Too many candidates and not enough jobs is the familiar refrain of recruiters up and down the country. At a time when some agencies are tightening their belts, winners and former winners at the Recruiter Awards for Excellence, sponsored by Thomas International, are increasingly saving themselves money and that most valuable of commodities — time, while also gaining a competitive advantage through providing an exact cultural fit through psychometric testing.

“There are less jobs around and more candidates. It has always been important to find the right candidate but agencies have a lot more candidates to sift through, so they increasingly have to find the differentiator,” says Peter Farrow, managing director at psychometrics provider Thomas International.

“People have to have the right skillset but if you have three of four of those, how do you differentiate between them? It may be down to behavioural style or down to aptitude,” Farrow adds.

Recent research commissioned by fellow psychometrics provider SHL investigated how the competitive jobs market is affecting the attitudes of candidates. The results showed almost a quarter of potential jobseekers were willing to stretch the truth in securing a job in the current economic climate. David Valentine, global sales director at SHL Group, says: “One way for employers to address this is to create a level playing field for all candidates by investing in robust and proven online assessments.”

Jan Stevens, director at IT recruiter DP Connect, winner of Best IT Recruitment Firm at the 2002 and 2007 Recruiter Awards, told Recruiter that she uses Thomas’s PPA (Personal Profile Analysis) for conducting strengths and weaknesses, and specific audits to direct and focus interviews to assess the best team and manager for the applicant and enable a plan to address any limitations before the applicant begins
work.

“At the moment there are more candidates available and therefore our needs are to further refine our selection to highlight only the very best talent,” she explains. “We are also looking for strong new business opening skills rather than account delivery in the current climate and the profiles help to identify the skills required for new business.”

With pressures piling up on consultants and managers alike to meet targets, Thomas’s emotional intelligence reports have helped Jason Silk, HR director at multi-sector recruiter Hill McGlynn, and winner of Best Industrial/Technical firm in 2006, train and develop managers with the necessary soft skills to manage their team and identify training needs, as well as ensuring that they are selecting and training the right individuals for the right job.

“You don’t want to lose the managerial and inspirational skills that people need. You also need to dedicate time and it is more important than ever to dedicate that time to each individual’s respected business, review their businesses and ensure their morale is kept up. Everyone is working twice as hard to get the same results as last year. We need them to lead by example but to focus their attention on their team
members to make sure they are not ignored and are given every opportunity to succeed in difficult circumstances.

“Emotional intelligence makes individuals more self aware of how their behaviour has an impact on others and how they would modify their behaviour to the individuals concerned, rather than thinking that one size fits all — thinking I’m the boss and they are going to have work around me. As a manager, you have to be aware of what your actions are, how they will be perceived, and be aware of other people’s attributes and to tailor your management style to get the best out of them. It gives us an idea of the softer skills and makes them aware of their own personal attributes.”

Matthew Reaney, operations director at Jam Recruitment, told Recruiter that while the recruitment of consultants may not be a priority right now, PPAs have helped develop managers to boost team morale. “We are not recruiting as heavily. PPAs are helping with internal development and management of teams. Thomas helped in determining what drives and motivates people. From a management point of view,
different people need managing in a different way and motivating differently.”

Finding the right personal attributes is all the more important when every penny spent is being scrutinised, according to Farrow.

“It is doubly important to recruit the right person because every penny is being watched. Nobody can afford to screw up, so where agencies are recruiting consultants, that is what they are doing.

“Interviews do not always work; people who appear to be the best sales people very often aren’t. If they don’t have the drive for results, they could be very talkative but that does not necessarily make them a good sales person. Quite often they need what we call dominance — that drive for results, self-motivation to succeed. It is about the behavioural fit and finding the right behaviours for that particular role.”

Darren James, managing director at accountancy recruiter Definitive Consulting and winner of Best Small to Medium Recruitment Firm at this year’s Recruiter Awards, says for his accountancy clients, time is money and new employees are required to hit the ground running. For this reason, James uses Thomas’s fluid intelligence testing or its job analysis which puts together an analysis of what the job should look like and who would suit the job best.

“When people are bringing in recruits, they don’t want to have long lead-in times. They need someone up and running and individuals who are quick on the uptake. It is the speed to process certain types of information. In an industry sector like ours, that is quite important,” James says.

In the spirit of saving clients’ time and money, Farrow says that Thomas has partnered with talent management solutions provider Taleo in the last six months. PPAs are embedded in Taleo, which enables a recruiter who is using Taleo as an applicant tracking system to broaden their use of PPAs, making for a seamless offering. “All the information is in one place. It is easier to use and it saves time. You are looking at a large number of candidates, and this makes it easier to manage those candidates,” says Farrow.

And James says that the reception of clients to providing these added-value services had been really positive. “Some people are dismissive of it, as you would expect, but the people that are open to these things are really positive. I have used lots of psychometrics over the years and Thomas is by far and away the most accurate that I have used.”

And at a time when recruiters are looking to stand out from the crowd, Farrow says that psychometric testing represents something extra that recruiters can offer to their clients. “Most of our clients have our system inhouse. They have trained practitioners in-house. We are always on hand to help. It is added value and gives them that edge. People are holding on to their pennies. Everything is being scrutinised. If you can get that extra added value, it has got to be good news.”

Providing that extra value, it seems, will help many a recruiter stand out from the crowd, while saving themselves time and money, as well as securing the right cultural fit for their own firm and their clients. A good time to test systems out — just when there are too many candidates and not enough jobs.