IE912894A1 - A recruitment system - Google Patents

Abstract

This concerns a recruitment system that includes a candidate databasecontaining personal details and attributes as attributed by a recruitmentconsultant and a computer programme to choose and compare the data usingpre-determined criteria for a given job in order on match the candidates'data with established criteria segmented into categories linked to the degreeof correspondence to each case. In practice, it can be used as a tool toensure that a candidate database is explored efficiently and that the mostsuitable candidates for a given job to be filled are chosen intelligently. Inthis way, the candidates will be found in a search, whether they satisfy allof the criteria demanded for the job or not, and checked during a selectionprocess, before proceeding to personal interviews, for example.

Description

The present invention relates to a recruitment system, in particular to an expert system for use by a recruitment agency. In practice, it may be used as a tool to ensure that a database of prospective candidates is effectively searched and the most suitable candidates for a specified position to be filled are selected in an intelligent way. Thus, candidates will be retrieved in a search regardless of whether or not they have all the precise requirements for the position, in a screening process in advance of personal interview, for example.

A recruitment system is provided which comprises a database of candidates including their personal details and attributes as assigned by a recruitment consultant and a computer program for selection and comparison of the data with pre-set criteria for a given position to be filled, in order to match candidate data to the given criteria broken down into ranked categories related to the degree of matching in each case.

The critical criteria for ranking purposes are preferably selected from the group consisting of; keywords related to specialist or scarce candidate skills, salary, location, qualifications, age and experience or type of environment.

The data, apart from the keywords, are preferably encoded as numeric data. - 2 There are preferably four ranked categories which may be designated perfect match, high rating, medium rating, and low rating.

The degree of matching for each of the critical criteria is preferably defined by rules allowing for a percentage variation from the pre-set perfect match value of the encoded data, or the number of matching keywords, as the case may be.

Advantageously, the system includes a feature whereby information related to segments of data may be displayed, such as average salary for candidates with similar attributes, or the total number of candidates with the same attributes.

Preferably, a separate database of employers is included as part of the system.

A system in accordance with this invention will now be described in detail, also with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a generalised flow chart.

The recruitment process begins when candidates each submit their Curriculum Vitae and their personal details are entered on the system, such as name and address and telephone number, the present position held by the candidate, his or her present employer, and an internal reference number. Various attributes of the candidate are assessed by a consultant and allocated codes which are also entered on the system. For example, the following codes may be allocated.

Type of Person (T) This is a two digit numeric code which may reflect the candidates present position or experience or the type of position the candidate is most interested in. A list of suitable codes is shown in Appendix I for accounting, engineering, insurance and computer recruits. - 3 Qualification (Q) This is a one digit numeric code allocated according to the type of recruit. It may not necessarily be limited to a professional qualification; for example, for computer candidates it may reflect the type of computer hardware or programming language with which the candidate is most familiar. A list of suitable codes is given in Appendix II.

Where Living (L) This is a one digit code giving a general indication of the geographic area in which the candidate lives at present. A list of suitable codes is given in Appendix III.

Describes Experience (D) This is a one digit code which gives a broad description of the environment in which the candidate has been working and has gained general experience. A list of suitable codes is given in Appendix IV.

Status (U) This is a one digit numeric code which describes the present status of the candidate, for example concerning the present availability of a candidate to take up a position. A list of suitable codes is given in Appendix V.

Salary Required (S) This is a two digit code denoting the salary required or expected by the candidate to the nearest £1,000.

Age of Candidate (A) This is a two digit numeric code. - 4 It will be appreciated that each of the coded data is a searchable criterion, or when taken in combination may constitute pre-set or critical criteria for the purposes of selecting a candidate.

A candidate may also be selected on the basis of key words or descriptors used to describe the assets of the candidate, when these cannot adequately be described by means of the codes. A limited number of keywords is used; for consistency, these are assigned and kept in a glossary.

Candidates may be interviewed, which will necessitate new data being entered on the system or previous data being updated. An updating and file management system is provided which need not be described in detail.

Job specifications are created in consultation with an employer and held usually on a paper record. This may be entered into the system, but generally will not remain live for a sufficiently long period for this to be held for any length of time. However, details of the client company or potential employer are held on the system in a separate database. This need not be described in detail. Using the job specification, the Recruitment Consultant, or the Senior Manager of the consultancy determines the most appropriate criteria or ranges of criteria for the position to be filled. This set of criteria is then used to select candidates from the candidate database so as to select the most suitable candidates for further interview or presentation to the client company to fill the position.

