HR Managers want to do more online

HR MANAGERS WANT TO DO MORE ONLINE - SHL EXPERT ONLINE PROVIDES A SINGLE, COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT SOLUTION

Research among HR managers has indicated that most would like to increase the number of tasks they can do online*. With cost, resource and time-savings as the key drivers, internet-based assessment is seen as a significant benefit to stretched HR departments. Responding to this feedback from customers, SHL has created a single online platform for a range of objective assessments - Expert Online.

Expert Online now offers more than 15 of the most highly regarded and well used assessments in one simple to use system. The product is designed to help HR staff to manage across the employee life cycle, from initial assessment through management development to eventual exit.

SHL expects Expert Online to encourage still more HR departments to opt for online solutions. The number of clients using SHL’s online tests and questionnaires has almost doubled in the last two years to well over a thousand. Expert Online includes...

- Leading personality questionnaires including OPQ, CCSQ, WSQ

- Scenarios Online, an assessment of managerial judgement
available in online format, with automated scoring for the first time.

- Sifting tools that measure verbal and numeric reasoning

- Exit interview - psychometrically based assessment that identifies the drivers behind decisions to resign

- The latest 2005 norms so that candidates are compared to the latest and most up to date comparison group.

In addition, Expert Online includes a new, improved range of reports that put results and candidate assessments into a business context. SHL has designed these to help HR managers convey key information to line managers who may not have the benefit of their training and expertise. Many customers have commented that they often find it hard to convince line managers of the value of the services they can offer. SHL hope that the information in the new reports will help them to do this.

Mike Philips, partner at HR recruitment specialist GatenbySanderson, speaking about the advantages of Expert Online, said: For us the key advantage has been the improved accessibility we can offer candidates throughout the assessment process. The flexibility of an online solution means that they can take assessments in their own time, often from home in the evening. This makes the whole process faster and more efficient for all parties.

Kevin Kerrigan, managing director of SHL, adds, We developed Expert Online in response to the twin demands from our customers for an easy-to-use solution that gave them more of the assessments they know and love in an online format, and the need to have better information with which to convince line managers. Initial responses from customers using the pilot versions indicate that we’ve hit both of these objectives.

Looking to the future, while I expect there will always be a place for pencil and paper tests, I wouldn’t be surprised if 75 per cent of the market is online within the next few years. Increasingly, with products like Expert Online, every aspect of the employee life-cycle, from application through to exit, can be assessed and managed objectively and transparently, leaving HR departments free to deal with the issues that arise from assessment, not the mechanics of assessment itself.

Nick Hughes, managing director, South Liverpool Recruitment Ltd, an SHL customer commented: Expert Online has helped enhance our customers’ perceptions of our company, further enabling us to offer an effective professional service that minimises disruption and allows the customer to focus on the individual, not the process. And perhaps even more importantly for us as a service provider it has saved staff time and therefore increased profitability.