This article was published on 22 May 2023
Changing jobs is hard. So is hiring new staff. That’s what prompted Tauranga-based recruiter Scott Inglis to come up with a way to make the process easier - and enjoyable. His company Checkmate is a finalist in the Kamupene Māori o Te Tau category of this year’s NZ Hi-Tech Awards.
After a decade as a recruiter, Scott Inglis saw a difficult part for firms hiring a new employee came right at the end.
“Reference checking, background checks, onboarding new staff are where the pain points are. It’s time-consuming and it’s a really sensitive part of the recruitment process because changing jobs is stressful.”
The more he thought about it, the more he became convinced it was an area that was overlooked. “It was a process I thought could be improved by taking it fully online.”
So Inglis (Ngaa Rauru, Ngaa Ruahinerangi, Ngati Ruanui, Ngati Rangi), who lives in Tauranga and good friend Sam Atmore (Ngai Tahu) who worked in the tech sector, put their heads together and set up Checkmate - an automated, online reference, background and onboarding software.
The aim was to ease the pain through automation, freeing up staff for other tasks and giving people a better “new job” experience.
People expect fast, easy software - that’s what we do and what sets us apart. We started by looking at it layer by layer. There are the administrative layers - things like background checks and tax forms, but on top of that what we’re really trying to capture is a better experience for new employees.
“We wanted to work out how to make someone feel part of the company they are going to be working for before they’ve even started.”
Inglis calls this “snackable content” - small chunks of information that enables someone to hit the ground running when they start a new job .
It was an idea that has paid off. “Over the past couple of years as we’ve pushed into this industry we’ve noticed how many more companies are realising the power of effective onboarding and the impact that can have on tenure, engagement and productivity.”
Detecting a market gap was one thing - making it a reality was tough and took the kind of technological expertise Inglis didn’t have. That’s where co-founder Brian Gastesi and Peter Hooper came in with Inglis as the platform evolved.
They launched Checkmate in mid-2019. Then in early 2020 along came COVID-19.
“Fortunately we’d had a great group of clients come on board before things went topsy-turvy and we were running a very tight ship - just myself and the developer working part time.”
While there was the initial slow-down that everyone experienced, things began to gain momentum as time went on.
“When businesses were looking to rebuild after Covid there were coming back leaner and meaner and they were looking at automation tools that could streamline their businesses. That was the opportunity for us.”
Checkmate now has 13 FTEs spread across seven countries and has clients in the UK, US, Canada, Singapore and Australia.
“It seems the technology is really fitting our goals. We just seem to have a recipe that works. So now it’s about asking ourselves: how far we can go. I think there’s an enormous market globally for this type of technology because we’d have discussions with clients on every continent and they all have the same issues.”
The versatility of the software was demonstrated when Checkmate signed up four vastly different companies in the same week: a software company in the Middle East, a trucking company in the US, a recruitment agency in Australia and an aged care provider in New Zealand.
“There was this universal consistency of what they wanted solved. It’s very cool to see we’re having a positive impact on organisations globally.”
Photo of Scott Inglis
But what really excites Inglis is the potential of the business - trying new products and features, getting feedback.
Recently he bought a 360 degree camera to make videos. The video can be viewed on a phone and via virtual reality tool Google Cardboard, enabling someone to have a totally immersive experience of a new work environment, all using a $2 piece of cardboard.
Inglis can see its potential for prospective employees to experience exactly where they could be working and what they would be doing. “You can walk around with these cameras, and it records in 360 so it captures everything - you can see the whole space.”
• The New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards are being held in Christchurch on June 23.
Kua māmā ake te tono kaimahi hou
He uaua te panoni mahi. Me te rapu kaimahi hou hoki. Koia nei te take i puta a Scott Inglis hei kaitono kaimahi ki Tauranga, e māmā ai tēnei tukanga – e pārekareka ai hoki. I ū tana kamupene o Checkmate hei kaiwhiringa toa mō te rārangi Kamupene Māori o Te Tau mō te NZ Hi-Tech Awards i tēnei tau tonu.
Kua tekau tau a Scott Inglis e mahi ana hei kaitono kaimahi hou, me tana kite, ko te wāhanga uaua ko te pito o taua tukanga. “Te tiro i ngā tohutoro, te tiro i ngā kōrero mō te kaitono me te mahi kōkuhu i te kaimahi hou hoki. He whakapau wā, he wāhanga rauangi o te tukanga nei, nā te mea he wā kōhukihuki te panoni mahi.”
Ka kaha ake tana whakaaro mō te kaupapa nei, ka kaha ake tana pono he wāhi tēnei e kore e tino arohia. “He wāhanga o te tukanga me whakapai ake, mā te rau i tēnei wāhanga ki te ipurangi.”
Ka hui tahi a Inglis (Ngā Rauru, Ngā Ruahinerangi, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāti Rangi), e noho nei ki Tauranga Moana me tana tino hoa a Sam Atmore, (Ngāi Tahu) e mahi ana ki te rāngai hangarau, ki te whakaputa whakaaro, ka pupū ake tēnei kamupene o Checkmate – he pūmanawa rorohiko ipurangi mō ngā mahi tohutoro, te tiro ki te āhua o te kaimahi hou me te kōkuhu i taua kaimahi ki te pakihi.