The search criteria may be entered in any one of the following ways. For example, the type of person code (T) may be searched as T=70, T>70, T<70, T<>70 (means T must not be equal to 70), T<=70 (means T is less than or equal to 70), T>=70 (means T is greater than or equal to 70), T=70 OR T=79 (means only those which have T=70 or T=79). Different candidate attribute codes may be combined by using the AND operator, for example, T=70 AND Q=2 means only those candidates which have a type of person code (T) equal to 70 and a qualifications code (Q) equal to 2. In fact any combination of criteria may be specified by the user of the system in this way.

The criteria for the job specification are input by means of a menu-driven questionnaire system which is easy to use.

The descriptors or key words used to describe the ideal assets for the position such as specialist or scarce skills may be entered, if desired. The salary range offered for the position is also entered as part of the job specification. Other criteria such as the where living (L) code may be used if this were an essential criterion for the position to be filled.

After the job specification has been entered and verified, the search program is initiated and will count candidates from the candidate database which match the search criteria perfectly or which are a close match and decide on a level of ranking for any which are not a perfect match. The total number of candidates selected is displayed and broken down into four categories: P - Perfect match with selected criteria H - To be considered as high rating M - To be considered as medium rating L - To be considered as low rating The selection process involves the application of rules concerning the degree to which each particular candidate in the database matches the job specification criteria. These rules may be varied, but in one example are as follows: Perfect Match - Salary - Matches Location Qualifications Age Exper i ence/Keywords Matches Matches Matches Matches High Rating - Salary Location Qualifications Age Experience/Keywords - Within 15% Upward Variance (+) - Within 40% + or - Matches Matches Matches Medium Rating - Salary - Within 25% Upward Variance (+) 10 Location - Within 40% + or - Age - Within 10% + or - Exper i ence/Keywords - Matches Low Rating - Salary - Within 50% 15 Upward Variance (+) Location - Within 80% + or - Age - Within 30% + or - Experience/Keywords - One Keyword Matching If there is no perfect match, the Recruitment Consultant may wish to consider possible candidates in the high or medium rating categories. If there are none of these, he may wish to scan the low rating category or reset the search criteria. The user may then display full details of the first candidate who matches the selected search criteria, and proceed to the next candidate with the same criteria and so on.

As an important aid to the Recruitment Consultant using the system, when he is viewing the potential candidates for a particular position, the system will also show a variety of information related to the T, Q and D (type of person, qualification and experience) of the candidate being displayed; for example, the average salary for all the candidates with that combination of T, Q, D code values or the average salary for those candidates with the same T, Q values, or the average age for all candidates with the same T, Q value or the total number of candidates with the same T, Q, D value. This enables the Recruitment Consultant to compare the candidate under consideration with others who are at that time in search of a similar •Ε 912894 - Ί position or give some idea as to the present level of salary expectations for a person having particular qualifications, or for a particular type of job or industry. This is important in making a decision to re-set the search criteria, if, for example, a higher or lower salary were to be offered.

In the drawing, which is mainly self-explanatory, operations carried out on the left hand side of the dashed line use the candidates database, whilst operations carried out on the right hand side of the dashed line are carried out using the potential employers/companies database. The system may be linked with a word processing package so as to generate suitable letters to candidates and to client companies for ease of management of a particular recruitment assignment.

