If you’re like most Americans, you take safeguarding your possessions seriously. You have a home security system to ward off intruders, a car alarm to protect from thieves, maybe you even have a lockbox to keep family heirlooms safe. It doesn’t end at your tangible possessions — you also have a password to unlock your computer and countless more to access just as many websites.
But how do you secure your social security number from others, or your date of birth? What about your physical address, your phone number, and all the personally identifiable information (PII) you disclose on an employment application, for example? After all, the information that defines your identity is by far the most exquisite jewel in your crown.
A dark age for data
Before data went digital, companies used file cabinets to store paper applications securely. When companies moved their applications online, many applicants experienced a greater sense of security. But the truth is, most of us don’t have time to pore over the privacy policy of every employer we apply to; we give our information out because the need for money motivates us to do so. Even if we did take the time, since there’s not a comprehensive federal law that governs data privacy in the U.S., many companies do not have privacy policies, while others are intentionally confusing. It’s a dangerous amount of trust we give that hasn’t been earned.
Most of the time when we apply for a job, we don’t know where else our application data goes, or for how long it stays. We aren’t sure if it gets shared, or to whom.
A privacy policy fit for a king
We all deserve to know our application data is safe, and we deserve to have better control over who does what with it. At Tenstreet, security and privacy are central foundations that we have always maintained, and always will. We have significant and serious responsibilities to our carriers and the millions of drivers who store their application data with us.
- We go to great lengths to help ensure the safety of the systems that house and process their critical data by maintaining our SOC 2 Type II certification and performing our own internal audits. The process is nothing short of arduous, but the decision to do so is a simple one.
- We authenticate each driver before pre-populating an application and when signing in to our Driver Pulse app.
- While we can’t control what other companies may do with the application data they receive, we never send a driver’s data anywhere without the driver having initiated it. We won’t do it – we never have and we never will.
To show our continued commitment to the protection of driver data, we have created the Application Transparency tool in Driver Pulse. This tool gives drivers greater visibility into how they have shared their application data and which of our client carriers have access to it. It also gives drivers control over how and by whom they can be contacted.
“How did my data get here?”
As our clients can attest, drivers ask this question frequently. Now, client carriers can point drivers to the Application Transparency tool to help drivers find the sourcing answers they deserve. This question appears in blue on the home screen in Driver Pulse, making it easy for drivers to locate the tool.
There are many ways a driver can send a carrier their application information, but the most common ways are detailed below. The tool also provides the contact information for the driver’s convenience should he or she need to reach out to the source.
- The IntelliApp. The most obvious way a carrier obtains a driver’s application data occurs when a driver applies directly to the carrier using their IntelliApp. In this case, the driver will see a source of ‘IntelliApp’ under the carrier’s name in the Application Transparency tool.
- A multi-carrier lead form. These types of forms are often on job boards a carrier can pay to help with lead generation. Often, the same leads are shared with multiple carriers, resulting in many texts, emails, and phone calls from multiple carriers at all once. Now in Application Transparency, drivers will see the name of the job board to which they submitted their information listed as the source.
- An acquisition. When a carrier doesn’t look familiar, often it’s because the carrier a driver originally applied to was acquired by another carrier. Application Transparency will share this information in these cases.
- A trucking school. When a driver graduates from driving school, they often give permission to schools to pass their application data to carriers whom schools are connected to through Tenstreet’s School Network. In Application Transparency, drivers will see “transferred from” and the school’s name as the source.
- A third-party recruiter. If a driver was found by an outside recruiting agency who submitted a lead to a carrier on the driver’s behalf, the driver will see the name of this company listed as the source and will identify it as a 3rd party recruiter.
“Please unsubscribe me.”
When our clients hear this, they know to honor the request immediately. The Application Transparency tool offers drivers a way to fulfill this request on their own, freeing up valuable recruiting time and putting drivers in control of how they choose to be contacted (by email, text, or through Driver Pulse in-app messaging).
As a carrier, this may feel counterintuitive. But allowing drivers to opt out of your marketing messages improves the quality of your lead lists as you develop a more interested audience who does want to hear from you. Your recruiters enjoy a boost in morale as conversion rates increase and friction they experience in outreach decreases.
Transparency is king
Imagine if every company offered this kind of visibility into your application history and gave you control over how you wanted to communicate. With driving job openings at an all-time-high, leveraging a platform that protects drivers’ data and their privacy in the same way we all deserve to have ours protected is the only way forward. We can all hope to be as fortunate in our own future job searches.
To learn more about how Application Transparency works, clients can view this article in our Knowledge Base.
For more information on how to choose a secure ATS, click here.
To see Application Transparency in action, join our upcoming webinar, How Driver Pulse Makes it Easier to Connect and Communicate with Drivers, where Tenstreet’s CEO Tim Crawford will share his vision behind the tool.
