How Auburn-Washburn USD 437 built a more streamlined, candidate-first hiring process with Teamtailor

For Auburn-Washburn USD 437 in Topeka, Kansas, recruitment is about more than filling open positions. With a lean four-person HR team supporting a district of nearly 6,000 students, hiring requires close collaboration between HR, the principals and department leaders making hiring decisions. The district also faces a familiar challenge for K-12 organizations, there aren't enough qualified applicants for the number of open positions.

Teamtailor gives Auburn-Washburn a central place to manage that process. From attracting more intentional applicants and creating a modern career site, to screening candidates, communicating with applicants and keeping hiring managers aligned. For Recruiting and Retention Specialist Scott Ritter, the result is a recruitment experience that feels more professional for candidates and more manageable for the people responsible for hiring them.

Recruiting & Retention Specialist @ Auburn-Washburn USD 437

Meet Scott Ritter

Scott Ritter runs recruiting and retention for Auburn-Washburn Unified School District in Topeka, Kansas. He works alongside principals and department leaders across the district, owning everything from the career site and candidate communication to the weekly pipeline review that keeps hiring moving.

When every candidate matters

Recruiting in K-12 comes with a unique set of challenges. School districts need to find teachers, administrators and support staff while competing with other districts for a limited pool of talent. For Auburn-Washburn, the challenge is particularly clear: “There are not enough quality applicants to fill too many open positions.”

At the same time, the district was dealing with a second challenge, not every application represented genuine interest. Scott describes receiving applications that appeared to be submitted broadly through external job boards. For the HR team, the goal wasn't simply to generate more applications. It was to create a recruitment process that encouraged candidates to engage more intentionally with the district, while making it easier for hiring teams to identify the right people.

And once someone did apply, Auburn-Washburn wanted to make sure they received a professional experience, regardless of whether they ultimately received an offer.

“By giving them a positive and professional experience, that pays dividends even for the ones that we don't hire.”

Replacing a system that wasn't meeting the team's needs

Auburn-Washburn was already using an applicant tracking system before Teamtailor. Previously, the district had been using another ATS but according to Scott, the system required a number of workarounds and wasn't fully meeting the team's needs. A significant price increase prompted the district's executive director of HR to look at alternative solutions.

Teamtailor stood out for two reasons in particular, the user experience and the level of customer support. Scott says the interface immediately felt different from the other systems the district had seen. “The interface is so superior to almost all of the competitors.” He also highlights the responsiveness of Teamtailor's customer service as a defining part of his experience.

The decision was something of a leap of faith, since other nearby districts were using different systems. But after several years, Scott says it's proven worthwhile. “We remain incredibly happy with it.” He sees that reaction echoed every time the district hires a new principal who's coming from a different system.

Turning job-board applicants into more intentional candidates

One of the first ways Auburn-Washburn uses Teamtailor is to create a more intentional application journey. Rather than allowing candidates to apply directly through external job boards, Teamtailor directs them back to the district's career site. For Auburn-Washburn, this helps address the problem of candidates submitting applications indiscriminately across multiple organizations. “The feature drives them only to our site if they want to apply.”

The extra step gives candidates an opportunity to engage directly with Auburn-Washburn before submitting an application, while giving the district greater control over the experience. That focus on the candidate journey continues through the district's career site, which Scott describes as: “So intuitive, so sleek and so modern.” He also appreciates that the HR team can manage the site themselves, despite not having a background in coding or web development, Scott can update information and make changes without being completely dependent on a technical team. For Auburn-Washburn, that means the team can maintain a modern employer brand while keeping the candidate experience simple.

Giving busy principals a better way to screen candidates

Once candidates apply, Auburn-Washburn needs to help busy principals quickly identify who is worth moving forward. The district operates a decentralized hiring model, with building leaders and department managers making their own hiring decisions. That means HR needs visibility into the process while hiring managers need practical tools to evaluate candidates efficiently.

Teamtailor's video questions have become one of the district's most valuable screening tools. Auburn-Washburn can ask candidates to respond to a simple question, such as what interests them about a specific role and the district, in around one minute. That gives principals an early opportunity to assess how candidates communicate, whether they've taken the time to understand the role, and whether they can follow instructions.

“It just lets us get a sense for how they communicate their ability to meet a deadline, their ability to follow directions.”

