Skip to main content

Mobile BPM, Social BPM and The Future of Federal Hiring

Ben Farrell
June 3, 2011

When it comes to hiring in the public sector, the mobile and social revolutions present a great opportunity for federal agencies. Mobile BPM and social BPM provide a perfect on-ramp.

That insight comes from Appian CTO and co-founder Michael Beckley. Beckley was recently interviewed by Federal News Radio host Francis Rose, for an in-depth look at hiring challenges in the federal government. Federal HR professionals are excited about the opportunity BPM software presents to take their processes into mobile and social environments - without the burden of more bureaucracy, more overhead and the need to add more systems.

By building out systems for some progressive agencies, Appian has found that they are able to lessen the workload on their HR professionals ñ tying together all their current systems with the mobile and social networking experience.

When agencies are doing it right, the proper connection is a "dashboard" experience. The HR executive is seamlessly linked to the rest of the organization, so as job postings are opened because of contracts being executed, they are getting a pipeline they can see before the workload hits them. That gives them something they can easily manage and publish to social networks and mobile devices through an integrated process.

Beckley stressed that the job of hiring doesn't end once the recruiting is done. The on-boarding experience is a critical part. As is security processing. If the candidate has a bad experience the first week - or if they can't get facility access to even get started - they may already start looking for a new opportunity, not a way to be successful in their current one.

HR professionals from across the spectrum of federal agencies talk about this very struggle, and how important it is. They have to overcome the challenges to make sure that when new employees come aboard they have the appropriate credentials, security clearances, workspaces and other tools to do their jobs right away. Doing all of that requires coordinating many offices, departments and systems today. In reality it can actually be days or weeks before all onboarding is concluded.

Complete process-based solutions, such as Appian's Personnel Administration and Security Solution (PASS), ensure that won't happen.

-Ben Farrell, Director, Corporate Communications