Patent Publication Number: US-2004044538-A1

Title: System and method for processing applications for employment

Description:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE  
       [0001] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.  
       FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002] The invention disclosed herein relates generally to computer networks for receiving and processing data. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for using a computer network to receive and process data related to applications for employment.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003] Employers often use methods for receiving employment application data from potential new employees that are highly manually intensive. For example, potential new employees, or employment candidates, may fill out paper applications for employment in any number of branch locations a company may have nationwide. The paper applications may be faxed to a processing center where a fax server stores the received application as digital image files. An OCR application converts the digital images to text files and operators manually correct any errors from the OCR process. Then, at the end of each day, a batch process may send the text files of all applicants received that day to a database at a central mainframe computer.  
       [0004] Such a process for receiving applications is inefficient since staff must be used to verify and correct data not properly recognized in the OCR process. As the number of applications the company receives increases, the number of staff needed to verify and correct the applications increases. In addition, there is often insufficient supervision of employment candidates when they fill out the applications and consequently, the applications forms may not be filled out properly or completely.  
       [0005] Also, once application data has been received, employers often use inefficient methods for screening applications. For example, a branch manager responsible for hiring hew employees may access the mainframe database to view data related to applications and provide approval codes for those applications of which the manager approves. Then, periodically, e.g., twice a day, a batch process may print out the applications that have received initial approval and those printed applications are sent to screening departments so that further screening, such as background checks, may be performed on the applicant. The status of the further screening, e.g., approval, disapproval, or pending, is periodically provided to the mainframe database. To determine the status of applications the branch manager has initially approved and sent on for further screening, the branch manager must periodically access the mainframe database review the status accorded to the various applications stored there.  
       [0006] This screening process has several disadvantages. First, where an employment candidate has entered incorrect or incomplete information, the candidate often must be contacted again to obtain the proper information before the further screening can be continued. Also, there is a time lag that slows down the screening process from the time the branch manager initially approves of a candidate and the time the screening departments receive an application from the branch process.  
       [0007] Therefore, there is a need for a system and method for receiving and screening applications for employment that can more efficiently receive application data to thereby reduce or eliminate staff requirements and that can reduce the occurrences of candidates entering incorrect or incomplete application data. Also, a system and method is needed to reduce the time lag between the time an application receives initial approval and the time the application is forwarded to screening departments for further screening.  
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008] The disadvantages above are overcome by a system and method for processing applications for employment described herein. The method involves receiving one or more sets of data, wherein each set of data identifies an employment candidate and represents an application for employment from the identified employment candidate. Each received set of data is stored in a database. One or more initial hiring decisions are received, wherein each initial hiring decision corresponds to a set of data stored in the database. Each set of data for which a favorable initial hiring decision is received is transmitted from the database to one or more screening officers to enable further screening procedures to be performed on the employment candidate identified in the respective set of data, wherein each respective set of data is transmitted automatically upon receiving the corresponding favorable initial hiring decision.  
       [0009] The method may also involve storing each received initial hiring decision in the database in association with the set of data to which the respective received initial hiring decision corresponds. One or more screening procedure results may be received from the one or more screening officers, wherein each of the one or more screening procedure results corresponds to a set of data stored in the database having a favorable initial hiring decision stored in association with it, and wherein each of the one or more screening procedure results corresponds to one of the one or more screening procedures. Each of the received one or more screening procedure results may be stored in the database in association with the set of data to which the respective received screening procedure result corresponds.  
       [0010] The method also provides reports listing employment candidates that have received favorable initial hiring decisions and favorable screening procedure results. The database is searched for each set of data wherein the initial hiring decision stored in association with the respective set of data is favorable, and wherein each screening procedure result stored in association with the respective set of data is favorable. Therefore, an employment decision-maker is informed of the identity of each employment candidate identified in each set of data found in the search.  
