JobQ uses technology to put forward only the best candidates for jobs
A new software-based system is aiming to reduce the number of unsuitable
candidates forwarded to HR and recruitment departments from online job sites,
as well as bring cost and time-savings of between 25-50 per cent and 75 per
cent respectively.
Online recruiting has long been criticised for delivering high numbers of
applicants that may not be of the right quality.
"Two or three years ago, online recruitment was the buzz word. But
while the upside was candidate generation, the downside was that the large
numbers of candidates made it like trying to find a needle in haystack for
those recruiting," says Mark Housley, CEO of Axiom, developer of the new
JobQ software.
The Manchester-based company is well-known in the HR industry as the creator
of the Disc and Discus behavioural profiling system. It hopes that by applying
technology to pre-screen candidates as soon as their application lands, it can
then test them more specifically according to a client’s criteria, JobQ will
bring an end to many of the frustrations associated with online recruiting and
let it realise its potential.
"Many of the management systems are limited to simple skills matching
and are generally old- generation technology," says Housley. "The
client needs a fully-co-ordinated system that can identify motivations,
numeracy skills, personality traits, corporate fit and so on."
JobQ is an application service provider-based system, which can be
custom-branded and integrated with an organisation’s own online recruiting
system and accessed via an intranet, extranet or the Internet.
When an application is received, JobQ automatically assesses the candidate
according to a company’s criteria. It gathers biographical, motivational,
aptitude, skills-related and other data, and applicants found to be unsuitable
at this stage could be sent a rejection response.
"Axiom’s research shows that the criticism of many job applicants is
that they never get a reply from organisations. This issue will be a thing of
the past," says Lindsay McEwan, director of international business at
Axiom.
Candidates who get through the first stage can then be assessed using a wide
range of testing, including psychometric and other personality testing.
Axiom says it can access any kind of online testing required by clients, and
JobQ is currently using Kenexa systems for skills testing and The Test Agency
and The Criterion Partnership for psychometric testing.
It costs less than £20,000 to set up JobQ, and there is an ongoing
management fee, which will be determined by the number of applications received
per annum.
"Typically, the cost ranges from £1 to £3 per applicant," says
McEwan. "It is fixed for the client per annum so they know what to budget
for. Having to spend six figures on recruitment/candidate management systems is
a thing of the past. In fact, the cost of implementing JobQ is around the cost
of one or two adverts in the major nationals," he claims.
Axiom claims that JobQ will bring cost savings of between 25 and 50 per cent
and time savings of 75 per cent and McEwan believes that enabling HR to make
these cuts will help it more closely align itself with the business side of an
organisation and increase its profile of HR with their "internal
customers".
"Recruitment should be packaged by HR professionals more like an
fmcg," he says.
"One of HR’s weaknesses has been the profession’s lack of commercial
literacy. Often not budget holders, HR has been remote from the key metrics
that are essential to drive efficiencies in the area of recruitment.
"I’ve found that when an HR audience is asked at recruitment
conferences questions on cost per hire, cost per retained employee (after three
to six months and beyond) and so on, only around 10 per cent say that they
know.
"JobQ encourages business literacy and will address this lack of
knowledge and so significantly increase the profile of HR within their
organisations."
McEwan says it is premature to quote potential client names, but bus company
Arriva is currently integrating the system in its graduate recruitment process.
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