Hi Friends,

Even as I launch this today ( my 80th Birthday ), I realize that there is yet so much to say and do. There is just no time to look back, no time to wonder,"Will anyone read these pages?"

With regards,
Hemen Parekh
27 June 2013

Now as I approach my 90th birthday ( 27 June 2023 ) , I invite you to visit my Digital Avatar ( www.hemenparekh.ai ) – and continue chatting with me , even when I am no more here physically

Thursday, 30 November 2006

GURU QUEST-IIT

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:
    1. Expandable / Configurable list of ITEMS / ATTRIBUTES
      • This could be “customized & frozen” for a given position/vacancy.
    2. Attachment of WEIGHTAGES to each item/attribute.
      • Which again would be customizable but frozen for a given position/vacancy.
    3. 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:

  1. Candidate Assessment (CA)
  2. 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

 












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