How Zen Educate Matches Teachers to the Right Jobs with TravelTime API

Zen Educate, an online platform connecting schools with temporary teachers, has been transforming the recruitment process since 2017.

By integrating the TravelTime API, Zen Educate ensures teachers are matched to jobs based on actual commute times, leading to improved outcomes for both schools and educators.

Slava Kremerman, Co-Founder and CEO of Zen Educate explains why they needed an innovative solution: “One of the best predictors of who is and isn’t available for a school is how far away they are from the school. So, we needed a travel time solution that is accurate, fast, responsive – and also cost effective. That’s why we chose TravelTime.”

TravelTime API ensures that both teachers and schools receive more relevant results from their search, driving better outcomes for temporary staff, their employer, and for Zen Educate.

Hear directly from Zen Educate Co-Founder and CEO, Slava Kremerman, and Head of Product, Daniel Smythe in this video.

Challenges in Matching Staff and Roles

Traditional distance-based recruitment methods often fail to reflect real-world commuting challenges.

Factors like public transport, road layouts, and cycling routes impact how long it actually takes for people to travel to their workplace.

Accurately understanding these travel times is particularly important for Zen Educate, which is often tasked with matching teachers to schools at the last minute when there is staff absence.

Jono Hey, Chief Product Officer at Zen Educate, highlights, “We have last-minute placements, where schools need teachers to get there as soon as possible.”

Using distance-based location data in a matching algorithm can also create a poor user experience as Jono Hey, Chief Product Officer at Zen Educate, explains, “one of the biggest issues for teachers looking for work is being offered jobs beyond the distances they want to travel” so “travel time is a huge factor in whether placements can be filled."

Accurate Location Matching with TravelTime API

To overcome this “proximity problem”, Zen Educate integrated the TravelTime API.

Unlike their competitors, the Zen Educate platform instantly matches teachers with accessible jobs by calculating the commute times between the locations. This provides a seamless experience for users by filtering out irrelevant roles and ensuring only the most appropriate opportunities are displayed.

“Travel time data helps us refine our search so that a teacher can look at their jobs tab and see a list of relevant opportunities without having to filter the search themselves,” says Jono Hey, Chief Product Officer. “The list they get is based on the opportunities being a sensible commute for them from the start.”

Slava Kremerman, Co-Founder and CEO, emphasizes its importance: “Without TravelTime, we wouldn’t be able to match the best educator with the best open temporary role in a school.”

Jono Hey continues: “Travel is a huge factor in whether placements can be filled. It makes a big difference if you can tell somebody whether the location is 10 minutes around the corner or whether they’re an hour away.”

Better UX, Accurate Matching, and Winning Results

More accurate matching of teachers to roles improves the experience of users - both teachers and schools – increases fill rates, reduces travel times, and ultimately impacts the bottom line for Zen Educate.

Since implementing TravelTime, Zen Educate has seen a significant boost in performance, including:

Increased job fill rates

Teachers are matched to roles they can feasibly commute to, which has led to a “significant increase in positions filled.”

This means there are fewer open positions on the Zen Educate platform, so more schools are getting the talents that they need, and Zen Educate improves its opportunity for revenue.

Reduced average travel times

Matching based on travel times has decreased teachers’ commute times, signaling that the technology is working effectively, and dramatically improving job satisfaction.

Cost savings

Compared to alternative providers, like Google, Mapbox, and HERE, TravelTime offers a cost-effective solution that’s reliable and responsive.

Zen Educate CEO explains that they “looked at alternatives but found them to be exorbitantly expensive and not as reliable as TravelTime in terms of accuracy.”

The TravelTime API Integration Process

The integration of TravelTime API was fast and seamless, completed in just two days.

Daniel Smythe, Head of Product, notes, “It’s super reliable... we can trust it’s going to give accurate information on both the school and candidate side.”

Since the initial integration, TravelTime’s high-quality documentation and customer support continues to allow Zen Educate to focus on growth and innovation.

Daniel Smythe, Head of Product, continues, “I’m always trusting and confident that any of my development team can pick it up — it's well documented.”

The Future of TravelTime and Zen Educate

Zen Educate continues to expand its use of the TravelTime API as it grows, including the creation of isochrone maps to give teachers deeper insights into how their travel preferences impact job opportunities.

This expansion will help the company extend its services into more US locations.

Get Started with TravelTime

Zen Educate’s successful integration of the TravelTime API demonstrates how using real-world commute times can significantly improve the matching of candidates with opportunities.

TravelTime allows users to provide a more relevant, streamlined experience for every party, dramatically improving fill rates, customer satisfaction, and opportunities for revenue.

Are you interested in improving your matching algorithm with accurate commute time data?

Let’s chat about how TravelTime can support your goals.