As mentioned last week, when you provide us information and we start looking through millions of records to find any that match to the person you tell us is applying at your organization. There is no doubt about it; an individual person could not do what our technological applications are able to do. That is the joy of the technology age we are in. Of course, with the joys come some fundamental challenges that we as an organization and you as our client face every day.
Below is our last, primary challenge, we see as we attempt to do our job of “record matching” for you.
Derivatives of Names are used. We as a society are constantly seeking new names and new derivatives of names to highlight the fact that each one of us is “unique” as an individual. Of course, as new derivatives of names arise (“Sianne” for what is commonly spelled as “Cheyenne”)or slightly differently spelled names are used (“Lillie”, “Lily”, “Lilly”, “Lilli”), matching records can be more difficult.
Long ago, PeopleFacts built into its matching technology common derivative name tables so that our automated searches would incorporate the matching on these commonly used variations. Of course, with ever changing derivatives, we are constantly adding common name derivatives to our database of search terms, as well as balancing the time it takes to search additional names with the time you want us to take looking for you.
As we move forward to evaluate how we can use our common and derivative names tables to benefit you (our valued client) while balancing the cost and time it takes for our manual fulfillment teams to search on additional names, we are looking at rolling out later this year a feature which empowers you to choose which common or derivative names our manual fulfillment teams will search for you. As we work on solutions to this challenge, we welcome input from you.
PeopleFacts is always seeking new ways to improve our systems, improve the information we get from you, and improve what we are using to do our searches. As with everything in life, the more information we have, the more information we are allowed to use, the more searches we can do, and the more information that is available, the better our search results are for you.
You have some power in deciding the right balance for you and your organization – and we are working to help you know and understand what matters to you as your choose how to help us help you match more and match better.
As mentioned last week, PeopleFacts will be rolling out this year a mandatory email address feature in the upcoming months to help us verify reports with your applicants in real time as we deliver information to you. We invite you to join us in this important step of progress designed to combat incomplete public records and protect the rights of applicants as well as to minimize claims against you, our clients.
Upgrade your application process now to require your applicants to provide a current and valid email address. As we said above, PeopleFacts is always making progress!
