Assessing Assessment : with a diversity spin

An ERE blog entry that PolyPlacements tweeted about reminded me of a bunch of discussions I have taken part in recently about assessment tools in the job board world.

I think you can make a strong case that fully-automated assessment tools are the holy grail of technology when it comes to recruiting and hiring. And yet nobody really seems to have the answer. Why is that?

One point of view, as is found in the aforementioned blog post, is that the tests themselves are to blame. Well. Okay. But I think the problem is more fundamental than that. The biggest hurdle I see is that in order to have effective tests you need a system that can objectively measure subjective answers but that's a difficult proposition from both a language and computer science perspective.

So to step back and explain what I mean. In order to have an automated (at least partially) assessment tool you need to be able to "score" the answers that the test user gives. The problem comes in designing questions (and a response mechanism) that be objectively measured. In the end most of these questions end being no better than "Do you have 5 years experience with X? Yes/No" which fails in multiple ways. The most obvious way it fails is a dishonest user who replies yes to every question. But the problem is worse than that as well because it doesn't properly capture the honest person who has 4 years and 6 months experience. Or the person who didn't really understand the question but has the relevent experience. Etc.

I am of the belief that at a certain point you have to accept that you won't be able to detect users with malicious intent purely through software. But that's okay because there are other aspects of the hiring process, like background and reference checking, that are intended to deal with these sorts of problems and frankly do it well. So I think one needs to focus on improving the process so that you aren't filtering out good candidates too early in the process.

These kinds of issues are especially relevant for TalentOyster because for some of our candidates the "traditional" sorts of screening tests act as obstacles to their getting hired. For example an assessment test that isn't PWD "friendly" and causes a good, qualified candidate to be filtered out. Or the assessment test that features such culturally specific terms and language that it can't be understood by anyone who didn't grow up in Canada.

And while we are working on assessments tools from a diversity angle I tend to think that the answers we find will be helpful in general as well. That is, to say the somewhat obvious, an assessment tool that works for a diverse audience will, by defintion, work for everyone.

We're Up!

Whoo-hoo.

So hey. We're now officially up.

Today our site has officially moved from development to live. What this means is that the core parts of our site are now all running and we have jobs from a number of employers up on the site. More jobs from other employers will be going up between now and February 2nd.

We are still in Beta because with a somewhat compressed development cycle there may be issues still to be worked out. And we will be continuing to add new features and content currently under development.

Be sure to check out our Community section as well. We have content and areas to discuss issues relevent to diverse job candidates as well as settlement resources for those who have recently or are looking to immigrate to Canada.

TalentOyster CommunityEventBadge

Following the launch of the TalentOyster JobBadge is our CommunityEventBadge. You can see the CommunityEventBadge running on the right side of this blog.

This badge works similarly to our JobBadge but provides community event content instead and is targetted more at those who are interested in the community aspects of TalentOyster.

We will be creating a space on our site for you to create customized versions of our badges but for now to add the CommunityEventBadge to your site just copy and paste the code below (to use on bloggercom post this code into a new custom HTML gadget for your blog).



<script src="http://www.talentoyster.com/widgets/events/events.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// create a new TalentOyster CommunityEventBadge
var talentOysterEventBadge = new
TalentOyster_Eventbadge();

// should the badge automatically refresh itself? default is true
// talentOysterEventBadge.autorefresh=false;//turns refresh off

// the interval in seconds between event list refreshes. default is 8
talentOysterEventBadge.interval=9;

// the number of events to display in the list. default is 3
talentOysterEventBadge.jobcount=4;

// sets the width of the badge in pixels. default is 200
//talentOysterEventBadge.width=300; // would set width to 300 pixels

// configures the background and font colors used for the frame and content
// talentOysterEventBadge.theme.badgeframe.background="#000000";//black background
// talentOysterEventBadge.theme.badgeframe.color="#FFFFFF";//white text
// talentOysterEventBadge.theme.joblist.background="#FFFFFF";//white background
// talentOysterEventBadge.theme.joblist.color="#000000";//black text

// displays the badge. this line is required
talentOysterEventBadge.render();

// loads the badge with jobs the first time. this line is required
talentOysterEventBadge.load();
</script>

Diversity help : all in one place

One of the values that TalentOyster brings to companies are our relationships with both specific ethnic/cultural communities and not-for-profit organizations who support them. It isn't easy to find these groups, and even harder to evaluate them for effectiveness. Which is why, since we've already done all that hard-work, you should let us help you and your company with all your diversity-in-the-workplace issues.

