By
Mike Russiello

Introduction

Online skills testing and certification are the next leap forward for the e-recruiting industry. In this white paper, we'll cover the forces driving this requirement and then cover several innovative approaches using online offerings from Brainbench, the skills authority.

What's driving the need

Fueled by frightening demographics that project worsening shortages of skilled workers for many different industries, e-recruiting is transforming the employment market into a forum resembling the financial markets. Just like monetary capital, human capital is beginning to flow efficiently across corporate and international borders to the place where it is needed most.

As this transformation takes place, the e-recruiting industry has exploded to literally thousands of websites that match job seekers with employers. Some cater to specific industries, some to specific regions. Some focus on specific employment models, such as free agents, while others try to cover everything.

The keyword-driven search engines present in almost all online resume databases and job posting systems have placed a new focus on skills both in writing resumes and drafting job postings. Computers have a hard time inferring your skills from a description of your work experience. If you don't clearly articulate your skills in your resume, it will probably not get noticed. Conversely, if you do not specify skill requirements in a job posting system, you can't expect many job seekers to find it.

With the emphasis on skills, the next stage in e-recruiting is to obtain and deliver accurate data regarding skills to both job seekers and employers. For example, employers who are getting flooded with unqualified resumes, are desperate for a tool that can help them identify and focus on the top candidates before they are hired by the competition.

For the foreseeable future, skills will drive the process through which job matches are made. Both sides want better data. Job seekers want confirmation and feedback, while employers want to be sure the skill is present. Thus, the time is now to integrate skills testing and certification into the e-recruiting infrastructure.

Considerations

You should consider the following before integrating skills testing and certification into your e-recruiting website:

Job Seekers

1.	Job seekers do not want to take a test for every individual job application or company, just to get an interview
2.	Job seekers do not want to take different tests at different job websites
3.	Job seekers are willing to take tests dedicated to a single employer once they have reached a specific point in the interview process, but typically not before a face-to-face or telephone interview
4.	When asked why they took an online certification exam, roughly 50% of examinees said it was for personal feedback, rather than for help in their job search

Employers

1.	Employers do want to be able to search on test results during the pre-screening or sourcing process
2.	Employers need to reduce their hiring cycle to remain competitive and capture candidates before someone else does. They see skills testing as a technique for doing this while simultaneously helping them avoid expensive hiring mistakes
3.	Employers will pay for dedicated exams that are administered after a candidate is beyond the prescreening process

Both

1.	A recognizable, reputable brand name is critical to any test or certification

These points have been learned through experience at our website, www.brainbench.com, where more than 550,000 skills tests and certification exams were administered in 1999 for both job seekers and employers. Many conclusions were reached after a survey that yielded over 25,000 respondents.

Repository Concept

Brainbench has pioneered the central certification and test results repository concept. Using this approach, individuals can proactively take certification exams and have the results go into a single online transcript of certifications and test results. The individual has private access to this transcript and can control what is public. Then, the public transcript is made available to any e-recruiting site, through a variety of methods, for integration into their resume database or job application system.

This scheme is depicted below:

Transcripts can be retrieved using either the individual?s transcript ID number, or their last name and email address. The Brainbench database can be queried through either http or ODBC protocols from any authorized e-recruiting site. There is no cost to the e-recruiting site for this capability. A sample public transcript can be displayed by clicking on this link: http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=158883.

Transcripts can be displayed in two ways:

1.	All information: Photo, Contact Data, Resume, Career Preferences, Test Results, and Certifications
2.	Certifications and Test Results only

This flexibility gives e-recruiting sites maximum flexibility to integrate the transcript into their existing resume database and resume processing systems.

It should be noted that search access to the repository is not provided to any e-recruiting site. Only pinpoint access is allowed, using either transcript ID or last name and email. This is necessary so that e-recruiting sites referring people to Brainbench to be certified do not suffer disclosure of the proprietary information they paid to collect (namely, job seeker eyeballs).

Virtual Test Center Concept

Brainbench has also pioneered the Virtual Test Center (VTC) concept. The virtual test center (VTC) is a privately-labeled web site that is fully integrated into a host website, such as an e-recruiting site or a portal site.

Hosts of a VTC can integrate any or all of the following functionality into their website:

1.	Testing
2.	Certification Verification
3.	Individual Account and Transcript Management
4.	Employer Account Management
5.	Testing Package Purchases

Individual Accounts are for job seekers who want to earn certifications and maintain a transcript. Employer accounts are private to the employer and are set up for the employer to conduct applicant testing.

Within each area, the names, URLs, email addresses, and phone numbers will all be those for the host, unless the host wants to use Brainbench. This way, the user (either an individual or an employer) can access everything necessary for online testing and reporting without ever leaving the host site. All revenue is shared between the host and Brainbench.

Through a VTC, job seekers can take certification exams and access their transcript directly from any host site. Existing hosts include CareerPath.com, ComputerJobs.com, and Kforce.com with many others on the way. Employers can perform online testing and access test results in a private online account.

A great way for an e-recruiting site to add value to both job seekers and employers is to host a VTC. Interested parties can email russ.cosentino@brainbench.com or call (703) 437-7927. A demonstration VTC is available at http://www.brainbench.com/demo.

Integration Approaches

Hosting a VTC is a popular way to integrate certification and testing into your e-recruiting website. However, whether or not you host a VTC, the data in the transcript repository is available to all e-recruiting sites to integrate as the e-recruiting site sees fit. Brainbench is committed to working with partner websites to help them get the most out of the online repository and the test results it contains.