Ko te whāinga hoki ko te whakamāmā i te ara nei mā te whakamahi i te ipurangi, e wātea ai ngā kaimahi ki te mahi i ērā atu mahi, e noho ai hei wheako pai o te “mahi hou.”
E hiahia ana te tangata ki ngā pūmanawa rorohiko pai, tere hoki – koinā tā mātou mahi, koinā te āhua e noho wehe ai mātou i ētahi kē. I tīmata tā mātou wāwahi i ngā mahi ki tēnā papanga, ki tēnā papanga. Ko ngā papanga whakahaere – pērā i te tiro ki te āhua o te tangata me ngā pepa tāke, i tua atu i tērā, ko te hopu i te āhua e pai ake te wheako nei mō ngā kaimahi hou.
“I hiahia mātou ki te whakarite me pēhea te whakatangata whenua i te kaimahi hou ki te kamupene, e tīmata nei rātou, e noho nei hei māngai, hei kanohi mō taua kamupene, i mua i te tīmatanga ki reira.”
Ko tā Inglis, koinei ngā “timonga kōrero” – ko ngā timonga kōrero e āhei ai te kaimahi hou te mahi i a ia nei ka tīmata i tana tūranga hou.
He whakaaro i whai hua. “I ngā tau e rua nei, kua panatia e mātou te ahumahi nei, ā, kua kitea hoki kei te aro mai ngā kamupene kē ki te ngako o te pōhiri mai i te kaimahi hou me te pānga o taua āhuatanga ki te roa, ki te whakaurunga me te whai huatanga o te kaimahi.”
Ko te kite i tēnei tū āhua e ngaro ana tētahi mahi – engari mō te whakatinana, he mahi uaua, i mate te haere ki te hunga ngaio hangarau. I tatū mai a Brian Gastesi me Peter Hooper ki te
kaupapa nei, ka noho hei kōtuinga me Inglis, ā, ka tipu te whakaaro.
I whakarewatia a Checkmate i te tau waenga 2019. Ka pā mai hoki te Kōwheori-19 i te tau 2020. “Waimarie i tau mai ētahi kiritaki i mua i tērā, ā, mārō ana te haere o ngā mahi – ko au me te kaihoahoa noa iho i te mahi i taua wā.”
Ahakoa i tau mai tētahi wā e pōturi ana ngā mahi, e kōkiri tonu ana, heoi kāore i roa, parahutihuti ana te haere.
“I te hokinga mai o ngā pakihi i muri i te taunga mai o Kōwheori, kua iti iho ngā kaimahi, kua hāngai te aro ki te tono kaimahi hou, ā, ko ngā taputapu ipurangi te mea i hiahiatia, hei whakarewa i ā rātou pakihi. Koia rā te huarahi pai mō mātou.”
Tekau mā toru ngā FTEs a Checkmate, puta noa i ngā whenua e whitu, me ngā kiritaki o Ingarangi, o Amerika, o Kanata, Hingapora me Ahitereiria.
“Te āhua nei e uru pai ana ngā hangarau me ō mātou whāinga. Kua kitea he anga whakamahi pai rawa. Ko te mea ināianei ko te pātai ki a mātou anō: ko hea a tua. Ki ōku whakaaro he nui te mākete ā-ao mō tēnei momo hangarau, nā te mea kua whakawhiti kōrero mātou me ō mātou kiritaki ki ngā whenua katoa, e rite katoa ana ō rātou raru.”
He tino pūkenga tonu o mātou pūmanawa rorohiko, i kitea tērā i te i te waitohutanga o Checkmate i ngā kamupene e whā, kamupene tino rerekē nei, i te wiki kotahi: he kamupene pūmanawa rorohiko ki Rāwhiti Waenga, he kamupene taraka ki Amerika, he kamupene tono kaimahi hou ki Ahitereiria me tētahi wāhi tiaki kaumātua ki Aotearoa.
“Rātou katoa he ōrite te raru. He mea whakahirahira te kite he pānga whai hua tā mātou mō ngā kamupene ā-ao.”
Ko te mea kē e hihiko ai te ngākau o Inglis ki te pitomata o te pakihi – ko te whakamātau hua, āhuatanga hou me te whiwhi urupare hoki.
I ēnei rā tata ka hokona mai e ia he kāmera 360 te tākiri, ki te hanga kiriata. Ka taea te mātaki i te kiriata mā te waea, mā te taputapu mariko o Google Cardboard, e āhei ai te tangata ki te kite i te ngako o te mahi e whai nei rātou, e kite hoki i te taiao o te mahi hou, mā e whakamahi noa i te pepa mārō e $2 noa te utu.
Kei te kitea e Inglis mā tēnei tū āhuatanga e taea ai te tangata te kite ki hea, kei hea, he aha hoki ngā tū āhuatanga o tā rātou mahi hou. “Ka āhei te hīkoi me ēnei kāmera, ka mau ngā tākiri katoa, i ngā āhuatanga katoa e hiahiatia ana kia kitea e te kaimahi hou – ka taea te kite i te ātea katoa.”
• Ka whakapāohotia ngā hōnore ki Ōtautahi hei te Hune 23.