Using Technology to Make Life Easier
I love technology. I believe I am part of the majority. In general, it makes personal and professional tasks easier to complete. For personal use, I appreciate using my web cam to talk to family all around the world. Professionally, I implement new technology anywhere I can. Like so many of us, we are tasked to do more with less. Why not use technology to make life easier?
Technology evolves every single day and I am grateful that it does. For instance, when you think about the background check industry and where it has been and where it is today, you can thank heaven and earth for technology. Back then, private investigators would receive a full résumé, sit with the candidate and then conduct a neighborhood canvas and visit every previous employer (yes including travel) to complete a background check. Yikes!
In the…
- 70’s, microfiche and snail mail was used.
- 80’s, the fax machine was in full-force use.
- 90’s, the Internet came into our lives and we can thank Al Gore for his achievement.
- Early 00’s, the advent of the Internet pushed data entry from screening companies to HR departments.
- Late 00’s, HR departments downsized and screening companies and HR agreed that the applicant should enter in their own data.
Well, here we are, 2012. We are grateful to see the unemployment rate slowly going down. However, as our departments slowly increase in numbers, we still have the enormous pressure to do so much in such little time. Like so many, we need to think of ways to cut corners with the use of technology without comprising important aspects of our work. HR is the full cycle management of people – alpha to omega. Not an easy endeavor. As a result, when we have the power to leverage technology offered by our vendors, we need to give it some serious thought.
Most recently, Credential Check started to offer… The APPOL™, which stands for Apply Online. The APPOL™ is a proprietary tool that provides simplification through automation (automating the “yuk” work). It allows a company to paperlessly manage the entire candidate process. Imagine the ability to collect a candidate’s application, process their background checks and drug testing, send them their new hire paperwork and notify other departments about a new employee starting with the appropriate information they need to setup a computer, phone and badge. Credential Check also honed in on the needs of the HR professional by providing real-time dashboards that track most key HR statistics including hired vs. not hired, total background checks vs. total applications, cost, turnaround time from application to hire and many others. See what the APPOL™ can do for you (www.credentialcheck.com)! At RECON, we look forward to using this technology ourselves and well as introducing it our clients.
I am always thinking of ways to make life easier – personally and professionally. For 2012, are you?
Sally-Ann Cooke, MSHROD, PHR, CHRP
Client, RECON Management Systems