       [0011] Users, including employment candidates, employment decision-makers, and screening officers, operate User Interface Devices to communicate and interact with an Online Application System through a network. The Online Application System interacts with users via the User Interface Devices to receive data from and present data to the users, including sets of data from employment candidates representing applications for employment, initial hiring decisions from decision-makers, and screening procedure results from screening officers. An Applicant Tracking Database stores the sets of data from employment candidates representing applications for employment, initial hiring decisions from decision-makers, and screening procedure results from screening officers.  
       [0012] In an embodiment of the present invention, the Online Application System presents one or more interface screens to employment candidates via User Interface Devices. Each employment candidate interacts with the interface screens to provide a set of data representing the candidate&#39;s application for employment. These sets of data are transmitted from the User Interface Devices operated by the employment candidates over the network and received by the Online Application System. The Online Application System stores the received sets of data in the Applicant Tracking Database.  
       [0013] The Online Application System presents one or more sets of data stored in the Applicant Tracking Database to an employment decision-maker, such as, for example, in response to a query from the employment decision-maker. The employment decision-maker reviews the one ore more sets of data presented and provides an initial hiring decision corresponding to one or more of the presented sets of data. The Online Application System receives these initial hiring decisions and stores them in the Application Tracking Database in association with the sets of data to which they correspond. Upon receiving the initial hiring decisions, the Online Application System automatically analyzes them to identify each favorable initial hiring decision and then transmits each set of data for which a favorable initial hiring decision was received to screening officers to enable them to cause one or more screening procedures to be performed on the employment candidates identified by those sets of data.  
       [0014] The screening officers cause screening procedures (e.g., background and credit checks) to be performed on the employment candidates identified by each set of data for which a favorable initial hiring decision was received and the results of those screening procedures are sent back to and received by the Online Application System. The Online Application System then stores the received screening procedures in the Applicant Tracking Database in association with the sets of data to which they correspond.  
       [0015] The Online Application System may, at given times such as once a day, provide reports of employment candidates. For example, the Online Application System may search the Applicant Tracking Database for all sets of data identifying employment candidates who have received favorable initial hiring decisions and favorable screening procedure results. A report listing each such candidate and providing the set of data for the candidate may then be transmitted to one or more employment decision-makers or other members of the organization.  
       [0016] Any member of the organization with proper authorization may use a User Interface Device to communicate with the Online Application System to obtain the application status of one or more employment candidates. The Online Application System may then return to the inquiring member a report showing the initial hiring decision and screening procedure results stored for the one or more employment candidates. 
     
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0017] The invention is illustrated in the figures of the accompanying drawings which are meant to be exemplary and not limiting, in which like references are intended to refer to like or corresponding parts, and in which:  
     [0018]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the system of the present invention and the environment in which it operates;  
     [0019]FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a data structure used in an embodiment of the system of the present invention; and  
     [0020]FIGS. 3A and 3B are a flow chart showing an operative embodiment of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
     [0021] The preferred embodiments of a method, system, and article of manufacture containing software programs in accordance with the present invention is described with reference to the drawings in FIGS.  1 - 3 B.  
     [0022]FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure and operating environment of an embodiment of the present invention. An organization, seeking to receive applications for employment from employment candidates and process those applications, employs an Online Application (“OA”) System  300 . Users operate user interface (“UI”) devices  100  in order to communicate and interact with the OA System  300  through a network  200 . The OA System  300  also communicates through network  200  with an Applicant Tracking (“AT”) Database  400 .  
     [0023] Users include all individuals interacting with the OA System  300 , such as, for example, employment candidates seeking employment with the organization, employment decision-makers (e.g., managers within the organization responsible for hiring new employees), and screening officers (e.g., administrators within the organization responsible for screening employment candidates). Users operate UI Devices  100  that may comprise any computer hardware and software that allows them to exchange data and interact with OA System  300  over network  200 . For example, UI Device  100  may comprise a personal computer or other computer workstation with communications software that will enable communications over network  200  with OA System  300 . For instance, where network  200  is the Internet or an intranet and OA System  300  includes software enabling it to function as a web server, then UI Devices  10  may use standard web browser software to communicate over network  200  with OA System  300 .  
