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Skill-test industry comes of age

Two years ago, Capgemini India roped in Mettl to help the company assess skills of candidates while recruiting. What began as a few online assessment tests for candidates over a couple of skills today runs into about 50,000 tests, dealing in 50-odd skills.

Online assessment tests and programmes are increasingly helping human resource (HR) professionals in India Inc to gauge the right skills of candidates while hiring, as well as that of their on-roll employees during the year. Being offered by the likes of Mettl, MeritTrac and Thomas Assessments, among others, online assessment services have not only helped companies save on training costs but also enhance employability of candidates.
 
"We have worked with many large conglomerates and have helped them reduce training costs. Recruits undergo a skill-based assessment, based on the organisational needs. Having been benchmarked, their strengths and weaknesses are analysed. Then, training modules to suit different skill gaps are designed and deployed, making the training process more efficient and impactful," says Tonmoy Shingal, co-founder and COO, Mettl.
 
Modules are also prepared for post-training assessment of employees, to test the effectiveness of the training module and to assign the right people to projects.

On their part, companies are also realising the importance of testing not only knowledge and skills but also softer aspects like personality and behaviour, which together drive person-job fitness.
 
According to Yugesh Goutam, executive director, KEC International, part of the RPG Group, online assessments tend be a cost-effective measures for companies. "Leveraging the online assessments while recruiting for development of the candidate is truly a cost-effective measure," says Goutam.
 
The online assessment platforms address the need for relevant, skill-based assessment to help companies reduce time and effort on training recruits. These services may include creation and management of assessments of multiple competencies, hands-on testing, simulation-based measurement of skills, automatic invigilation, actionable analytics and easy and efficient content upload meant for freshers, as well as lateral recruitments.
 
According to Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt Ltd, the services have also been helping HR officials address the employability issue.
 
"Leading corporate houses are increasingly taking the help of assessment service providers to find the right candidate for the right job. That the industry and corporates are unhappy about the quality of students for employability is recognised. The services not only bring better value on the training and other preparatory costs for industry but also enhance employability of students," says Vedamoorthy Namasivayam, senior director, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, India.
 
In the case of Capgemini India, though the training costs have not come down, the turnaround time has reduced. "In the last two years, we have conducted 50,000 assessments through Mettl and are now dealing in 50 skills across domains. Now, we can conduct online tests for multiple candidates at one go. We are also planning to do a periodical online assessment for our employees and map their career progressions. Ideally, their skill sets should correspond to the level at which they are. While such assessment services haven′t reduced training costs, the turnaround time gets reduced," says Kopal Garg, senior consultant-recruitment and resource management, Capgemini India.
 
Putting it in numbers is Rajeev Menon, head-innovation and product management; sales head-corporate and K12 business at MeritTrac: "According to a recent survey, one bad hiring decision costs Indian companies Rs 20 lakh - this includes the cost of hiring, training, re-hiring and re-training, in addition to notional loss in the form of poor customer experience, job disengagement, and dissatisfaction and withdrawal behaviour at the workplace. Using the right test to identify the right candidate can help organisations save time and money by making the right hiring decision in the first go."
 
Experts say the assessment industry is estimated to be around Rs 300 crore, with a compound annual growth rate of around 12-15 per cent. With several assessment companies functioning, the market is broadly divided into skill assessment companies and firms which are in the areas of behavioural and competency evaluation.