As kiosks gain ground in HR departments, employee training is emerging as an important application. It gives employees a feeling of control over their careers and saves time and money for HR personnel.
June 30, 2004
Editor's note: This is the third and final story in a series on implementing self-service technology in human resources.
A large company is researching kiosk vendors, looking for units strictly for employee training. The company has a rugged environment, and currently uses PCs on tables to give employees who don't sit at desks access to corporate training materials online.
The problem with the PC scenario is that workers move the chairs to other locations, play with the keyboards and generally leave the area in disarray. The company believes that formal training stations will be more effective because an all-in-one unit with a touchscreen will offer employees a more professional tool which will, accordingly, be treated with more respect. And an interactive, user-friendly solution could get employees more involved in the training process.
Another key factor is that often, disconnected workers need Internet and intranet access on the floor of a distribution center or warehouse -- a demanding environment that calls for equipment that can withstand tough conditions.
|
As kiosks gain ground in the human-resources departments of corporations large and small, employee training is emerging as an important application. Industry experts said it gives employees a feeling of control over their careers and saves time and money for corporate HR departments.
"It's a huge expense to have a trainer," said Tom Haliburton, business development manager at Sun Microsystems, which develops learning-management software. "And if you opt to just ship books or CDs to employees, you can't track what they are getting out of the resources."
Haliburton said, "If a company launched a new sales program, all employees could be trained with kiosks on the same day, with the same message, and without the cost of paper-based materials."
Here comes the Sun
Retail is one industry that is already familiar with the power of kiosks. HR is another area of exploration for retailers. Kiosk-software company Apunix Computer Services and Sun Microsystems are in discussions with the National Retailers Federation Foundation (NRF) about an employee-training initiative.
NRF is developing University Wired, a portal for retailers to use with their employees. The portal is expected to go live this summer, according to Haliburton. Sun Educational Services is providing consultation and content creation for the portal.
"The goal is to make employees think about retail as a career, not just a job, by developing themselves professionally," said Haliburton.
Retailers can go through a course catalog and select which courses employees should take. The employer would then get a report detailing the outcome of the course.
Peter Berens, president of Apunix, said kiosks would fit well with the project. "Employers would need a kiosk framework to put on a shop floor. It wouldn't work to have keyboards or a mouse." Haliburton agreed. "It's all about getting the information on a touchscreen."
![]() |
KIS HR kiosk |
Crossing the bridge
Abby Boes, sales account manager at Kiosk Information Systems Inc., said that with her company's HR kiosk deployments, Internet access has been the prime motivator. Getting prospective and current employees online is the goal of the kiosk. Applications include hiring and recruiting, giving employees easy access to benefits and enrollment information, sharing corporate news on the intranet, and paystub printing.
"Training is an application that can be added on as the company goes along," she said.
Julian Haslam, director of marketing for NetShift Inc., agreed. "I'm sure that staff training is an application that customers add on. But it has not been the prime driver for our customers." He added that once customers "cross the first bridge" of giving workers connectivity via a kiosk, the applications are limitless.
Haslam said NetShift is in the process of developing a partial out-of-the-box HR application for customers. "We know the common ground of access to the intranet and forms. We will offer modules within the software that can be customized. Most likely, some will be used for training," he said. Haslam noted that HR applications vary greatly from customer to customer.
He said training is a good HR application if staffers don't work at desks and have ready access to PCs. "I see this as something for healthcare and government agencies, in particular," said Haslam. He said training would be a good application for a current NetShift customer, P&O Ferries.
The company has put interactive kiosks into its staff atrium and in staff waiting areas used prior to boarding ships. The kiosks offer users access to the company web site, intranet, Web surfing and email. Staff can get information on loyalty programs, weather, timetables and jobs available within the company.
Nigel Powis, IT director for P&O Ferries, said, "Finding a Web-access solution for a mobile workforce on the English Channel is challenging, but the kiosks are bringing real benefits to large numbers of employees who could otherwise miss out on the developments we have been making in our intranet and Internet applications."
Haslam said that a PC alone couldn't work for a company like this that needs to communicate with and train employees. "The thing about these kiosks is that they are going to have a tough life. They take a beating," said Haslam. The kiosks are custom designed for a rough environment.
Multi-purpose kiosks
Bill Kenney, sales account manager at Apunix, said the beauty of a kiosk is that it is a tool with many purposes. A company can make an investment in a gift-registry kiosk, and use that same unit to train employees.
"The look and feel of the screen radically changes. You can have lights and flashy graphics for consumer-facing applications, and a very straightforward, plain screen for employees," said Kenney.
Kenney recently demonstrated HR applications on a Wincor-Nixdorf Certo kiosk at Retail Systems 2003 in Chicago.
Kenney pointed to the fast-food industry as one that could use HR kiosks for training workers. "Imagine you have 4,000 locations. How many different languages do your employees speak? What is the turnover of your staff? Training everyone could be one major pain."
"But how about putting a training video on a small flat panel in a break area," Kenney asked. "The idea is being kicked around."
The limitation in the restaurant industry, though, is that many do not have broadband connections.
"The infrastructure really is not there yet," said Kenney. "Gaming, and travel and tourism are further along in the adoption of technology. They might be more apt to use HR kiosks."
[Editor's note: Info Touch Technologies became Tio Networks in April 2006.]
KIOSK Information Systems is a world leader in self-service solutions because of its long history delivering proven expertise in design engineering and manufacturing, application development, integration, and comprehensive support services.