Feature

Test designing: A specialised skill

Designing tests to recruit the right manpower demands a lot of domain expertise and technical knowledge, writes Kusum Makhija.

An effective recruitment process is critical for the success of an organisation as employees form the backbone of any company. Stringent recruitment procedures is something that most companies take great pride in to ensure that they induct the best talent. This is made possible through written tests and several rounds of interviews. While a lot has been said about the interview process, very little is discussed about the written stage which is crucial to find candidates with the right technical and soft skills. These tests are designed by a battery of experts (mostly third party vendors) who customise it according to every organisation. A properly designed test can go a long way in helping an organisation hire the right kind of people.

Institutions like NIIT and Aptech design tests for various companies across verticals and IT companies in particular. NIIT, for instance, does recruitment tests, internal competency tests, regulatory compliance tests, vendor-specific certification tests, etc for specific industry verticals. The test division of Aptech, Attest, offers contemporary technology-based testing and assessment solution. “We have the expertise of over five years in delivering computer-based testing, and trained personnel at its helm. However, recruitment tests is something that we have entered into recently. We have clients right from government institutions to big corporates,” says K Raj, Senior Vice-president, Attest Testing Services, Aptech.

“So far, recruitment tests have been used by large companies that need to regularly hire a large number of people. However, technology, scale and the market dynamics will increasingly allow smaller companies to benefit from these as well. While a majority of customers use it to recruit/assess people at the operational level, special or customised tests are also being used for psychometric tests for people at all levels in the organisation,” explains Rohit Agarwal, Practice Head, Assessment Solutions, Know-ledge Solutions Business, NIIT.

Parameters/checklists

There are various parameters or checklists on which a client judges the validity and authenticity of the test. The most basic is to see how well the test meets the requirements of the company in terms of addressing the right kind of target audience. “The test should be able to guage the candidate’s analytical skills, comprehensive ability, language command and problem solving approach, as part of minimum acceptable level for recruitment of a candidate. Based on this assessment we conduct interviews and group discussions for the potential hires,” explains Rajeev Yadav, Vice-president, Operations, Birlasoft.

“The content of the tests is generally based on specific job requirements. For instance, for software companies this would translate to specific technical skills. For BPO companies it would mean the required level of competence in language, communication skills (written and oral), computer literacy, listening comprehension, mental and quantitative ability, etc. The exam objectives tend to be generic. However, customers set their own difficulty levels as well as pass/fail criteria,” explains Agarwal.

“The client gives a list of parameters to Attest, based on which tests are designed. While it is difficult to specify generic criteria, some common criteria would be—basic aptitude, command over the English language. Specific to industry would be logic skills, team management/leadership, sales ability and so on,” says K Raj.

To ensure a truly collaborative mode with clients, Attest follows its testing model, the 4D Process Mix, which aims to design assessment solutions that meet the specific evaluation needs of its clients. The 4D Process Mix is specially designed with proven and precise methodologies that guarantee reliable, robust, secure and proven online assessment system.

NIIT, on the other hand, follows a multi-level process validation model. After the questions are formulated on the basis of analysis of the client’s requirement and the expert advice, the test is then subjected to validity by getting it answered by the best of breed industry professionals who are already working on the positions for which the test is meant. The answers are then verified and checked by the domain expert team. The tests are also assessed through various assessment engines, which help to customise the test.

Skill sets needed

Often organisations outsource the designing of recruitment tests simply because the desired skill sets are not available in-house. Also, it is a costly proposition for companies to hire or develop those design skills in-house, especially when the recruitment is not a regular activity. The domain experts in that case will be sitting without work for most part of the year.

“Test designing is a highly specialised skill. There are various skill sets required which range from knowledge of the subject matter to statistics, and from instructional design to an understanding of the target audience,” explains Agarwal.

Designing an appropriate test to recruit the right manpower demands a lot of domain expertise and technical knowledge. Although these tests are not the only criterion by which the candidate is judged, they are often the stepping stone to higher levels in the selection procedure for a candidate. Recruitment tests are often of two types, elimination and selection tests. While elimination tests seek to reject all candidates who do not have the desired level of knowledge required for the test, selection tests aim to bring out the positive qualities in a candidate which give him an edge over the contenders for the job. The psychometric element involved in the recruitment tests is very high generally. “The key resource required is that of a qualified pyschometrician. The process involves understanding of the requirement, development of the question items, administering the items to a group of respondents (matching the target audience) and then validating and normalising the instrument,” explains K Raj.

"What we look for is reliability and security while providing benefits of convenience, efficiency, adaptability yet retaining cost-effectiveness to our clients" - K Raj Senior Vice-president Attest Testing Services Aptech

"The test should guage the candidate’s analytical skills, language command and problem solving approach, as part of minimum acceptable level for recruitment of a candidate" - Rajeev Yadav Vice-president Operations Birlasoft

The benefits

In organisations where the mass recruitment is done once or twice a year, third party recruitment tests come in quite handy. This would be typical of large BPO and software development companies that look to hire fresh graduates from technical universities and colleges.

“We hire frequently and on a large scale from colleges, this is where these recruitment tests help us since it eases out a lot of burden from us in terms of designing the test. All we have to do is conduct the test at our premises and assess the candidates on the basis of scores. The specialised skills required for designing a test have to be otherwise developed in-house,” explains Yadav.

Recruitment tests designed by someone outside an organisation also ensures an unbiased selection, as candidates are assured of an objective and fair selection based on their scores in the test. The scope of manipulation while hiring in this case becomes less.

“Outsourcing the recruitment tests to a third party not only reduces time and cost, it also improves the effectiveness of the assessment process through scientifically desig-ned, tested, valid and reliable tests. This in turn helps the organisation to maintain a high level of integrity and security in the assessment process,” says Agarwal.

The primary expectations are to minimise errors in selection, suitability of candidate with role. Other benefits include process efficiency, error and bias free evaluation and convenience of the evaluator. “What we look for is reliability and security while providing benefits of convenience, efficiency, adaptability yet retaining cost–effectiveness to our clients,” asserts K Raj.

Major constraints

The industry numbers are difficult to come by as it is a highly fragmented market. No formal market study has been done and hence, it is difficult to quantify the market for the third party outsourcing of recruitment tests being done in India. Most of these recruitment tests are conducted online. “Access to reliable Internet connectivity in a controlled environment has been a bottleneck in the past. The other constraint has been the use of technology. The English language as the medium for conducting tests has meant that a large market segment cannot benefit from online/technology-aided assessments,” points out Agarwal.

Agrees K Raj of Aptech, “The major bottleneck for us has been the non-availability of the online platform for tests, as all our tests are in an online format. Today, computerisation is a prerequisite, with all or most functions being automated or computer-enabled. Therefore, it is only logical that the examination or assessment process should also embrace computerisation to reap the benefits.”

kusum@expresscomputeronline.com