     [0024] Network  200  may comprise any type of communications network through which computers may communicate. For example, network  200  may comprise a LAN, WAN, the Internet or an internal intranet. Furthermore, although FIG. 1 shows network  200  as a single network, it should be understood that network  200  may comprise a plurality of the networks previously described, all of which form a communications path linking UI Devices  100 , OA System  300 , and AT Database  400 .  
     [0025] OA System  300  may be any computer system (a) that is capable of communicating with UI Devices  100  over network  200 , (b) that is capable of communicating with AT Database  400  over network  200 , and (c) that is capable of operating according to the logic described below in accordance with FIGS.  3 A- 3 B. For example, OA System  300  may comprise a computer server with computer code modules allowing it to communicate over network  200  with UI Devices  100  and AT Database  400  and computer code modules allowing it to execute the logic described below in accordance with FIGS.  3 A- 3 B.  
     [0026] AT Database  400  may comprise any computer system capable of receiving and storing data and providing access to this stored data to other computer systems. For example, AT Database  400  may provide data access to other computer systems via responses to search queries from those other systems.  
     [0027] AT Database  400  stores at least two types of information: (a) data from employment candidates representing applications for employment; and (b) data from employment decision-makers and screening officers representing initial hiring decisions and screening decisions, respectively, made with regard to each application.  
     [0028] The data representing applications for employment includes a set of data corresponding to each employment candidate representing that candidate&#39;s application for employment. For example, a set of data may identify the employment candidate to which the set of data corresponds by any appropriate means of identification such as, for example, by name, by social security number, or any other unique identifier, e.g., an application number. Also, a set of data may include information from the employment candidate to which the set of data corresponds that would normally be provided in response to a conventional application for employment, such as, for example, the employment candidate&#39;s work history, educational background, references, or permission to conduct background and credit checks on the candidate.  
     [0029] The sets of data may be stored in AT Database  400  in any manner conventionally used with databases. For example, each set of data corresponding to a particular employment candidate may be stored in a separate database record  410  as shown in FIG. 2, with the set of data being stored in a portion of the record  411 .  
     [0030] Data stored in AT Database  400  from employment decision-makers and screening officers represents hiring approval and screening approval decisions, respectively, made with regard to applications for which corresponding sets of data are stored in AT Database  400 .  
     [0031] Employment decision-makers, such as, for example, managers or any other members of the organization responsible for hiring new employees, may review sets of data from AT Database  400  representing applications from employment candidates and provide an initial hiring decision with regard to those applications. Such initial hiring decisions may be provided to AT Database  400  as codes indicating, for example, approval of an application, disapproval of an application, or that an initial hiring decision on the application is still pending.  
     [0032] Data from employment decision-makers representing initial hiring decisions corresponding to particular sets of data may be stored in AT Database  400  in any manner so long as they are stored in association with the sets of data to which they correspond. For example, where, as shown in FIG. 2, each set of data representing an application for employment from a particular employment candidate is stored in a separate database record  410 , the initial hiring decision corresponding to the respective set of data may be stored in a designated field of the record, e.g. initial hiring decision field  412 .  
     [0033] Screening officers may include members of the organization responsible for causing screening procedures to be performed on employment candidates and for reporting the results of those procedures. Screening officers of the organization may receive sets of data representing applications from employment candidates, cause screening procedures to be performed on those employment candidates, and then the results of the screening procedures. Screening procedures performed on employment candidates may include, for example, background checks (e.g., checks on criminal history and references) and credit checks (e.g., checks on credit history). Such screening procedure results may be provided to AT Database  400  as codes indicating, for example, approval of an application, disapproval of an application, or that results to the screening procedure for the application are still pending.  
     [0034] Data from screening officers representing screening procedure results corresponding to particular sets of data may be stored in AT Database  400  in any manner so long as the data is stored in association with the set of data to which the screening procedure result corresponds. For example, where, as shown in FIG. 2, each set of data representing an application for employment from a particular employment candidate is stored in a separate database record  410 , the screening procedure results corresponding to the respective set of data may be stored in designated fields of the record. For example, each record  410  may have one or more screening procedure result fields  413  in which screening procedure results may be stored, with each field  413  storing the result for a different type of screening procedure. For example, where the organization causes two types of screening procedures to be performed on employment candidates, e.g., background checks and credit checks, each record  410  may include two screening procedure result fields  413  with one field  413  storing results for background checks and the other field  413  storing results for credit checks.  
