ISDD launches recruitment software that increases the accuracy of matching CVs to vacancies by 500%

ISDD, an independent software provider specialising in tools that automate the management of corporate information, today announced the launch of OmniQRECRUIT. This software allows recruitment agencies and internal HR departments to automate the process of matching suitable candidates to prospective jobs. A major recruitment organisation has seen an improvement in the accuracy of matching CVís to vacancies by over 500%.

The recruitment industry is being overwhelmed by the increasing volume of CVís it receives and could be on the brink of a crisis unless it adopts new technology. For example KPMG, top 10 graduate employer for 2004, receives 8,000 applications from graduates every year and vacancies advertised online in 2003 attracted 5.8 million applications. WorkThing states that 85% of HR professionals are still sorting CVís by hand. Recruitment agencies have a similar process, often relying on manually tagging each CV with key words so that these CVís can then be found in a future search. This system is not only immensely time consuming but it gives highly inaccurate results. Often the same keywords are used for very different candidates and the choice of which keywords best describe a document is very subjective.

OmniQRECRUIT can automate the process of matching CVís to vacancies. This advanced technology forms a íconceptual understandingí of all types of data allowing the user to execute a search using any conceivable phraseology. This means the recruiter can either enter an entire job description as the search term or choose a suitable CV and use the ífind similarí option to discover other relevant CVís.

By using OmniQRECRUIT, a company can make savings of cost and time that are not only immense but also crucial. The 2003/2004 annual recruitment industry survey, carried out by REC and PricewaterhouseCoopers, suggests that companies are growing revenues largely from existing teams. A recent Mintel report states that margins in the recruitment agency industry are continuing to diminish, as social regulation demands greater administrative efforts and costs. The recruitment sector is therefore reaching critical mass having to cope with mounting workloads without either reducing already tight margins by hiring extra staff or compromising on results as overstretching existing teams.

ISDDís OmniQRECRUIT intelligent search and retrieval software allows recruitment agencies to enhance their competitive advantage by providing more suitable candidates in a quicker time period. In-house HR departments will be able to fill roles quicker and make sure that they give fair review of all applications, not only to avoid accusations of discrimination, but also to ensure that those that do get through to first round interviews are the cream of the crop.

At the heart of OmniQRECRUIT is the ISDD Inference engine, which is an implementation of the Probabilistic model for information retrieval. This model was first pioneered at Cambridge University in the 1970s and was itself based on the formal mathematical model developed over 200 years ago by Rev. Thomas Bayes and generally known as Bayesian Probability Theory. The ISDD software development team is lead by Dr. John Tabraham, a Cambridge University mathematician.

Keith Vooght, Commercial Director of ISDD, said: ISDD recognises that the recruitment sector had unique requirements from this technology that were not being met by other íblack boxí products on the market. We worked closely with recruitment company Hudson in developing OmniQRECRUIT. This means that we could ensure our software would make a vital improvement for recruitment agencies and in-house PR departments.