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KioskCom Interactive Kiosk Excellence Awards: The best human resources application

Human resource kiosks are becoming more widely adopted and the winners in the best human resources applications category are on the cutting edge of this kiosk hotspot.

June 16, 2004

Editor's note: On Tues., April 27, the KioskCom Interactive Kiosk Excellence Awards 2004 were handed out at a reception and ceremony at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. The KioskCom Interactive Kiosk Excellence Awards were established in 2002 to honor, recognize and promote the best interactive self-service kiosk implementations over the past year. The 2004 awards honored kiosk excellence in 11 different categories. This is the second in 11 profiles covering the winners and runners-up in each category.

When Wal-Mart was looking for a way to streamline its job application process they turned to Kiosk Information Systems. It's no wonder KIS won the award for the best human resources Application-in just six weeks KIS produced 2,700 job application kiosks for the retail chain.

According to Tom Weaver, vice president of sales and marketing for KIS, human resource kiosks are becoming more widely adopted with automated job application and employee self paycheck/stub printing for employees being the application that's most requested. "The category itself (along with retail) is a hotspot for kiosk growth", he said.

So what is it that makes job application kiosks so popular?  Doug Peter, president of St. Clair Interactive, said there are two reasons employers would want to consider using kiosks to screen and hire employees.

One is consistency of presentation. "You can't discriminate against prospective employees in any way. You have to talk the same way to everyone and present the same hiring information and opportunities to everyone," said Peter.

The second reason is that automating the process of sorting and screening a large number of applicants saves time and money.

When asked what set the category-winning kiosk apart from the other nominees Weaver responded, "There was no rocket science; it was a pretty simple unit. There was nothing revolutionary about it; Wal-Mart is just a high profile client."

Weaver also said, "We felt great about getting the award."

A new way to distribute conference information

Fourth Wall Media was challenged to create a set of networking and educational tools that would enrich the opportunities at nextMEDIA 2003.

nextMEDIA 2003 is the name of the International New Media Festival. This three day event attracts new media producers, industry visionaries, artists and creative innovators from around the world. 

The solution was an integrated conference tool that merged the Web site with a digital signage network (the infomatrix) and the kiosk itself.  Conference delegates could message each other to set up meetings and at the same time manage their own schedule. They could also send pictures from the event. 
 
"Winning the award was very refreshing, it was nice to see industry leaders recognize a truly unique use of kiosk technologies," said Ian Gadsby, vice president of creative production for Fourth Wall Media. "We are very proud and humbled by this award, and look forward to next year's competition."