Tablets Increase Recruiter Mobility, Efficiency
Lynsie Dickerson, USAREC, Public Affairs Office
March 3, 2015
In US Army Recruiting Command’s march towards digital efficiency, the command has begun fielding tablets to recruiters.
All of first and third recruiting brigades have them and enough have been purchased for the rest of the brigades.
“The requirement was a mobile device that was capable of supporting the recruiter in a very efficient manner,” said Merle Collard, USAREC G6. “We’re trying to employ the best practices that the technical community has to offer. It really comes down to, ‘what’s the best practice and what does a recruiter need to do his business while making his job a little easier?’”
The goal is to replace the laptop computer with a tablet as the primary enlistment processing platform.
“We picked a device that gives us some of the same functionalities that we already use and we just made it more mobile,” said Jon OCain, USAREC G6. “It’s a huge start, I think, not just for us, but for the Army.”
By giving recruiters tablets, they’ve been provided with a more mobile, dynamic, interactive device, allowing recruiters to interact with their community more efficiently.
“We’re trying to give more time back to the recruiter, making him a little more self-reliant and allowing him to use technology in a way that he’s the most comfortable doing it while providing a secure enough environment to do their mission,” Collard said.
The tablet includes a camera that can capture documents and take pictures of Future Soldiers’ faces. The touch screen provides more interactive capabilities by letting the user use their hands to slide through content.
“The device is in tune with today’s technology,” OCain said. “People outside the Army are already using it; it’s something that’s recent.”
Seeing recruiters use devices that applicants use enhances the Army’s appeal, Collard said.
“The recruiters are walking into a home and people are seeing that they have the latest and greatest,” he said. “It just gives that credibility to the Army that we’re not just tanks and jeeps, we’re actually on the cutting edge.”
The tablets are also easier to deploy, easier for G6 to manage, and easier for the recruiters to utilize and repair, if necessary.
“If a recruiter breaks his tablet today, because it doesn’t require any interaction by the current IMO to fix it, I can send them a new tablet tomorrow, they can log in and be right where they were yesterday, right where they were when they broke the device,” Collard said.
Others in the Army continue looking to USAREC as a role model in the fielding digital devices.
“As far as technology, we’re excelling quickly ahead of Army but at the same time we’re following what the best practices are, what industry is doing and allowing us to do, and just taking advantages of those quick winds for the recruiters,” Collard said. “We’re trying to put the right equipment at the right time at the right user level to support that right mission.”
Lynsie Dickerson, USAREC, Public Affairs Office
March 3, 2015
In US Army Recruiting Command’s march towards digital efficiency, the command has begun fielding tablets to recruiters.
All of first and third recruiting brigades have them and enough have been purchased for the rest of the brigades.
“The requirement was a mobile device that was capable of supporting the recruiter in a very efficient manner,” said Merle Collard, USAREC G6. “We’re trying to employ the best practices that the technical community has to offer. It really comes down to, ‘what’s the best practice and what does a recruiter need to do his business while making his job a little easier?’”
The goal is to replace the laptop computer with a tablet as the primary enlistment processing platform.
“We picked a device that gives us some of the same functionalities that we already use and we just made it more mobile,” said Jon OCain, USAREC G6. “It’s a huge start, I think, not just for us, but for the Army.”
By giving recruiters tablets, they’ve been provided with a more mobile, dynamic, interactive device, allowing recruiters to interact with their community more efficiently.
“We’re trying to give more time back to the recruiter, making him a little more self-reliant and allowing him to use technology in a way that he’s the most comfortable doing it while providing a secure enough environment to do their mission,” Collard said.
The tablet includes a camera that can capture documents and take pictures of Future Soldiers’ faces. The touch screen provides more interactive capabilities by letting the user use their hands to slide through content.
“The device is in tune with today’s technology,” OCain said. “People outside the Army are already using it; it’s something that’s recent.”
Seeing recruiters use devices that applicants use enhances the Army’s appeal, Collard said.
“The recruiters are walking into a home and people are seeing that they have the latest and greatest,” he said. “It just gives that credibility to the Army that we’re not just tanks and jeeps, we’re actually on the cutting edge.”
The tablets are also easier to deploy, easier for G6 to manage, and easier for the recruiters to utilize and repair, if necessary.
“If a recruiter breaks his tablet today, because it doesn’t require any interaction by the current IMO to fix it, I can send them a new tablet tomorrow, they can log in and be right where they were yesterday, right where they were when they broke the device,” Collard said.
Others in the Army continue looking to USAREC as a role model in the fielding digital devices.
“As far as technology, we’re excelling quickly ahead of Army but at the same time we’re following what the best practices are, what industry is doing and allowing us to do, and just taking advantages of those quick winds for the recruiters,” Collard said. “We’re trying to put the right equipment at the right time at the right user level to support that right mission.”