Recruitment Question
My company has recently opened a new 180-seat call centre and I need to recruit a manager to deal with the day to day running of it. I have already done a round of telephone interviews and have a handful of candidates now in mind. I’m interested in the idea of psychometric tests for when they come in for interview, but have no experience of them. Presumably there are specialist companies who deal in this area, but how do I find them? And are they really useful or will they end up being more work than they’re worth?
Some hiring managers I know are judged on the attrition rates of the workforce. According to the CIPD that rate can be in excess of 50% in call centres, so you have your work cut out! Any hiring manager worth his or her salt should be embracing anything that will help them to get the right candidate into the right job, this will lower the attrition rate, cut recruitment costs, make the your company more productive and earn you big slaps on the back.
You will have in mind the qualities and skills that make up your dream candidate and now you need to find a way of assessing your shortlist.
To test an individual's personal virtues such as commitment, dedication and reliability, psychometric assessment is the way to go. It will provide you with an informed and accurate picture of your candidates' soft skills, which is great as far as it goes.
However you will need to know more than that and the best way to asses a potential recruit is to use a variety of methods.
You will need a manger who combines the appropriate personal qualities with the necessary hard skills, such as the ability to accurately handle raw data or a degree of computer literacy. To get a picture of these skills you can employ a straightforward, easy to use, online test that simulates both normal and stressful working conditions. Some providers will even allow you to precisely tailor tests to meet your exact requirements, if you need to test an applicant on some specific industry knowledge for example.
This two pronged approach to testing will allow you to assess which candidate has the right blend of capabilities for the position.
Do bear in mind that when it comes to psychometric testing, the British Psychological Society stipulates that you need to be fully trained to administer the test, this may not practical this time around. To find out more visit www.psychtesting.org.uk you will find lots of useful tips and industry links.
My advice for your future recruitment campaigns is to implement a candidate testing programme as soon as possible. Its only way you can guarantee recruits who have all the right answers.
Some hiring managers I know are judged on the attrition rates of the workforce. According to the CIPD that rate can be in excess of 50% in call centres, so you have your work cut out! Any hiring manager worth his or her salt should be embracing anything that will help them to get the right candidate into the right job, this will lower the attrition rate, cut recruitment costs, make the your company more productive and earn you big slaps on the back.
You will have in mind the qualities and skills that make up your dream candidate and now you need to find a way of assessing your shortlist.
To test an individual's personal virtues such as commitment, dedication and reliability, psychometric assessment is the way to go. It will provide you with an informed and accurate picture of your candidates' soft skills, which is great as far as it goes.
However you will need to know more than that and the best way to asses a potential recruit is to use a variety of methods.
You will need a manger who combines the appropriate personal qualities with the necessary hard skills, such as the ability to accurately handle raw data or a degree of computer literacy. To get a picture of these skills you can employ a straightforward, easy to use, online test that simulates both normal and stressful working conditions. Some providers will even allow you to precisely tailor tests to meet your exact requirements, if you need to test an applicant on some specific industry knowledge for example.
This two pronged approach to testing will allow you to assess which candidate has the right blend of capabilities for the position.
Do bear in mind that when it comes to psychometric testing, the British Psychological Society stipulates that you need to be fully trained to administer the test, this may not practical this time around. To find out more visit www.psychtesting.org.uk you will find lots of useful tips and industry links.
My advice for your future recruitment campaigns is to implement a candidate testing programme as soon as possible. Its only way you can guarantee recruits who have all the right answers.
