The Hindu Business Line : Competence assessment tests — MeritTrac to expand to other sectors

THE Bangalore-based MeritTrac Services Pvt Ltd, which currently provides competence assessment services for IT and ITES sectors, is set to offer its services to other industries.

Mr Madan Padaki, Director, MeritTrac Services Pvt Ltd, told Business Line that the company would start offering competence assessment services for at least two new industrial segments in the current financial year.

Competence assessment tests for retailing, financial services and insurance sectors were among the areas the company was looking at, he explained. The company was also looking at starting operations in markets outside India, he added.

Meanwhile, the company is working with the London Business School on introducing a competence and attitude assessment test exclusively for the BPO sector. While assisting the London Business School with a study on `best people management practices in India', the company "captured a lot of attitudinal attributes that make a good call centre agent", said Mr Padaki.

Using this information, the London Business School helped the company develop a test that measures these specific attributes required in the BPO sector, he explained. The company was planning to offer this test to its clients by June this year, he added.

Already in the market is a `voice test' for the BPO sector, said Mr Padaki. This product involves recording short voice clips of potential candidates and analysing them on several parameters. A panel of skilled voice evaluators, trained by the company, would carry out these assessments, he explained.

The company was now working on refining this product to incorporate news aspects such as regional variations in accents, he added.

The company is also the `assessment partner' of the Government of Andhra Pradesh for its `Graduate Employability Test' initiative. As part of this programme, the company has tested the `BPO skills' of over 18,000 candidates across the State.This test, which is conducted online, was open to people of all age groups and had attracted a large number of people in the 40-50 age group, said Mr Padaki.

Similarly, the company was also working with the Government of Karnataka on the `BPO Skills Assessment and Training' initiative, he explained.