August 04, 2004Job KiosksBoston Globe: More employers turn to tech to find, hire More employers opt for automated process to build roster of applicants, reduce turnover By John P. Mello Jr., Globe Correspondent, 8/1/04 Although such workers represent nearly 60 percent of the nation's labor force, employment technology has tended to focus on salaried employees. But that's changing as technology vendors turn their sights on automating the hiring of hourly workers, and as employers recognize that improving the quality of these workers can give them a competitive advantage in their markets. ''The most important contact place in any organization happens normally with your hourly employees, be it a retail situation, a call center, or a restaurant,'' said Mel Kleiman, president of Humetrics, the research division of Deploy Solutions, a Westwood maker of software for the selection and recruitment of hourly workers. Automated systems offer employers a number of benefits over traditional paper applications, especially for those who utilize in-store kiosks or workstations. Companies can use them to screen for the best candidates and reduce turnover. They can also help an employer quickly build a roster of potential candidates. Interviewing via computer is a relatively new phenomenon, according to Charles A. Handler, president and founder of Rocket-Hire, a New Orleans online screening and assessment consulting firm. ''In the last five years, I think it's grown tremendously,'' he said. Larger organizations that make a lot of hiring decisions appear to be most attracted to automated systems for hiring hourly workers. ''Big-box retailers use this quite a bit,'' said Handler. Locally, companies such as The Sports Authority, Sunoco, Casual Male, Uno's, Best Buy, Circuit City, and CVS use the systems to screen job hunters. Hourly employees typically apply for a job on-site. That presents problems for employers trying to build a talent pool from which to hire. ''People would leave our stores with paper applications and only 5 to 10 percent would come back,'' explained Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for Blockbuster Inc. The Dallas video rental chain has used the kiosks for the past two years in its stores nationwide. ''By using the employment kiosk, about 85 percent of the people completing an application get an interview,'' he said. That suggests that qualified candidates who walked out the door with paper applications they never returned are now being hired because they are captured by the automated system, he said. The system also adds a degree of specificity that can't be found in a paper application, noted Michael DiBattista, manager of a Blockbuster store in East Boston. ''Everything's broken out for you: an applicant's availability, follow-up questions to ask, positive strengths,'' he said. And applying via computer provides job seekers with an added benefit: quick response time. ''In the past, it took two to three weeks to complete the hiring process,'' Hargrove noted. ''With the kiosk, it's been cut down to about 72 hours.'' That kind of quick response is important when trying to attract the best candidates for hourly jobs, according to Deploy's chief executive and founder, Nicole Stata. ''The hourly candidate is looking for convenience,'' she said. ''They need immediate feedback about whether they're a good fit for a job and they want immediate decisions. If they don't get that, they can go right down the street to a competitor and find a job.'' Not only do the systems accelerate the hiring process, but their assessment questions can ensure that hiring managers are talking to the right people for a job. For example, Blockbuster asks candidates if they can work nights and weekends. ''If an applicant answered that they could not work weekends, then that might be a signal that this was not the job for them,'' Hargrove said. ''Many employers use these assessments to identify people who want to give eight hours' work for eight hours' pay,'' observed Bob Gately, owner of Gately Consulting, an assessment consulting firm in Hopedale. ''Believe it or not, there are some people who don't believe in that. They want eight hours' pay for two hours' work.'' Outside Massachusetts, the assessments can also be used to test honesty, he added. Massachusetts law prohibits honesty testing of job applicants. The systems can also help companies screen for problem applicants. Katherine Jones, director of Aberdeen's human capital management research practice, recalled what happened at a Michigan supermarket chain that bucked what its automated assessment told it about the honesty of a potential hire. A manager at the company was enthusiastic about hiring a former employee of a failed competitor. The worker's response to some assessment questions on stealing and reporting theft to an employer flagged the candidate as a high-risk employee. Despite the assessment results, the manager, who felt hiring familiar faces from the defunct store would attract its customers to his store, insisted on the hire. Human resources bowed to the manager's wishes but stipulated that the employee could not be in a position where money was handled. So they put the worker in the deli. ''Lo and behold, she ran off with about $400 in food,'' Jones said. ''And they caught her because she was preparing her lunch one day without any plans for paying for it.'' Not only do some systems screen out incompatible candidates, they also assist managers in conducting face-to-face interviews. ''What I like about these systems is that they provide questions for managers for the in-person interview,'' noted Dianne Durkin, president of the Loyalty Factor, a job satisfaction and workplace productivity consulting firm in Portsmouth, N.H. ''A lot of managers don't know how to do in-person interviews.'' While these systems can streamline the hiring process, do they depersonalize it as well? ''One of the things that we stress is that the purpose of this is not to take people out of the hiring process,'' observed Steve Hunt, chief scientist at Unicru, the Beaverton, Ore., company that makes the technology used by Blockbuster. ''Recruiters and hiring managers should still spend the same amount of time they've always had bringing talent into the organization, but they should spend it with the best talent.'' The technology does not make hiring decisions, he explained. It enables more efficient matching between hiring managers and recruiters and the people they should be talking to who are a good fit with the job. ''At the end of the day,'' he said, ''the worst thing that can happen for everyone is to get the wrong person in the wrong job.'' While bringing technology to bear on the task of hiring hourly workers may have lagged in the past, that won't be the case in the future, according to Jeff Weekley, a researcher with Kenexa, a maker of employee acquisition and management software based in Wayne, Pa. ''This area will continue to grow,'' he said. ''Assessments aren't going to be delivered in any other way too much further into the future. There are just too many compelling advantages to providing assessments online.'' John P. Mello Jr. is a freelance writer. He can be reached at [email protected]
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