     [0035] Computer system here is used broadly to mean computer hardware and software or computer software only. For example, in FIG. 1, OA System  300  is shown as distinct from AT Database  400 . However, it should be understood that OA System  300  and AT Database  400  may be co-resident on the same computer hardware. In addition, it should be understood that although OA System  300  and AT Database  400  are shown as singular systems, each may comprise multiple computer hardware and software systems in communication with each other such that, as a group, they perform the functions of OA System  300  or AT Database  400 , respectively.  
     [0036] The general operation of an embodiment of the present invention may now be described with reference to the flowchart of FIGS. 3A and 3B. First, as shown in FIG. 3A, one or more interface screens including data input fields related to an application for employment are provided to each of one or more employment candidates, step  1000 . For example, one or more employment candidates wishing to apply for employment with the organization may enter an office location of the organization and fill out an online employment application via an UI Device  100 . Interface screens, as described above, comprising graphics or text may be sent from OA System  300  over network  200  to UI Device  100  for presentation and interaction with the employment candidate. It should be noted that a large organization may have branch offices at geographically dispersed locations with one or more UI Devices  100  at each such location through which employment candidates may fill out such online employment applications.  
     [0037] Each employment candidate may interact with the interface screens by providing data to the data input fields. The data an employment candidate provides to these fields comprises a set of data that represents the candidate&#39;s application for employment. The information requested in the data input fields, and thus provided by an employment candidate, may be similar to the type of information normally requested by conventional applications for employment, such as, for example, identification information (e.g., name, age, address, social security number), work history, educational background, and references. Also, the candidate may be requested to give permission for the organization to perform further screening procedures on the candidate, e.g., background and credit checks.  
     [0038] If desired, the one or more interface screens provided in step  1000  may include one or more mandatory data input fields. OA System  300  may force the employment candidate to fill in such mandatory fields, by, for example, verifying that those fields have been filled in and not left blank and have been filled in with the correct format of data (e.g., number or text). Where mandatory fields have not been filled in or have not been filled in correctly, OA System  300  may present the one or more interface screens to the employment candidate again and display a message instructing the candidate to properly fill in those fields.  
     [0039] Returning to FIG. 3A, after the one or more interface screens are presented to each of the one or more employment candidates, OA System  300  receives one or more sets of data, each of which identifies an employment candidate and represents an application for employment from the identified employment candidate, step  1100 . For example, each set of data provided by each of the one or more employment candidates may be transmitted from the UI Device  100  operated by the respective candidate over network  200  where it is received by OA System  300 . If desired, OA System  300  may assign an additional unique identifier, e.g., a sequentially or randomly generated application number, to each set of data received.  
     [0040] Next, each set of data received by OA System  300  is stored at AT Database  400 , step  1200 . For example, OA System  300  may send each set of data it receives to AT Database  400  where each east set of data is stored in any manner conventionally used with databases. For example, AT Database  400  may store each received set of data in a separate database record.  
     [0041] Steps  1000 ,  1100 , and  1200  of FIG. 3A may be repeated continually over time such that sets of data representing applications for employment from employment candidates may be continually received by OA System  300  and stored in AT Database  400 . Then, at any point after at least one set of data has been stored in AT Database  400 , employment decision-makers may review stored sets of data and provide initial hiring decisions with regard to the corresponding employment candidates.  
     [0042] As shown in FIG. 3A, review of sets of data representing applications for employment begins at step  1300 , where one or more sets of data stored in AT Database  400  are presented to an employment decision-maker. For example, an employment decision-maker at a given office location may use a UI Device  100  at that location to communicate with OA System  300  to request to review applications for employment that have been received by the organization. In response to the request, OA System  300  may retrieve one or more sets of data from AT Database  400  and transmit those retrieved sets of data over network  200  to the UI Device  100  for presentation to the employment-decision maker.  
