In this week’s episode of The Proactive Employer, Joel Passen, Newton’s Head of Marketing joins Les Rosen, CEO of Employment Screening Resources, for a discussion about “Safe Hiring”, the elements of a safe hiring plan, the most common questions and concerns employers have about hiring, what candidate information you have to have, what you can ask for, and what to avoid, and how to implement a Safe Hiring Program at your company.

This show will air live on Thursday, May 17th at 3 PM Eastern / 12 Noon Pacific on the VoiceAmerica Business Channel.

Tweet your questions using the hashtag #TPE or call in at 1-866-472-5790 to talk to our guests. The show will be available for on-demand listening at The Proactive Employer website, on the VoiceAmerica Business Channel and via iTunes following the broadcast.

Newton Applicant Tracking Software Press Release

Solving a real problem for employers

The research we conducted as part of this release confirmed what we had experienced as recruiting leaders for the past decade, the current pre-employment screening process is  inefficient and the service as a standalone is highly commoditized. Having been recruiters, our team understands that applicant tracking software marks the beginning of the talent chain and there are important processes that should be integrated seamlessly to improve efficiency, create transparency and track spend.  To date,  the majority of applicant tracking software vendors have treated integrations as an afterthought, forcing users to clunky integration pages and even insisting on batch data dumps. Today, the inefficiencies surrounding background checks has been solved.

Making background checks easier and safer

With this release, we’ve productized and systematized background checks. As such, we built a sophisticated, real-time update, audit and exception management tool inside of Newton. And, for the fulfillment end, we carefully selected vendors (our preferred partners) that have the technology today to connect with Newton seamlessly and are willing and able to provide our customers with significant additional value such as capturing release forms and PII (DOB, SSN#, etc) from applicants. This not only makes background checks simple to initiate, it also makes the entire process safer for employers by shifting the requests for sensitive data to background check providers, not employers’ HR departments. We then audit the entire process to provide real-time status for every background check requested, started and completed (or not completed) taking one of Newton’s key differentiators, transparency creation, to the next level.

Our team is obsessed with building technology that makes hiring easier

The team at Newton Software continues to be obsessed with improving the areas of hiring that have been the hardest for employers to optimize like hiring manager collaboration and decision making, easy job approvals, at-a-glance recruiting performance indicators, automated applicant notifications and now, pre-employment screens. This year we’ve got an aggressive release schedule aimed at more of the same – to solve the problems that make hiring difficult. We may not be reinventing the wheel. We’re just giving hiring an easier ride one thoughtful feature at a time.

Read the full press release here

We’ve coined our integration strategy “S4″ (simple, smart, safe and stable) and all of the integrations that we design, build and support follow this methodology. Today, we’re excited to announce our latest integration category – background checks. Here’s a preview of our S4 approach to integrating pre-employment screening into the hiring process with Newton.

Simple: Any user can request a background check with one click but, only select people on your staffing or HR team can submit the information to a provider (no more wasted spend on unnecessary checks). Think better control.

Smart: Every background check is on one easy-to-read, real-time dashboard and the dashboard is updated automatically by our providers. Think mission control for background checks.

Safe: With Newton integrated background checks, you don’t need to capture any scary information like social security numbers, date of birth or even release forms. Our partners do it all for you and store it in a secure password protected environment.  Think less risk.

Stable: By working with a select group of pre-employment screening providers, we’ve gone beyond the industry standard integration. And, Newton monitors and maintains integrations so they work every time.  Think integrations you can rely on and trust.

At Newton Software, we’re always thinking of ways to help companies hire more efficiently and to improve those steps of the hiring process that used to seem like a big pain.  We’re thinking BIG.

To learn more about Newton’s  integrated, real-time background checks and our “preferred partners” please contact us at http://www.newtonsoftware.com/contact

Your applicants will get a fully-branded email (with your logo / brand) that will include a secure link to authorization information and more so they can provide and confirm sensitive information to help complete the screening process.

Our premium integrated background check functionality will be available soon.

