Camino Nuevo Charter Academy is a network of K-12 charter schools (four K-8 schools and two high schools) serving the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles, CA since 2000. By 2022, more than 2,000 Camino Nuevo graduates will be equipped with the skills, knowledge and worldview necessary to be literate, critical thinkers and independent problem solvers. 90% will be accepted to, 80% will attend and 60% will graduate from a four-year college within six years.
Camino Nuevo Streamlines Hiring and Remains 100% Compliant with Helios
Summary
Margaret Domingo is Vice President of Human Resources and has been with Camino Nuevo for sixteen years. Camino Nuevo uses Helios for Onboarding, e-Form Approvals, Employee Files, Self-Access Portal, Assignment Monitoring and Applicant Tracking.
Challenges
The HR team was spending a lot of time with tracking applicants, searching files and working to stay compliant with TB renewals. Their former, paper-based system caused strain, particularly, for her Recruiter and Analyst.
Solution
The user-friendliness, automated reminders, onboarding and applicant tracking systems of Helios has been a ‘lifesaver’ for Margaret and her team, saving them tons of time, money and keeping them safe and efficient while working remotely.
Q: How do you use Helios on a daily basis?
We’ve been using Helios for the last 12 years. Currently, we use Helios for our Applicant Tracking and, overall, HR system.
Q: What was HR life like before using Helios?
Before Helios, we were using paper for everything. The unique thing about Helios is that it’s made by people who have worked in schools. They really made a product that is tailored to folks who work in Education. And every year it keeps getting better and better! My team absolutely loves the new Applicant Tracking process. Prior to Helios, we were using another system and paying double the money. About a year ago, we switched off that other system and transitioned solely to Helios. It’s made our process so much more efficient since, now, we only have to use one system for both the Applicant Tracking and Onboarding.
Q: Where do you save the most time using Helios?
Navigating the system is extremely user-friendly. The systems’ ability to provide us with informative Snapshots has been extremely helpful (something previous systems didn’t provide us). Posting jobs on the Applicant Tracking portion of Helios has also been very easy. It’s saved our Recruiters a lot of time since they no longer have to post open positions on multiple websites.
Q: How has Helios helped Camino Nuevo save money?
By saving us time, it’s saving us money. We had one recruiter who had to fill over 150 vacancies last year. Instead of hiring another person, we invested in this system and it’s helped our recruiter fill the positions much quicker. The longer a position is left unfilled, the more we’re paying in substitutes and additional fees. Helios has made the process more efficient and faster. My team is happy with all the time Helios has saved us with posting jobs, Hiring and Onboarding, especially since COVID.
Q: What does your team enjoy the most about working with Helios?
They love the job posting feature, the user-friendliness and the fact that we can upload documents like transcripts and credentials (something we weren’t able to do with our previous system). This allows us to ask certain questions during the interview process that we couldn’t do before and permits more initial vetting. They also love that Helios sends us an email when someone finishes a job application. This helps us stay on top of the process. The fact that all of this is done electronically has been a lifesaver for us since, right now, we’re all working remotely. The automated TB reminders are great as well since, now, employees receive a 6-month alert, a 3-month alert and so on up until the week they need to submit their renewal. Helios also saves these reminders so, if the employee doesn’t have their renewal on time, we can bring up an electronic ‘paper’ trail all the reminders they’ve received. We’ve been 100% complaint since using that feature in Helios and it’s been great! My team also loves the IT support. Whenever there’s an issue, Helios has been extremely responsive and on it!
Q: What about Helios has helped you the most during COVID?
I think it’s helped us the most with processing all our New Hire Onboarding. Traditionally, they’d come into the office and fill out the paperwork, but, now, all of that is done online. The in-person meetings are now a lot faster. The fact that, now, everything is digital and within Helios, another member of my team, on the Payroll side, can access that information and get whatever they need, as well as anyone on the Credentialing side. It’s made our jobs so much easier! We love that everything is kept within the employee’s electronic file; from transcripts to credentials, so we don’t have to go anywhere else.
Q: For someone considering adopting Helios, what would you say to them?
I’d say, ‘Absolutely!’ We highly recommend Helios, especially in the midst of COVID. Since we transitioned completely over to Helios and have become paperless, it made our jobs easier and safer, allowing us to work remotely and not need to enter the office for paper files. Helios has been a lifesaver for us!
Margaret sums up Camino Nuevo’s experience of working with Helios:
“Helios has been a life saver. Pulling ready reports, rather than doing it all in Excel, saves our staff so much time and is extremely helpful during audits. We love that Helios staff is always so accessible.”