     [0043] A request to review applications for employment may take a variety of forms. For example, the employment decision-maker may request to review applications matching particular employment candidates by providing identification information for those candidates, e.g., name, social security number, or application number. Alternatively, the employment decision-maker may request to review all applications matching certain criteria, e.g., all applications received from a given office location on a particular date or all applications received showing candidates with particular characteristics, such as, for example, education level, years of experience, or graduation from a particular institution.  
     [0044] Upon receiving a request to review applications from a particular UI Device  400 , OA System  300  may send a query to AT Database  400  to retrieve all sets of data matching the parameters of the request. OA System  300  may then send the set(s) of data, if any, retrieved from AT Database  400  to the UI Device  100  that sent the request so that they may be presented to the employment decision-maker.  
     [0045] The retrieved set(s) of data may be presented to the employment decision-maker using any of a number of known user interface methods. For example, the retrieved set(s) of data may be represented initially in a list where only identifying information from each set of data (e.g., the name of the employment candidate to which the set of data corresponds) appears in the list. Adjacent to each list item may be some means for the employment decision-maker to provide an initial hiring decision, e.g., approved, disapproved, or pending. If desired, the status of each set of data may have an initial default setting, e.g., pending, with the employment decision-maker needing to take affirmative action to change the default status, e.g., from pending to approved or disapproved. Also, some means may be provided through which the employment decision-maker may obtain detailed information concerning each employment candidate. For example, each item presented in the list may be linked (e.g., as hyperlink text) to its corresponding set of data such that upon selecting an item in the list (e.g., clicking on an employment candidate name), the rest of the data in the corresponding set of data is presented to the employment decision-maker (e.g., in one or more screens or pages of data).  
     [0046] Returning to FIG. 3A, after the one or more sets of data have been presented, one or more initial hiring decisions are received from the employment decision-maker, with each of the received initial hiring conditions corresponding to one of the presented sets of data, step  1400 . For example, as described above, the retrieved set(s) of data may be presented to the employment decision-maker as items in a list with a means to provide an initial hiring decision (e.g., three buttons labeled “approved”, “disapproved”, and “pending”) adjacent to each item. The employment decision-maker may then use these means to provide initial hiring decisions for one or more presented sets of data. Following the example above, the employment decision-maker may push an “approved”, “disapproved”, or “pending” button corresponding to each of one or more of the sets of data presented in the list. The UI Device  100  being operated by the employment decision-maker may then transmit each initial hiring decision provided by the employment decision-maker over network  200  so that they are received by OA System  300 . Along with each initial hiring decision, an identifier to the set of data to which the respective initial hiring decision corresponds may also be transmitted by the UI Device  100  and received at OA System  300 . Such an identifier may be, for example, identification information (e.g., name or social security number of the employment candidate) from the set of data.  
     [0047] At any time after OA System  300  receives the one or more initial hiring decisions and the corresponding data set identifiers, each of these one or more initial hiring decisions may be stored in AT Database  400  in association with the set of data to which the respective initial hiring decision corresponds, step  1500 . For example, where, as shown in FIG. 2, each set of data is stored in a separate record  410 , OA System  300  may send the one or more initial hiring decisions and the corresponding data set identifiers to AT Database  400  which then stores each of the one or more initial hiring decisions in the field  412  of the record  410  containing the set of data in field  411  that matches the data set identifier corresponding to the respective initial hiring decision.  
     [0048] In addition to causing the one or more initial hiring decisions to be stored in AT Database  400 , upon receiving the one or more initial hiring decisions, OA System  300  automatically transmits each set of data for which a favorable initial hiring decision is received to one or more screening officers to enable the one or more screening officers to cause one or more screening procedures to be performed on each employment candidate identified by each set of data for which a favorable initial hiring decision is received, step  1600 . OA System  300  performs this transmission automatically upon the one or more initial hiring decisions being received, e.g., without any human intervention or substantial delay.  
