CIOL: Since BFSI vertical recruits candidates with various academic backgrounds like commerce graduates, post graduates, CA's, legal professionals etc. Is the evaluation tool different for candidates with different educational background?
MP: Evaluations in any industry are pegged not education specific but role specific. Candidates from any background need to perform on certain parameters to be productive and these are the parameters and skills, which are measured through a scientific assessment.

These being the case, assessments are also differentiated on the basis of experience levels. Higher experience levels require more stringent and holistic evaluations especially on domain and functional skills. Fresher are mainly evaluated on aptitude, communication and other foundation skills along with a basic knowledge of the domain.

CIOL: How can Skill Assessment help BFSI sector overcome bad recruitment cost?
MP: According to a customer perception study conducted by MeritTrac to understand the current quality of service personnel in the BFSI sector & also map the skill sets that customers feel are critical, even a single grade shortfall in skill rankings could mean substantial loss of potential sales opportunities and repeat business! This proved to the industry that critically evaluating skill sets is paramount for recruitments in this people and service centric sector.

Studies have also shown that the cost of a bad recruit amounts to Rs.. 3,00,000 for a single unfit candidate in hiring, salaries, training and admin costs. This places a huge onus on the recruiting team to select suitable candidates. Added to the business loss as demonstrated in the MeritTrac study, these issues can hurt companies in a major way and assessments provide the objective recourse to placing risky hiring bets.