We’ve been thinking about integrations an awful lot recently. What we’ve realized is that integration comes in many forms.  Everyone has different ideas about what integration means.  At Newton Software, we have an approach we’ve coined the “S4″ approach (simple,smart, safe and stable) and all of the integrations that we design, build and support use this methodology. Stay tuned for other exciting announcements regarding integrations that will empower people streamline processes.

Newton Software was featured this week by internet blogger and digital strategist, Allen Gannett, in an article for The Next Web, one of the world’s largest online publications that delivers an international perspective on the latest news about Internet technology, business and culture.

Gannett’s article titled “The 3 secrets behind the enterprise tech gold rush” focused on the massive delivery model changes in the  $267 billion enterprise technology market. Gannet points out that “there is a convergence today between the rise of the cloud, the consumerization of IT, and the adoption of SaaS models” that’s creating exciting new companies that deliver mission critical technology to business consumer like never before.

In the post, Gannett mentions Newton saying, “After years of resistance, the dam has broken, and enterprises have now decided that they need the cloud and are adopting it en masse. One study found that 77% of enterprises are now using some form of the cloud. Entrepreneurs are taking notice and building significant, disruptive companies in response. One example is Newton’s cloud-based job applicant tracking software that saw 1,000% revenue growth in 2010, and 600% growth in 2011.”

When:  Tuesday, February 14^th, from 10am- 11am Pacific Time.

Register Now! Space will be limited to 100 participants.

Why you should attend.

Competing for talent has shifted again. Are you ready?  As the employment market continues to thaw, employers must be ready to be compete for talent again. Learn about the latest tools to help organize and manage efficient and effective recruiting programs, to asking legally permitted interview questions, to making lawful and compelling offers to employment, to getting workers started off on the right foot.

46 percent of new hires leave their jobs by the end of the first year. Learn how to improve your odds. Learn how to involve your managers in the hiring process in this fast paced webinar as our expert speakers review clear, process- driven systems and offer candid tips for interviewing job candidates, hiring correctly, and orienting new hires and managing documentation.

Areas that will be covered include:

• Why your company should always be in hiring mode
• How to make every employee an effective  hiring ambassador
• How to appropriate involve and support managers in the hiring process to build the “right” team
• How to use technology to effectively collaborate to make the best hiring decisions
• How to promote your organization while institutionalizing hiring knowledge
• How to continually improve your hiring process and the quality of your new hires

Based to time and question volume, there will be an opportunity to have your specific questions answered during the webinar.

About Our Speakers:

Paul Finkle, CEO of SharedHR, brings more than 30 years of startup and business experience, with a bias towards connecting people to strategy. Mr Finkle’s deep HR knowledge spans industries from technology, manufacturing, transportation, professional services, and non-profits. SharedHR helps clients design and implement a business process orientation to HR processes and to find the optimal mix of technology and professional support in areas such as training, staffing, and compensation.  Mr Finkle has lectured at major universities, serves frequently as an expert witness in employment litigation, and serves on the Advisory Boards of non-profits and several client companies.

Joel Passen, Co-Founder of Newton Software, is a recognized leader in the talent acquisition field.  Newton Software is a technology company developing popular, easy-to-use corporate applicant tracking software. Joel has been interviewed by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Business Times, NPR, Fist Full of Talent, etc. on matters relating to corporate recruiting. He is also a frequent blogger interested in emerging issues, trends, and technologies related to corporate recruiting and HR Technology. Aside from his numerous duties with Newton Software, Mr. Passen finds time to sit on the Advisory Boards for two growing companies in the talent acquisition industry.

Joel will join Wempen and Tincup for clever bantor, real insights and interesting thoughts on HR, HR Tech and other issues that are front of mind with all Human Resources pros.

Listen live here

Check it out below and please know that the entire Newton Software team wishes you and yours a healthy and happy New Year!

Newton is modern, easy-to-use applicant tracking software designed to organize and improve internal recruiting programs for small and medium sized businesses (30-3000 employees). Newton features best-of-breed dashboards that create unparalleled visibility and transparency. And, Newton is the only ATS designed to drive the decisions that drive hiring, taking into account all users in the corporate recruiting workflow. Industry leading adoption rates (+90%) ensure easy collaboration and powerful performance driven metrics allow HR and Recruiting users to always be in control.