Candidate
Assessment (CA) Tool: GumQuest
Saurabh
→ Yogesh → Rahul → Swati → Sonal
GumQuest
30/11/06
Candidate
Assessment (CA) Tool
(Graph
description)
A scatter plot showing Score by 3P (X-axis) vs Score by Client
(Y-axis).
Scale:
1 to 5
- The
ideal line (X = Y) represents perfect agreement between 3P
(consultant) and client ratings.
- Example
1:
3P rates candidate “Low” but client rates “High” — unlikely, since 3P won’t recommend such persons for final interview. - Example
2:
Both 3P and client rate candidate “Good” (score 3). - Example
3:
3P scores a candidate “Very High” (5) but client rates “Very Poor” (1).
→ May be because client used different weightages.
Inference
When
1000 candidates are interviewed & rated by both 3P and clients,
a scattergram (line of best fit) can be plotted to reveal interesting correlations.
A
company can plot a similar diagram for correlation between its own
(a) 1st round interview ratings (X-axis) and
(b) 2nd round interview ratings (Y-axis).
(Signed)
30/11/06
GumQuest
Question Databank Concept
Saurabh
→ Yogesh → Rahul → Sonal → Swati
30/11/06
- In
GumQuest, we are enabling several managers (developing same roles
but at different locations) to create a Private Question Databank
by creating Excel sheets.
- All
such Excel sheets have to be uploaded in GumQuest tool, so that all
managers have access to the knowledge of all other managers (for that
function).
- But
some Central/Chief HR Managers will insist that unless he sees
& approves all uploaded question sets, these private databanks cannot
be activated / made usable by managers located at faraway locations!
- Therefore,
we will need to incorporate this feature in GumQuest.
(Signed)
30/11/06
Rahul
→ Saurabh
GumQuest
(Offline)
IIT → Online
27/11/06
- We
are developing GumQuest in ASP.NET so that once it is operational
offline with 3P/strategic HR, it can be uploaded to IndiaRecruiter
with changes/modifications suggested by our consultants.
- Being
able to click on a keyword to call up interview questions is, obviously,
the MAIN feature.
It is our USP (Unique Selling Proposition). - What
big/professional companies will like is the ability to create a PRIVATE
databank of interview questions which are UNIQUE to their
industry/business/product/services, etc.
I
am convinced that the Chief HR Manager will distribute the task of
creating such PRIVATE Question Banks to in-house domain experts located in any
branch of the world.
This is enabling them to capture and encapsulate the collective wisdom of
the organization.
As
of today, this wisdom gets lost to the organization every time a domain expert
leaves the company.
With
this PRIVATE databank feature, for the first time, the Chief HR Manager does
not have to worry about losing the knowledge/information everywhere an expert
leaves.
This is a great relief!
Going
one step further, we decided to add to GumQuest:
Candidate
Assessment
(See
enclosed draft W/I)
An
interviewer is expected to fill this page as soon as he/she completes
interviewing a candidate.
The
interviewing itself could be across the table or over telephone.
Over a period of time, we intend to add the features of:
- Video
Interviewing (from multi-locations)
- Photo-file
attachment (before video interviewing)
- Voice
Recognition (interview questions and spoken answers
conversion into text and preserved as either audio file or text file)
- Instant
Messaging / Collaboration among several HR
managers
– belonging to the same client company, or
– between recruitment agency consultants and the corporate client HR managers.
- In
Candidate Assessment, there are 3 main elements:
- Expandable
/ Configurable list of ITEMS / ATTRIBUTES
- This
could be “customized & frozen” for a given position/vacancy.
- Attachment
of WEIGHTAGES to each item/attribute.
- Which
again would be customizable but frozen for a given position/vacancy.
- Scoring
on a scale of 1 to 5.
- While
designing the UI for this score sheet, I realized that it should be
developed as a plug-in-able, standard component,
which we can use again and again at many places.
- I
realized that we could profitably use this component in:
CANDIDATE
REFERENCE (CRA)
(Antecedent Check)
See
UI enclosed.
- By
simply changing the ITEMS / ATTRIBUTES list,
we have instantly created a new feature called:
Candidate
Reference (CR).
When
Corporate HR Managers get to see this feature, they will insist that all
recruitment agencies use it.
They will insist that the recruitment agencies send both:
- Candidate
Assessment (CA)
- Candidate
Reference (CR)
This
insistence (on part of client HR managers) will work to our advantage.
Even
if 3P / Strategic HR start using these forms and start sending these to their
corporate clients —
the word will spread very fast.
If
these very clients are also making use of other recruitment agencies,
they will start asking them:
“Hey,
if 3P / Strategic HR can send us CA + CR along with a candidate’s profile, why
can’t you?”
What
value addition are you making, pushing plain text resumes?
Now
notice the difference:
CA is
an Assessment of a Candidate,
immediately after the interview
— whether offline/online
— whether by Agency or Client (Final Interview).
Whereas:
No
previous employer has time to fill in a CR and send/mail it to a
Recruitment Agency.
According
to Nirmit, Candidate Reference (CR) only works over telephone, even at
the best of times.
No
one wants to give in writing (say, by filling up a structured form) what he/she
thinks about another person.
This
is especially true if some negative (less-than-flattering) comments are
involved.
People
don’t like to say bad things about a previous
colleague/boss/subordinate/supplier,
even over a phone, when no record is kept.
And
then, most executives don’t want to spend a lot of time answering a lot of
questions — even over a phone.
Now
compare this with the always-present problem of our consultants forgetting to
ask the right/relevant questions because that opinion-giver is in a hurry.
With
a CR, there is a ready checklist (of course, customizable), so you don’t
forget any question.
Once
again, if as a consultant you get a feeling that the opinion-giver is in hurry,
then you ask only those questions whose weightage is more, leaving out
minor questions.
A
checklist will also provide uniformity/consistency (of questions) across all of
our consultants.
Of
course, before starting the telephone reference check, our consultants would
need to explain to the opinion-giver our 5-point scale.
This will make it very easy for the opinion-giver to say:
“Well,
on hard work I will say he/she’s average, but on discipline I would rate
him/her good.”
Consultant
can click the relevant radio button even as the opinion-giver is speaking.
(Of course, a hands-free earphone would be ideal but not essential.)
These
are my preliminary thoughts.
On
your meetings with Mitchelle, Nirmit, Anvil, Aparna,
some more thoughts will emerge.
Thus, a copy of this note is also being sent to them, requesting them to
contribute their valuable suggestions,
so that we can accommodate something we might have missed out.
Of
course, some more points are bound to emerge after our consultants have used CA
/ CR for a few weeks.
We will incorporate those too before going online.
Good
Luck.
(Signed)
27/11/06
cc:
- Thakur
- Anvil
- Mitchelle
- Aparna