For hiring managers, the biggest benefit is efficiency. “That saves them so much time when it comes to screening candidates.” It's become such a popular feature with Auburn-Washburn's principals.

Adoption tends to stick once a principal tries it, Scott says hiring managers who start using video questions rarely go back to screening without them. Different principals use the feature differently too, some ask every applicant to complete one as an initial filter, while others save it for later in the process, using it to narrow a shortlist of six candidates down to three before scheduling interviews.

Keeping candidates engaged beyond email

Candidate communication doesn't stop once someone submits an application. Auburn-Washburn primarily communicates with candidates through email, which Scott estimates works the vast majority of the time. But the team has found that certain candidates are more likely to need another channel. For younger candidates and people applying for hourly roles, including custodial and food service positions, texting has become particularly valuable.

“We don't give up on a candidate until we've at least tried to text them and see if we can get them back on the line.”

The district isn't necessarily replacing email with text. Instead, the team often uses a text as a simple prompt to check an email containing additional information. A typical message from Scott reads something like: “Hi, this is Scott from Auburn-Washburn HR, will you take a quick look at your email account when you have a moment?” That approach helps Auburn-Washburn avoid losing candidates simply because they missed an email. And because the text communication sits alongside the candidate's other information, the team can see how and when candidates are being contacted.

One shared view, less busywork

For a recruitment process involving HR, principals and department leaders, visibility is critical. Scott says one of the things he values most about Teamtailor is the ability for everyone involved to see what's happening with a candidate.

“It's the very simple visibility that everybody involved has access into what's happening with the candidate.”

Candidate messages, internal communication and job comments give the team a shared view of activity. If a principal is arranging an interview, for example, Scott can see that without having to track them down for an update. It also helps the HR team spot candidates who may have been sitting in a particular stage for too long. “Everyone involved can see what stage that candidate is in, how many days they've been in that stage.” Scott has built that visibility into a weekly habit, every Monday he combs through the district's pipeline and follows up with hiring managers when a candidate appears to have gone dormant. Because that outreach is grounded in data both sides can see, Scott says it's become part of how he's built trust with principals over time, rather than reading as HR simply nagging them to move faster.

That same principle of saving time carries through to how the district reviews applications. Auburn-Washburn uses AI resume summaries to quickly identify the most relevant information within an application, which Scott sees as particularly valuable for busy principals and hiring managers.

“It helps our principals who are incredibly busy just use their time as efficiently as possible to identify the top candidates for those positions.”

Because the AI summary can surface different information depending on the role, the team can get a quicker view of what matters most for a particular position. Together, shared visibility and AI-assisted review give Auburn-Washburn a recruitment process designed around helping hiring teams make informed decisions without adding unnecessary work.

The results

• More intentional applications. Teamtailor's job-board routing helps direct candidates to Auburn-Washburn's own career site rather than allowing them to apply directly through external boards.
• Faster candidate screening. Video questions give principals an additional way to assess candidates before deciding who to invite to an interview.
• Better candidate engagement. Text messaging gives Auburn-Washburn another way to reach candidates who may not see or respond to email, particularly younger and hourly candidates.
• Greater visibility across the hiring team. HR and hiring managers can see candidate activity, communication and progress in one place, reducing unnecessary back-and-forth.
• More efficient resume review. AI resume summaries help busy hiring managers quickly identify relevant information and focus their attention on the strongest candidates.
• A more professional candidate experience. A modern career site, streamlined application experience and consistent communication help Auburn-Washburn give candidates a positive impression of the district, even when they aren't hired.

Making recruitment feel like the “big leagues”

For Auburn-Washburn, the value of Teamtailor extends beyond efficiency. The district wants its recruitment experience to reflect the standard it sets elsewhere in the organization. Scott describes candidates coming through the process as feeling like they're getting a more professional experience.

“I think they are excited because it's been a professional kind of experience. It feels like the big leagues.”

That matters because Auburn-Washburn sees recruitment as an opportunity to build a relationship with candidates, not simply process an application. Scott believes a candidate's experience can influence their perception of the district long after the recruitment process ends. “It might pay off a month later, 6 months later, years later.” For a district competing for a limited pool of talent, that lasting impression matters.

“Maybe the best way to prove Teamtailor is working: our two biggest competitors in the county have also adopted Teamtailor!”

Scott Ritter, Auburn-Washburn USD 437