Better Application, Better Staff |
A decade of listening translated into a powerful hiring tool.
Lauren Swisher CampMinder
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Let applicants apply for one or more positions. The application molds itself to ask only relevant questions based on their positions of interest.
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Collect multiple addresses, and determine where mail should be sent. |
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Ask whatever custom questions you want. Questions can be tailored to new vs. returning applicants and by positions of interest. |
There are many factors that impact a child’ s experience at camp, but two of the most important are:
1. The campers who surround him in his bunk or group.
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2. The staff members who become his role models.
On page 18, Frank describes the grueling process of carefully assigning campers into cabins with peers who will hopefully become lifelong friends. In this article, I want to highlight the importance of an interactive, webbased staff application to help recruit the best and brightest counselors.
The staff application is such a key aspect of camp management that it was actually the first system created in CampMinder. During the company’ s early days, our wise guru, Joe Norris *, kept a wish list of suggestions and feedback provided by our clients regarding the staff application. When I took over as CampMinder’ s Director of Client Relations, that list was passed down to me.
It would be impossible to build something so comprehensive and flexible without a decade of experience listening to the drastically different needs from camp-to-camp nationwide. To learn more about the actual process of developing a system like this, check out Dan’ s article about collaborative innovation on page 32.
I am proud to say that our new staff application accommodates all of the requests we’ ve received over the years, and I am excited to share it with you here.
Avoid duplicate records when former campers apply for a position.
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Learn which activities each applicant can teach and his or her experience level. Applicants can drag and drop into order of preference.
* In 2002, at age 68, Joe Norris joined forces with our then 22 year-old CEO, Dan Konigsberg. A true renaissance man, Joe’ s experience ranges from constructing musical instruments, to being a licensed therapist, to building some of the earliest database applications and systems for fighter jets. Without Joe’ s brilliance and dedication, CampMinder would not be where it is today.
Staffers can upload a photo, so you can put a face to a name.
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Create a custom list of certifications that are important to you.
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