The management in a recruitment consultancy may monitor the assignments or work in hand of a number of Recruitment Consultants who are users of the system by re-executing searches to ensure that the most appropriate selections have been made and that uniform criteria are being applied. - 8 APPENDIX I T (TYPE OF PERSON) Accounting Recruits List Accounts 1 - Senior Commercial 2 - Mid Way Commercial 3 - Newly Qualified 4 - Senior Part Qualified (Commercial) 5 - Semi Senior Part Qualified (Commerci 15 6 - Old (over 36) Part Qualified/Qualifi 9 - Baby Accountant Accounts Staff 11 - Bookkeepers 12 - Creditors 13 - Payroll 14 - General Accounts 15 - Accounts/Typing 25 15 - Secretary/Receptionist with Accounts 17 - Credit Control 18 - Stock Control 30 Miscellaneous Accounts 21 - Wants Industry Only 22 - Wants Practice Only 23 - Industry or Practice 24 - Tax Experience 35 25 - Insolvency 26 - Corporate Finance/Specialist wants + Experience _ 9 _ Engineering Recruits List - 31 - Technician Test Engineer 5 32 - Sales Engineer 33 - Electrical Engineer 34 - Production Research & Development 35 - Quality Engineer 36 - Manufacturing Engineer 10 37 - Field Engineer 38 - Purchasing 39 - Construction 40 - Aeronautical 41 - Fitters & Turners 15 42 - Mechanical Engineer 43 - Design 44 - Industrial Engineers 45 - Maintenance 46 - Safety 20 47 - Draughtsman 48 - Chemical 49 Miscellaneous Insurance Recruits List 25 - Secretary/Receptionist with Insurance Experience - Accounts & Administration - Underwriting - New Business 55 - Sales Support & Customer Service - Claims - Surveyors - No Experience - Little Experience 63 - Experienced - Executive Experience - Sales Managers - Training - ίο Computer Recruits List 71 - 72 - D.P. Manager Expensive Analyst/Programmer > £20K 5 73 - Analyst/Programmer £14 - £20K 74 - Cheap Analyst/Programmer < £14K 75 - Software Engineer 76 - Sales 77 - Technical Support 10 78 - Data Entry 79 - D.T.P. 80 - Operators 81 - Shift Leaders/Managers 84 - Not yet determined/Not applicable 15 85 - Trainer/Instructor ,E 912894 - 11 APPENDIX II (QUALIFICATION) Accountants & Miscellaneous Accounts Recruits List - Qualified ACA - Qualified Other 3 Finalist Only - Middle Fast - Middle Slow - Early - Ceased 8 - Non Professional Study - No Studies Accounts Staff Recruits List 1 - Manager Computerised System - Manager Non-Computerised System - Non-Manager Computerised System - Non-Manager Non-Computerised System - Junior Computerised System 6 Junior Non-Computerised System - Old 32 (+) - Young 1 year or less Engineering Recruits List 30 - Certificate Level - Diploma Level - Degree Level - Masters Level - Other Recognised Standard ,E 912894 - 12 Insurance Recruits List - Mixed Brokerage - Life-Brokerage 3 - Life-Company - General Broker - General Company Computer Recruits List - Cobol - RPG - Pascal/Basic/Fortran - dBase/Clipper/PC's - C/Assembler - General Mixed Programming - IBM Environment - VAX Environment - Other Environment 0 - Non applicable *E 912894 - 13 APPENDIX III L (WHERE LIVING) ΑΠ Accounts & Insurance Recruits List - Dublin South - Dublin South County - Dublin North 4 - Dublin West - North Leinster - Midlands - South East - South & West 9 Abroad (Outside Republic) Engineering Recruits List - Dublin South & County 2 Dublin North & County - Dublin West - North Leinster - Midlands - South East 7 South - West - North - Abroad (Outside Republic) Computer Recruits List - Dublin South & County - Dublin North & County - Dublin West North Leinster - Midlands - South East - South & West - Abroad (Outside Republic) - 14 APPENDIX IV D (EXPERIENCE) All Accounts & Insurance Recruits List - Hightech - Large Manufacturing 3 - Small Manufacturing - Distribution Services - Financial Services - Professional Office Engineering Recruits List - Commercial & Hardware Large - Commercial & Hardware Small - Large Other Manufacture 4 Small Other Manufacture - Marine - Large Distribution & Service - Small Distribution & Service - Consultancy/Contractor 9 Construction Computer Recruits List - Financial 2 Service - Manufacturing - Software House Financial - Software House Service - Software House Manufacturing - 15 APPENDIX V U (STATUS) ΑΠ Accounts & Insurance Recruits List - Details to be followed up - Unemployed - available immediately 3 Soon to be available - Fact Sheet returned - Placed by Recruitment Agency - Lost Contact - Off Market 8 - File & Forget - On Hold Engineering Recruits List 1 Active - Placed by Recruitment Agency - Lost Contact - Placed not by Recruitment Agency - File & Forget 9 Graduates - Details to be followed up Computer Recruits List 1 Active Unemployed Long Term - Active Just Unemployed - Active Employed & Looking for Job - Fact Sheet in - Placed by Recruitment Agency 6 - Lost Contact - Placed not by Recruitment Agency - File & Forget - Graduates (No Experience) - Details to be followed up

Claims (9)

1. A recruitment system is provided which comprises a database of candidates including their personal details and 5 attributes as assigned by a recruitment consultant and a computer program for selection and comparison of the data with pre-set criteria for a given position to be filled, in order to match candidate data to the given criteria broken down into ranked categories related to the degree of matching in each case.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 wherein the critical criteria for ranking purposes are selected from the group consisting of; keywords related to specialist or scarce candidate skills, salary, location, qualifications, age and experience or type of 15 environment.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2 wherein the data, apart from the keywords, are encoded as numeric data. 20

4. A system as claimed in claim 3 in which there are four ranked categories which may be designated perfect match, high rating, medium rating, and low rating.

5. A system as claimed in claim 4 wherein the degree of 25 matching for each of the critical criteria is defined by rules allowing for a percentage variation from the pre-set perfect match value of the encoded data, or the number of matching keywords, as the case may be. 30

6. A system as claimed in any of the preceding claims including a feature whereby information related to segments of data may be displayed, such as average salary for candidates with similar attributes, or the total number of candidates with the same attributes.

7. A system as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3 including a separate database of employers. - 17

8. A recruitment system as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawing.

9. A computer when programmed to operate a system as claimed 5 in any one of the preceding claims.