There are rumblings going round the recruitment industry: Who knew that candidates didn’t always tell the truth?!

Ok, so this is not news to you, but when you place a candidate, you expect them to deliver on what they claim to be capable of. More and more recently, we are talking to recruiters who have their suspicions.

Marketing mix up
Speaking with a perm recruiter recently, they confessed to getting their fingers burned when recruiting a Marketing Exec role. The candidate came across well in interview and had the right experience but once in the role it quickly transpired they had poor literacy, no experience with PowerPoint and weren’t so hot using Excel. These are fundamental skills required for a communications role that included content creation,

presenting information and analysing data. The client was less than impressed and the candidate didn’t work out. If the recruiter had skills tested the individual, they would have been able to make a better formed decision and even presented their findings to the client.

Seasoned recruiters can sniff out a whopper pretty easily. However, even the most innocent-seeming candidates can be prone to exaggerating if it gets them a step closer to the job they’ve been coveting.

H&S near miss
A more serious incident came onto our radar recently. A temp recruiter regularly placed candidates with their client and one was involved in an accident on the client’s premises. Fortunately there were no serious injuries but it was severe enough for the HSE to investigate. A question was raised over the candidate and their ability to understand instructions, with suspicions that the individual’s literacy and comprehension were not up to standard. The recruiter became involved and, as a user of skills testing, they were able to share results of a literacy and aptitude test showing a more than adequate score. Plus, the recruiter could share comparable results for other temps that had been provided to the client which were the same or lower, and these individuals had not been involved in accidents or near misses.

No matt er how much we might moan about admin and audit trails, they come into their own in situations like this.

Content is no longer king
So what’s new in skills testing? Today, it’s not so much about content; we’re receiving more requests for developing integration requests and partnerships with other suppliers. Recruiters are balancing being time-poor with overwhelming amounts of data, and competing with the more and more savvy in-house recruiter. You need a platform that integrates with your CRM system, one that allows you to search and shortlist based on skills, experience and availability.

Some partners will openly work on integration, seeing the benefit. Others take a rather elitist view that it should be paid for and attach a five-figure price tag. There is room for everyone, and recruitment tech will only be enhanced when experts work together.

At ISV, we integrate our skills testing with Logic Melon, RDB ProNet and our latest integration with Voyager’s Infinity is the best yet – it uses better search functionality than either of the standalone systems. Content naturally still plays a part, but for now there is a big emphasis on tech and timesaving.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Amanda Davies, Managing Director at ISV Software has worked with the company for over 5 years. Having a strong background in both Marketing and Recruitment, she has worked with many recruiters and HR professionals in the industry. Together with the team, she’s dedicated to developing the best recruitment software solutions available. Amanda is passionate about personal development and is a Co-Active personal and business coach.

ISV GROUP

For more information about skills testing visit www.isvgroup.com

Telephone: 023 8081 6600

Email: [email protected]