     [0049] Upon receiving the one or more initial hiring decisions and the corresponding data set identifiers, OA System  300  may accomplish step  1600  by, for example, first analyzing the received one or more initial hiring decisions to identify those that are favorable, e.g., indicate “approved”. Then, using the received data set identifiers corresponding with each favorable initial hiring decision, OA System  300  may obtain each set of data corresponding to each favorable initial hiring decision. For example, OA System  300  may send a query specifying the data set identifiers corresponding with each favorable initial hiring decision to AT Database  400  to retrieve the sets of data stored therein matching those data set identifiers.  
     [0050] Once each set of data having a favorable initial hiring decision is obtained, OA System  300  may transmit each such set of data to the one or more screening officers by, for example, sending an electronic message, e.g., e-mail, containing each such set of data to the UI Devices  100  being operated by each of the one or more screening officers. The number of screening officers to whom these sets of data are transmitted depends upon how many screening procedures are to be performed on employment candidates and how many screening officers are responsible within the organization for those screening procedures. In an embodiment of the invention, two types of screening procedures are performed; background checks (including criminal history checks) and credit checks, and different screening officers are responsible for each type of screening procedure. Specifically, a compliance officer is responsible for background checks and an asset protection and recovery (“APR”) officer is responsible for credit checks. Thus, in this embodiment, OA System  300  may transmit each set of data for which a favorable initial hiring decision was received to two screening officers, a compliance officer and an APR officer, who then cause two screening procedures, background and credit checks, respectively, to be performed on the employment candidates identified by each respective set of data.  
     [0051] It should be noted, however, that a single screening officer may be responsible for all screening procedures. In such a situation, OA System  300  would transmit each set of data for which a favorable initial hiring decision was received to only one screening officer.  
     [0052] After the one or more screening officers (e.g., compliance and APR officers) receive the one or more sets of data having favorable initial hiring decisions, they cause one or more screening procedures (e.g., background checks and credit checks) to be performed on the employment candidates identified by these sets of data. This may be accomplished in any known manner. For example, the screening officers may contact third parties that specialize in performing such screening procedures.  
     [0053] The next step in the operation of the invention is shown in FIG. 3B where OA System  300  receives one or more screening procedure results from the one or more screening officers, where each of the one or more screening procedure results corresponds to a set of data stored in AT Database  400  for which a favorable initial hiring decision was received and also corresponds to one of the one or more screening procedures, step  1700 . For example, at any time after which the one or more screening officers have caused the one or more screening procedures to be performed on employment candidates identified by sets of data for which favorable initial hiring decisions were received, the one or more screening officers may receive data related screening procedures results, where the data identifies one or more employment candidates and provides the result of the screening procedure performed on each candidate. For example, in an embodiment of the invention where background and credit checks are performed on each candidate for which a favorable initial hiring decision was received and a compliance officer and an APR officer are responsible for the background and credit checks, respectively, the compliance officer may receive a report identifying one or more employment candidates and providing the results of the background check performed on each candidate identified therein and the APR officer may receive a report identifying one or more employment candidates and providing the results of the credit check performed on each candidate identified therein.  
     [0054] Upon receiving these results, a screening officer (e.g., a compliance or APR officer) may utilize an UI Device  100  to communicate with OA System  300  to indicate that screening procedure results are to be provided. OA System  300  may send one or more interface screens to the UI Device  100  for presentation to the screening officer that allow the screening officer to (a) indicate the type of screening procedure for which results are being entered (e.g., background or credit check), (b) identify one or more employment candidates (e.g., by name or social security number), and (c) provide a screening procedure result (e.g., approved, disapproved, or pending) for each of the identified employment candidates. The data provided by the screening officer is then transmitted by the UI Device  100  over network  200  where it is received by OA System  300 .  
