Case Study: Stedelijk Onderwijs

A straightforward solution with a big impact

All in all, very promising… if it weren’t for one major issue that Stedelijk Onderwijs encountered: a huge number of vacancies remained unfilled. Like in many other places, teachers are hard to find in Flanders. But a significant part of the problem was also technical. Each vacancy had to be tracked manually, the bottlenecks had to be identified, and coordination was needed to ensure correct job postings. These tasks all fell on the shoulders of Tine Stroobants, an employee at Stedelijk Onderwijs.

Additionally, many vacancies never made it onto VDAB (the most important platform for posting teaching vacancies), or they lacked crucial information. Given the teacher shortage, it was especially important for Stedelijk Onderwijs to ensure vacancies were posted to VDAB smoothly and accurately.

After quite a search, Tine eventually found her way to us, and we were able to solve the problem swiftly. We spoke with Tine about her experience with Harmonizer and the impact of the integration—more on that below.

Back to the beginning

Tine works as an HR officer at Stedelijk Onderwijs, supporting school management teams in their search for teachers and educational staff. About a year and a half ago, Stedelijk Onderwijs implemented Emply recruitment software to manage job postings and track applications. To ensure that vacancies were automatically forwarded to VDAB, Stedelijk Onderwijs was eventually referred to Harmonizer through Emply/Talentlead.

When an integration isn’t all sunshine and roses

But that’s not the whole story. Initially, Stedelijk Onderwijs had partnered with another provider. Unfortunately, that collaboration didn’t go smoothly. Issues arose with posting vacancies to VDAB, and the person responsible for tracking them still had to do part of the job manually. In short, the process was inefficient.

After multiple attempts to make it work, both parties decided to end the collaboration. These things happen. That’s when Tine was referred to us, Harmonizer, through our partner Talentlead, to take on the API integration challenge. And the rest, as they say, is history.

The challenges for Stedelijk Onderwijs

The main issues Stedelijk Onderwijs faced were that many vacancies never made it onto VDAB, while others remained visible long after they had been filled. Additionally, incorrect data—such as postal codes—was being sent through, causing job postings to appear in the wrong regions.

It was Tine’s responsibility to manually fix these errors, post the vacancies, and ensure they were updated correctly. This took up an enormous amount of time and energy. Especially considering that, at any given moment, around 130 vacancies are open at Stedelijk Onderwijs.

On top of that, Tine had to determine which vacancies should be posted on VDAB, check if they appeared correctly, and verify that all relevant details—such as required qualifications—were included. In short, it was an incredibly time-consuming, tedious, and error-prone task, particularly for one person to handle alone.

The integration process with Harmonizer

Integrating with VDAB’s platform requires great precision. VDAB has strict requirements for the type of information they accept and how it should be formatted. They use specific data dictionaries to categorize job postings (e.g., field, education level, employment type), and these categories are interdependent. As a result, even minor errors in how a vacancy is entered into Emply can cause the integration to fail.

Because of this complexity, we at Harmonizer chose to automate error handling as much as possible—otherwise, we would be dealing with fixes full-time. Now, if there’s an issue with a vacancy’s input in Emply, the person who created the posting receives an automatic notification. They can then correct the input, ensuring the vacancy is properly forwarded.

A trusted partnership

Back to Tine. She has nothing but praise for her experience working with Harmonizer, and especially with Thom.

“The communication was excellent—it was truly a relief. I remember a meeting with Thom where we exchanged all the necessary information, and it was immediately clear to me that he knew exactly what he was doing. That gave me a lot of confidence.

Additionally, the integration itself was completed very quickly after our first meeting. Thom even took the initiative to contact VDAB directly to align expectations and agreements. Within just two or three weeks, I was able to start testing some vacancies, and the integration was practically finished. Our job postings were finally being forwarded correctly, and the system worked smoothly from the start. If any adjustments were needed, Thom was always available and took care of them immediately.”

Reaping the benefits

The main impact of the integration is, of course, technical. Stedelijk Onderwijs can now forward job postings with a single click and track them effortlessly. Additionally, errors in the process have been eliminated, and the entire workflow takes far less time.

This, in turn, improves the reach of job postings, which is crucial given the ongoing teacher shortage in Flanders. The COVID-19 years only made recruitment more challenging.

On a personal level, Tine has also experienced a significant reduction in stress. Where she once felt she could never keep up, she now has full confidence that the process runs smoothly and automatically.

In conclusion

At Harmonizer, we’re proud of and grateful for our partnership with Stedelijk Onderwijs. The organization believes that every student matters and strives to help each one reach their full potential. Given the realities of teaching in a large city, this often means working with students from disadvantaged backgrounds or with migrant histories.

Stedelijk Onderwijs welcomes all students, regardless of background or beliefs. As the largest education provider in Flanders, it also offers great career opportunities for teachers—just a little tip for anyone looking! 😊