Online tests improve recruitment efficiency at Deloitte

Professional services firm Deloitte says it has improved the efficiency of its graduate recruitment process by replacing a paper-based psychometric test with online verbal and numerical reasoning tests.

Deloitte is the largest private sector recruiter of graduates in the UK. It appoints around 1,200 graduates and undergraduates a year - from more than 10,000 applicants - to work within its tax, audit, consulting and corporate finance businesses.

In the past, eligible candidates would complete a 90-minute test in a Deloitte office before being interviewed by a line manager.

The online reasoning tests, designed by test provider PSL, take approximately 70 minutes to complete. Deloitte is using the tests as a way of sifting applicants after an initial pre-selection stage.

Sally Whitman, a senior manager in the graduate recruitment team at Deloitte, said: "By integrating online verbal and numerical reasoning tests into our graduate selection process, we have saved thousands of hours of interview time because line managers now only see candidates who have already passed the online assessments."