The technology boom has in a way increased the pace with which the business world is changing. Organizations are adopting technology based solutions to efficiently meet the demands of a dynamic workforce. Employee assessment too has undergone a makeover from being a paper-pencil medium to an automated and online assessment medium. This has resulted in saving precious resources for HR, besides cutting down the recruitment cycle.

One of the challenges that companies in India face today is to ensure that new recruits have sufficient English language skills. The traditional assessment method relies on face-to-face interview and uses human evaluation for English language proficiency. This assessment, besides being subjective and vulnerable to bias and variability, is also highly dependent on the skill of the interviewer. In times of large-scale recruitment in industries such as BPO, Retail, and Pharmaceuticals, where effective communication skills in English is an important criterion for selection, the manual interview process is not scalable and the variability in quality of people causes customer complaints. The Versant testing technology, which uses an automatic grading technology yielding scores that are always objective, reliable and consistent, has given the HR fraternity a big leap towards overcoming these shortcomings. Versant technology uses an automatic grading technology that makes the involvement of a human evaluator redundant. Assessments using this technology engage different modes of delivery involving either a computer or a mobile phone interface. These assessments can be delivered and scored in real time for a large number of candidates at the same time – all without any human intervention.

Technology enhanced assessments, such as Versant, are being increasingly used by HR professionals in all areas of employee assessment. Today, some online assessment platforms allow the HR professional the convenience of a web-enabled process that allows test takers to take the test from any location around the world, while being administered and controlled from a single location. Real time reporting of scores enables faster decision making. Technology is also helping HR professionals conduct virtual assessment centre and deliver the same using virtual media, such as simulations, computers and video conferencing. Web-based audio and video assessments exemplify the impact technology has on assessments. Be it online performance ratings of employees or sharing content via mobile phone, the impact of technology is deeply entrenched. There are endless possibilities as to how technology will impact assessment in future. Organizations that adapt to this trend and increasingly use technology to identify right talent at the workplace will be able to reap the benefits of a technologically advanced assessment scenario.