Online tool to spot the good candidate

By ADAM GIFFORD

An online recruitment campaign can be so successful it creates the problem of how to prepare a short list.

James Flaherty, the business development manager for PSL Australia, says most companies with online recruitment facilities get an increase in applicants, but not necessarily of quality ones.

"The challenge is to see the good candidates first."

That is why PSL (Psychometric Services Ltd) developed Jobsift.com, an online tool which allows recruiters to sift candidates. It is not an online job site - rather, one to which candidates are referred by, perhaps, clicking through a position on a job site.

"You want to know more about a candidate and a candidate might want to know more about you, before you reach the interview stage," Mr Flaherty says.

Jobsift.com works on an application service provision (ASP) model, where users rent the software function. They configure the site by setting questions which will draw out candidates' experience and work preferences.

"We provide tools for organisations rather than do it ourselves. It's up to them to understand their own competency models and to match people against those.

"You need to be fair on everyone by asking the same questions. With online sifting you can ask basic things like, 'do you have immigration clearance to work in New Zealand, will you work shifts, do you have a driver's licence, what other qualifications do you have?'

"You can then ask what work they like to do and how they work.

"It needs to be researched so the questions you ask are likely to elicit a useful response and so they are not culturally or sexually biased. We have ways of tracking those."

Mr Flaherty says the advantage of sifting is its transparency and ability to be audited, so people will not believe the selection process is biased. It could, therefore, suit government agencies which are concerned about human rights issues in hiring.

"If someone tries to configure a job description to fit a friend, they might be challenged by someone asking, 'Why did you hire that person when the sifting ranks them as only the 19th most suitable?' "

He says Jobsift replaces some recruitment agencies' functions. "The agencies provide access to people on their database and perhaps some screening tools, and they provide some outsourced solutions such as candidate management. Online sifting provides some of that candidate and database management."

Jobsift also allows unsuitable candidates to be told quickly and politely they are not needed: "Candidates need to know what is happening with their application."

Mr Flaherty says PSL is growing fast, and expects to be the second-largest supplier of psychometric assessments in Europe by the end of the year. It is considering establishing an office in either Auckland or Wellington.