11 Jan Out with the Old and in with the New with Product Manager Richard

I was lucky enough to have a chat with Talegent’s Product Manager, Richard Thwaite to see what gifts he had to bring to us this time. Here’s what he had to say:

 John: I heard you’ve just come back from HR Tech conference in Las Vegas. Any chance we can find out about anything that happened? Anything at all?

Richard: Yeah of course, I’ll let you in on just a little. What we saw at HR Tech were vendors across the entire HR space emphasising candidate experience. And this is underpinned by the Three R’s: Refreshing, Revitalising and Reenergising the user experience.

John: This so called “candidate experience”, why do I hear it in every other sentence by hiring professionals today?

Richard: It’s certainly that big of a deal! We are shifting from an employer market to an employee market. Especially today, where the average person spends well under five years at any given job. So, candidates have choice and are expecting this more and more. It’s more important now than ever to engage with candidates from the first time they engage with your employer brand.

John: Well! This seems like a huge make-over for Talegent’s assessments, how long has the project been in the making?

Richard: We have a drive for continuous improvement and a real commitment to refreshing and revitalising all our products, and this is no different. The development team have been working on this for the majority of the year.

John: What changes are we in store for?

Richard: There a couple of key differences with this new UI: The first is that it gives you full control over what your candidates sees, not just company branding and colours but also background images and other subtle graphical elements. Secondly, we’ve ensured it’s optimised for both Android and iOS on mobile, which means the candidates can complete our assessments on any device of their choosing.

John: And how does this enhance the candidate experience?

Richard: In a number of ways! First, candidates become more engaged with your company branding from the get-go. They can see your unique logos and themes throughout the assessment and will be able to tell you apart from the crowd. Second, following from the trail blazed by our game-based assessments, we’ve introduced some subtle gamey elements, such as animations and feedbacks into the assessment process. Finally, we’ve made the questions more inviting to complete by really guiding the candidate through the assessment by increasing the size of the layout, and stripping away unnecessary elements. Ultimately, what this all means is a significant reduction in drop-out rates.

John: Tell me more about the ability to tailor the experience for individuals?

Richard: You can configure the assessment experience specifically for your needs, whether it be for campaigns or job families. It doesn’t have to be a one-size fits all solution, even within the same company.

John: You’ve mentioned that the changes will be automatic. Does that mean it will be available by default for anyone using Talegent’s assessments?

Richard: Yes! Anyone using Talegent assessments will have access by default and then will have the ability to further configure in partnership with us.

John: Awesome! Time for the million-dollar question: when does this baby go live?

Richard: Bright and early in mid-January 2018!

Isn’t he just the gift that keeps on giving? I for one, can’t wait to try out the new Refreshed, Revitalised and Reenergised UI.