Feature: Testing times, by New Frontiers

New Frontiers looks at the trend of testing candidates to help find the right person for the job

More than half of all travel companies have now introduced tests to assess the suitability of candidates. These tests range from written papers and role-plays to group interviews and work experience trials. This article looks at the different tests many companies have introduced and how they use them in the selection process.

“It has been proven that interviews are false situations where hiring decisions are often based on how well the employer and candidate get on with each other,” remarked Julia Feuell, Managing Director of New Frontiers. “It is therefore a positive development, in my opinion, that candidate testing is being used increasingly to assess ability along with suitability.”

With staff turnover levels increasing, companies are now taking more care in the selection process to maximise their considerable investments in recruitment and training.

“Candidate testing is most popular amongst the multiples and larger call centres,” explained Stephen Williams, Team Leader for Reservations and Retail Recruitment. “We have seen an increase in sales and customer service tests, which are based on real life travel scenarios. A typical question might be, if you’re serving a customer and someone is waiting behind them and the phone rings, what do you do? The larger companies also tend to run numeracy and geography tests as standard.”

Since running these tests can be very time consuming, New Frontiers offers this service to their clients as part of the selection process. This has worked particularly well for both candidates and clients, as candidates who have been through these tests often end up getting the job.

Francesca Elsey, Corporate Recruitment Team Leader, has also seen an increase in the number of business travel companies testing candidates on corporate travel knowledge rather than traditional geography tests. “We noticed inconsistencies between the level of expertise amongst candidates and Business Travel salaries,” explained Francesca. “We therefore devised a business travel test to assess whether someone was underpaid and if they possessed the knowledge required to justify a senior salary. Our test includes questions about creative ticketing, travel policies and net ticketing, and is very revealing about the extent of knowledge the candidate has. This has proved to be a useful guide for companies, not only in offering the correct salary, but also in further training and development.¡¨

Assessing the level of CRS skills and competence is important for many travel positions, however New Frontiers encourage their clients to concentrate on finding the ‘right person for the job’ and to leave the CRS training to them. New Frontiers can fully train or brush up candidates on Sabre, Galileo, Worldspan and Amadeus, which is included in their recruitment fee.

Smaller travel companies do not tend to test candidates as a matter of course, preferring instead to give a fuller, in depth interview. As one specialist tour operator explained, “We prefer to recruit people that we are really going to get on well with as we are going to be spending a lot of time with them!”

It is also becoming fairly common to see companies using role-plays as part of the interview process to assess sales ability. Selling your favourite destination appears to be the top role-play. Some companies even go on to offer work experience as a second or third interview. This allows the candidate to work alongside an experienced team member to get a feel for the job and in some cases to do some specially allocated practical tasks.

Interestingly enough, companies don’t appear to be using psychometric tests as part of the selection procedure. “Good psychometric tests can be very expensive and you have to be careful about the validity of computer based packages,” said Julia Feuell. “We do, however, find our psychometric testing very useful and therefore offer this to our clients as part of our service at no extra charge. Our 3D-CV comprises CV details along with a two or three page narrative about the individual’s overall personality traits at work. The best way to use this type of questionnaire is to share it with the candidate and discuss its content. This way, you can achieve a very in depth interview and validate the questionnaire at the same time.”

One of the most popular ways of recruiting several staff at once is through the use of ‘assessment days’, formerly known as ‘group interviews’. Tour Operators have been holding assessment days for years to recruit overseas reps and now companies recruiting call centre or reservations staff are also using these methods. Assessment days may only last for two or three hours, and not necessarily a whole day, and cover tests, role-plays, presentations and individual interviews.

“Good assessment days are brilliant for simulating the role someone will do and seeing not only if they like it, but also if they may be good at it. However, one drawback can be how you reject unsuitable candidates,” warned Julia Feuell. “One company decided to simply turn half of the group away after two hours of assessment. They promptly met up down the road and ran the company down, something to consider if you want these candidates and their friends and families to become your future customers.”

So if you’re gearing up for the January booking rush and need some additional help, let New Frontiers help you update your interviewing techniques and find you some suitable staff to turn those enquiries into sales.

If you have any questions or comments about the issues raised in this article, please feel free to email Julia Feuell, mailto:[email protected]

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This feature was supplied to TravelMole by New Frontiers, the travel recruitment specialist.

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