are your teachers historically absent on Fridays before major holidays? You might never notice this fact without the help of substitute scheduling software. Use this data point to motivate your teachers to reach attendance goals or modify absence behavior. Are certain dates harder to fill with substitutes than others Incentivize higher attendance rates for your staff beforehand, to make your life easier.

Invest in substitute teacher management software! Save time and the frustrations, because you deserve it! Vow that this is the year that you’ll finally streamline your substitute management process. Learn more about InstaSub and their substitute management software here or schedule a demo.