Public sector companies including HAL, Bhel, SAIL, NTPC and HPCL have started outsourcing entry-level

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recruitment evalu-ation to skill assessment firms. They used to cond-ucting these examinations internally previously.

PSUs have not been able to handle the increa-sing number of applica-tions and outsourcing has become a viable option.

Bhel selected 400 engineering graduates, against 250 in 2008 and NTPC’s entrance exa-mination attracted about 97,000 applications, against 65,000 the previous year. SAIL recruited 30 from IIMs and 150 from IITs, while HAL received 50,000 applications for 250 job-openings.

HAL outsources its entry-level evaluation for management and design trainees to skill assessment firms. This is, however, restricted only to the application and written test required for the job role. “Outsourcing tests not only brings transparency, but also reduces the load on the firm. Further, the quality of assessment also improves, prevents leakage and reduces recruitment time,” said Sanjeev Sahi, director personnel, HAL.

“Core-sector PSUs are finally seeing a reversal of fortunes due to the slow-down. The number of app-lications received by these companies is increasing by the day. At present, the PSUs are outsourcing applications and exam-ination processes to skill assessment firms. Most of these companies could soon completely migrate to online assessments,” said Madan Padaki, CEO and co-founder of MeritTrac Services.

Padaki said that accessing and hiring quality talent is becoming increasingly challenging for PSUs. While talent exists in large numbers, the toughest task lies in sifting through a dynamic talent pool and choosing the candidates that best fit with the job-role and organisation.

MeritTrac, which works with 16 PSUs has assessed about eight lakh candidates in the past year. “One noticeable trend among the PSUs is that they are aggressively hiring so as to attract quality talent to cash in on the interest seen. They are ready to adopt assessment solutions and try out new things hitherto not done. They want to match up with the private sector desperately,” Padaki pointed out.

While skill assessment firms such as MeritTrac and Assesspeople are directly involved in the recruitment procedure, firms such as Bangalore-based e2e People Practices is not directly involved in recruit-ment, but help PSU’s with their recruitment polices.

According to Yeshasvini Ramaswamy, director, e2e People Practices, the company has developed customised hiring strat-egies for PSUs and has also helped streamline their recruitment polices, which has reduced their lead time in finding suitable candidates.