How To Recruit Online with Psychometric Tests
If you are doing a job search for graduate jobs, part time jobs or in fact any job you will more than likely have a CV. You may even have employed someone to write your CV or teach you how to write a CV but the question is, how useful is a CV in the 21st century?
I spoke to Nik Plevan, founder and Managing Director of
e-Talent, an Edinburgh based software company that produces online recruitment screening
systems for companies and online recruitment agencies. In Nik’s opinion the way
employers have gone about recruiting for the last 50 years is no longer
relevant. The use of the internet in the recruitment process and meant that it’s
all change for the way companies choose their shortlisted candidates.
Nik told me, “You should really stop taking paper
applications because those invariably lead to huge amounts of work and effort
which is ultimately fruitless because you’re working with data which is not particularly
helpful. Whereas if you asked people to apply online you can make the
application an interactive process. The candidate can go through a series of
tests to try and identify characteristics that you can use to base your decisions
on. In traditional recruitment what usually happens is the HR Manager spends
most of their time rejecting people. Whereas with the recruitment that I’m
suggesting you would spend all of your time selecting the best people from the
good people.”
So the online screening systems that Nik’s company produces will
incorporate a psychometric test that ultimately generates for the recruiter
that is much more useful in the selection process than traditional techniques.
Ultimately in traditional recruitment you are at the mercy
of the candidate and how good they were at presenting themselves and convincing
you without really knowing whether they have the necessary soft skills or not. By
using some psychometrics you can ensure everyone on your shortlist is likely to
be suitable for the job and identify warning signs early on in the process
thereby preventing you recruiting the wrong people.
So is the CV dead?
Well not exactly. Nik agrees CVs still have a place but in
his opinion it is not at the start of the recruitment process. “Once you’ve
actually got the people with right soft skills then the CV comes into play and
you can drill down in their experience. But the critical aspect is that by then
you already know they have the right soft skills. So you’re really identifying
the best people out of the good people.”
For more information about the term psychometric test see this article on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_testing
For more information about the term psychometric test see this article on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_testing
For details about online recruitment agencies and business
visit the government website https://www.gov.uk/employment-agencies-and-businesses/overview
To see the video: Online Recruitment with a Psychometric Test – The new way for employers and recruitment agencies follow this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfE1izd5sWU