Abstract
“The change” is no longer constant but rather accelerating, and with this acceleration comes the fear of uncertainty. World Economic Forum report on “Future of Jobs” states that 65% of students in grade school now, will be working for technologies that aren’t invented yet. Now when such an unprecedented future awaits us, what are the skills a company should look for during the process of hiring the future workforce? How can the recruiters ensure the “skills of tomorrow” in candidates they hire? The solution to this “tech-given” problem is “tech-driven”. By using scientifically designed shortlisting assessments like Pymeteric, companies can ensure the required relevant skills in a candidate they recruit. Being a fresh campus recruit, I have shared my experience with two MNCs that deployed technology to streamline their recruitment process.

Main Content
The popular notion that “Change is constant” is slowly losing its significance in this fast tech-driven world. “The change” is no longer constant but rather accelerating, and with this accelerating pace comes the fear of an uncertain future. World Economic Forum report on “Future of Jobs” states that 65% of students in grade school now, will be working for technologies that aren’t invented yet. With such an unprecedented future ahead of us, when the future jobs and market scenarios are unknown, are conventional technical skills listed on resumes enough to gauge the competency of a candidate while recruiting the future workforce of the company? Certainly not. With such uncertain market scenarios ahead, the recruitment process will play an important role in deciding the future of the company as these new recruits will have to shoulder the responsibility of maneuvering the company around uncertain and fast-accelerating times to come.

But then if the future is so unpredictable then what are the skills that these new recruits should be judged upon? What are these “skills of tomorrow” and how do we filter out these in candidates? The answer to the first is simpler than it looks, “Soft Skills”. When the future is so uncertain, soft skills like creativity, adaptability, communication skills, etc are the only way to deal with whatever the future throws. Only a creative, adaptable, and emotionally intelligent mind can be comfortable with uncertainty and at the same time come up with logical solutions to move around difficult hurdles.

The answer to the second “tech-given” problem – How do we ensure these skills in a candidate? is ‘”tech-driven”. By using scientifically designed assessments like pymeteric, many MNCs have revolutionised the recruitment process. Sharing my personal experience in this regard will be more helpful in understanding this new method.

I joined IndianOil on September 26, 2022, via campus placements, and while I am close to my one-year anniversary with this esteemed organisation, am reminded of my placement days ( Not so long ago) when waking up and giving interviews had become a routine. Of all the interviews and shortlisting exams I gave, my experience with these two big banks, particularly, was amazing. Both of these banks were big names in the sector and the way they leveraged technology in their recruitment process, deserves a mention. A little background at this point seems necessary. I was appearing for the role of data scientist, majorly dealing with machine learning and artificial intelligence. At first glance, this seems highly sophisticated and technical (which, of course, it is) but I was shocked that my technical skills were not the centre of the entire selection process. The first phase of the shortlisting required us to give a pymeteric assessment.

A pymeteric assessment is a set of neuroscience-based online games that gauges a person’s soft skills based on behavioural data gleaned from how they play the games. Companies often use this assessment to diversify their workforce by eliminating the inherent bias in judging candidates based on resumes and cover letters. The best part of this assessment is that there is no right or wrong answer. The candidate is required to tick the option that best defines him/her. Based on answers given by the candidate, the software plots our various data points which are then used to derive the nature of the candidate. I think an example at this point would be good: Of all the games I played, this one particular game has stuck with me; it’s called the “Stop game”. In this assessment, red and green circles will flash on your screen, and you’ll be tasked with hitting the spacebar as fast and accurately as you can only when the red circle shows up. This is testing your decision-making, measuring whether you fall more on the instinctive side or the deliberative side. What a scientific, logical, and futuristic approach to recruitment! The recruiter can similarly filter out candidates who have the required soft skills based on the role he offers.

Now since the company had shortlisted candidates with the required soft skills, eliminating a major chuck of the crowd, further stages were just to ensure the candidate’s basic technical skills and his/her career aspirations for which it relied on classic group discussion and personal interview. Interestingly, the majority of questions asked to me in my interview were non-technical, normal daily life problem-solving questions testing my ability to deal with uncertain and unknown situations. Technical questions constituted roughly 20% of the questions asked.

While it is not viable for top companies to recruit employees by conducting SSB like- a 6-day-long interview process followed by the defence forces to recruit the best of the best officers, technological solutions like these are also proving to be a rational recipe for the recruitment process.

References:

World Economic Forum report on “Future of Jobs” https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_FOJ_Executive_Summary_Jobs.pdf