TalentOyster is a new presence but not a new player in the field. Our parent company has been in the multi-cultural space for over 50 years. Quite simply that's a level of experience that can't be matched.

And it's experience that can help you. We can help you if you or your company is looking help with:

• advertising jobs to diverse communities


• getting your employment brand in front of diverse communities


• positioning your employment brand to diverse communities


• providing diversity training for your hiring managers and/or recruiters and/or employees


• positioning your corporate brand to diverse communities


• reaching diverse communities as part of your marketing and advertising efforts

Through TalentOyster directly, our parent and sister companies (like Diversity Media Services) and our relationships with not-for-profit partners providing diversity related services we can help you with all your diversity related needs.

We know that when companies that "want to do diversity right" don't want partial solutions but wholistic ones and that's what we do. It's why we say that TalentOyster is "not just a job board" but a one-stop solution partner for all your diversity related needs.

Introducing the TalentOyster JobBadge

The first TalentOyster web-badge is now up and available for our beta site. You can see it on the right of this blog, it shows recent jobs on our site and refreshes itself every so often.

We'll be adding a section to our site where you can easily create customizable TalentOyster web badges to include on your site but for now the JobBadge code appears below. You can customize the colours used for the badge, the number of jobs to display, whether or not the list should refresh automatically and the delay between refreshes. You can also of course customize the language used for the badge to use any of the TalentOyster supported languages and locales.

So just copy and paste the code below into your page (to use on bloggercom post this code into a new custom HTML gadget for your blog).


<script src="http://www.talentoyster.com/widgets/jobs/jobs.js" type="text/javascript">
</script>
<script type="text/javascript">
// create a new TalentOyster JobBadge
var talentOysterJobBadge = new
TalentOyster_Jobbadge();

// should the badge automatically refresh itself? default is true
// talentOysterJobBadge.autorefresh=false;//turns refresh off

// the interval in seconds between job list refreshes. default is 8
talentOysterJobBadge.interval=9;

// the number of jobs to display in the list. default is 3
talentOysterJobBadge.jobcount=4;

// sets the width of the badge in pixels. default is 200
//talentOysterJobBadge.width=300; // would set width to 300 pixels

// configures the background and font colors used for the frame and content
// talentOysterJobBadge.theme.badgeframe.background="#000000";//black background
// talentOysterJobBadge.theme.badgeframe.color="#FFFFFF";//white text
// talentOysterJobBadge.theme.joblist.background="#FFFFFF";//white background
// talentOysterJobBadge.theme.joblist.color="#000000";//black text

// displays the badge. this line is required
talentOysterJobBadge.render();

// loads the badge with jobs the first time. this line is required
talentOysterJobBadge.load();
</script>

Less than three weeks of beta left...

Well our beta period is winding down and the full-launch date grows ever closer. Be sure to check out our site and let us know what you think.

We're putting the finishing touches on the community portal aspect of our site which will be rolled-out next week and continuing to make tweaks and changes to the rest of our site based on user experience and feedback.

And just generally getting excited/nervous about our launch. We're tracking well towards it but as with so many things a lot of work to do in a short time period.

Our site is up in Beta

The TalentOyster site is up in Beta. What does that mean? Well it means that almost all of the functionality of the site is present but that (a) we are continuing to modify how pieces of our site look and (b) there are still some quirks in functionality we are finding and working through.

So what kinds of things are we working on exactly? Well, the look and feel stuff is the main area, and improvements are ongoing. But also working on improving the user experience when it comes to things like searching for jobs. For example right now you *can* search for jobs by location but it doesn't work in a user-friendly enough way. So we're working on that. And on our community news portal. And our user-interaction components.

At any rate all pretty busy but you should come check us out. If you find an issue or problem please let us know via our feedback page.