The following are some examples of how an e-recruiting site can integrate testing:

Display transcript alongside resume and other profile information to employers searching your resume database through the web.

To do this, you will need to access the test repository with either the transcript ID or the last name and email of the job seeker. You can request the Transcript ID from the job seeker when they register or maintain their resume on your site and then store the transcript ID in your database. Or, you can do a periodic batch match to recover the Transcript Ids. Finally, you can query the Test Repository when the resume is requested by an employer to see if the person maintains a transcript.

To display the test results there are several options. First, you can perform a direct query for the test results and then integrate them into your database or html pages directly. Second, you can open another window with a URL that will display the test results from Brainbench. We will also work with you to display the results in a look and feel that is all yours, if you like.

Inside the look and feel of the e-recruiting website, Brainbench can display the certification and test results in a table that appears as follows:

Certifications

Name	Date	Authority
Master Internet Security Specialist	1999-12-01	Brainbench
Linux Administrator	1999-12-01	Brainbench

Test Results

Name	Date	Score (1-5)	Additional Info.
Internet Security	2000-01-20	4.44	Scored higher than 97% of all previous examinees. Demonstrates a clear understanding of many advanced concepts within this topic. Appears capable of mentoring others on most projects in this area. Strengths ? Electronic Mail ? ? File Sharing ? ? Firewalls ? ? Internet Servers ? Weak Areas ? None Noted ? Sub-Category Scores ? ? Conceptual 4.0 ? Problem-Solving 5.0 ? Terminology & Syntax 4.0
Linux	1999-12-01	3.19	Scored higher than 54% of all previous examinees. Demonstrates a solid understanding of core concepts within this topic. Appears capable of working on most projects in this area with moderate assistance. May require some initial assistance with advanced concepts, however. Strengths ? Installation Security ? Weak Areas ? Networking ? Sub-Category Scores ? ? Conceptual 3.0 ? Problem-Solving 3.0 ? Terminology & Syntax 4.0

Insert a link to a job seeker's test transcript into the email sending their resume to an employer after they have responded to a specific job posting

Many e-recruiting systems send emails to employers with candidate resumes. In this scenario, you can add test scores to the resume so that the employer has maximum information with which to make screening decisions. Instead of displaying the test scores, you can also embed a link to the individual's online transcript in the email (or directly into the resume) before you send it to the employer. In this way, the employer now sees both the submitted resume/profile data, and the person's test scores, which greatly improves the employer's pre-screening capability.

The link in this case could look something like this:

View this person's online certification and test transcript at http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=158883

Read test scores for all job seekers who have applied for a specific posting and provide a ranked list to the employer on a daily basis

Some resume processing services perform preliminary ranking of candidates prior to forwarding their information to the employer. Through a direct query to the test repository database, these services can be enhanced by including test results in the scoring/ranking process.

As job seekers fill out their profile data, suggest that they become certified in their key skill areas and lead them to either your own VTC or to the Brainbench certification account registration screen

When an individual registers his or her profile data into an e-recruiting site's resume database, they are implicitly looking for suggestions on how to improve their career opportunities. At this point, they are most open to a suggestion that they become certified, especially if they know that the results will be stored automatically in their profile and sent to employers.

If the e-recruiting site has a VTC, having them become accustomed to maintaining their test transcript at your site will increase page views as well as job seeker loyalty to the specific e-recruiting site. They'll probably even tell their friends!

Sell packages of assessments to employers at the same time they are creating their job postings

An excellent time to sell testing packages to employers is at the point when they are beginning a search for a position. Brainbench has various reseller programs that, when combined with our VTC concept, can e-commerce enable this process and earn some loyalty from the employer, since they will administer their testing package and view results through the VTC that is hosted on your website.

Summary

The rapid development of e-recruiting has arrived just in time to help the world's leading economies deal with increasing shortages of skilled professionals. Through this transformation, which has introduced a heavy reliance on keyword-driven database systems, skills have emerged as the currency of the employment marketplace. At the same time, employers are clamoring for better candidate qualification tools.

Thus, the time is now to integrate online skills certification and testing into the e-recruiting infrastructure.

Brainbench, the leader in online skills certification and testing, has introduced several key innovations that can "certification and testing enable" any e-recruiting website quickly, including:

1.	An online certification and test transcript for every job seeker
2.	A single, centralized repository through which e-recruiting sites and employers can access any job seeker's certification and test results and integrate them into their resume/candidate profile databases.
3.	Private-labeled virtual testing centers (VTCs) that e-recruiting websites can implement as part of their website through which brand name certification testing and applicant testing can be performed.

Brainbench is committed to developing the highest quality skills assessments in many different industry areas, including information technology, finance, administration, customer service, data entry, sales, and health care. Developed specifically for Internet-delivery using Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT), the company expects to field more than 450 different certifications by the end of 2000, and to certify the skills of over 2 million people.

To contact Brainbench regarding any of the concepts discussed in this white paper, email the author at mike@brainbench.com or contact our Vice President of Business Development, Russ Cosentino, at (703) 437-7927 (e-mail: russ.cosentino@brainbench.com)

About the Author

Mike Russiello is President and CEO of Brainbench, the world's leading independent skills certification authority. Prior to cofounding the company in 1998, Mike was a manager at EDS Corporation, where he successfully lead a large scale software implementation for the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to his operational role, Mike was a salesperson for EDS, and is credited with sales totaling over $500 million.