     [0055] Returning to FIG. 3B, after the one or more screening procedure results are received, each of them are stored in AT Database  400  in association with the set of data to which the respective screening procedure result corresponds, step  1800 . For example, from the data received from the one or more screening officers, OA System  300  may send to AT Database  400  each screening procedure result (e.g., approved, disapproved, or pending) that OA System  300  received, as well as the type of screening procedure performed (e.g., background or credit check) and data identifying the employment candidate (e.g., name or social security number) corresponding to the respective screening procedure result. Where each set of data is stored in a separate database record as shown in FIG. 2, AT Database  400  then may use the data identifying the employment candidate to find the record  410  containing a set of data  411  that identifies the same candidate. Once the record is found, AT Database  400  may then store screening procedure result in the record in the field  413  matching the type of screening procedure performed. For example, where background and credit checks are stored in the first and second screening procedure result fields  413 , respectively, and the screening procedure result received was for a background check, AT Database  400  would store this screening procedure result in the first screening procedure result field  413  of the found record.  
     [0056] It should be understood that steps  1300  to  1800  of FIGS. 3A and 3B may be repeated continually over time such that initial hiring decisions and screening procedure results may be continually received by OA System  300  and stored in AT Database  400 .  
     [0057] Returning to FIG. 3B, OA System  300  may search AT Database  400  for each set of data matching certain criteria and having stored in association with it a favorable initial hiring decision and a favorable screening procedure result for each of the one or more screening procedures, step  1900 . For example, where each set of data is stored in a separate record as shown in FIG. 2 and background and credit checks are performed on each employment candidate for which a favorable initial hiring decision is received, OA System  300  may query AT Database  400  for each record  410 : (a) whose set of data  411  matches certain criteria (e.g., application received at a particular office location); and (b) having values of “approved” in initial hiring decision field  412  and in the first screening procedure result field  413  and in the second screening procedure result field  413 .  
     [0058] Next, OA System  300  may provide a report identifying each employment candidates found in the search, step  2000 . For example, OA System  300  may cause each set of data found in the search to be printed in paper or electronic form, e.g., e-mail, and sent to a particular employment decision-maker at a particular office location of the organization.  
     [0059] Steps  1900  and  2000  may be performed continually and on a periodic basis, e.g., once a day or week, in order to inform specific office locations on a regular basis of all new hires for that location. For example, each day, OA System  300  may search AT Database  400  and provide reports of new hires (e.g., employment candidates who have received a favorable initial hiring decision and who have received favorable screening procedure results to each of the one or more screening procedures) to each location of the organization.  
     [0060] Any member of the organization with proper authorization may use a User Interface Device  100  to communicate with the Online Application System to obtain the application status of one or more employment candidates. For example, after providing authorization (e.g., user ID and password) the inquiring member may use an UI Device  100  to identify (e.g., by name or social security number) one or more employment candidates for which application status is desired. Alternatively, the inquiring member may request that application status be retrieved for one or more employment candidates matching certain search criteria (e.g., all employment candidates that filled in an online application at a particular office location). The OA System  300  receives this request and queries AT Database  400  for all the sets of data matching the request. The OA System  300  then presents to the inquiring member the initial hiring decision and one or more screening procedure results stored for each employment candidate from the request. It should be noted that where no initial hiring decision has been received or no screening procedures have been performed for an employment candidate, default values of “pending” may be stored for the initial hiring decision and one or more screening procedure results in association with the set of data identifying the candidate.  
     [0061] In addition, any member of the organization with proper authorization may access the OA System  300  to retrieve information and create reports. For example, after providing authorization (e.g., user ID and password) the member may use an UI Device  100  to request that certain information be extracted by OA System  300 . For example, the member may provide a request for information for all employment candidates matching certain criteria (e.g., years of experience). The OA System  300  receives this request and queries AT Database  400  for all the sets of data matching the request. The OA System  300  may then create a report providing the information retrieved from AT Database  400  and transmit the report to the request member.  
     [0062] While the invention has been described and illustrated in connection with preferred embodiments, many variations and modifications as will be evident to those skilled in this art may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, and the invention is thus not to be limited to the precise details of methodology or construction set forth above as such variations and modification are intended to be included within the scope of the invention.