The concept of handing such decisions over to a computer programme may sound scary but what the product ChoiceAnalyst does is help to facilitate and support the decision-making process rather than make the decision itself.

Cary Harwin, president and chief executive of Catalyst Development Corporation, told Recruiter that it enables recruiters to do a more “thorough” job of picking the right person because they don’t have to weigh up the merits of, say, six different candidates, against five different criteria, in their head.

“It’s been proven that the human mind has difficulty thinking about more than seven permutations at one time,” he said. “You’re not giving the decision to the computer, you are giving it the part of the decision process which is difficult for us to do: the mathematical calculation and computation of all of those factors.”

Recruiters build a decision model by keying in the criteria used to judge applicants such as organisational skills, personality and demeanor, and written and verbal communication (these can be weighted in importance). You also input the decision-makers such as yourself and any others involved in the process (up to five people). The next step is for these decision-makers to provide the software with their opinion of the candidates, who can be scored against the different criteria on a sliding scale, a pair at a time.

Once ChoiceAnalyst has gone through all the candidates and criteria, it analyses the inputs and calculates the best choice. It can provide a paper trail of the decision-making process as reports can be printed out at each stage.

In the US, recruitment firms have approached Catalyst about doing an own-label version of the software to send to clients with their list of recommended candidates. Catalyst is talking to a Fortune 500 company about the product and it has already found favour with direct recruiters in the US.

Californian insurance company, Williams Insurance Service, needed to fill a vacancy in one of its offices quickly and had received a high number of well-qualified applicants. “What usually would be a daunting task was met quickly and without giving up quality, in fact, improving quality of choice,” said Jerry F Mattos, the company’s VP of finance. “It allowed the team to reach a consensus of choice with speed and effectiveness. We also use ChoiceAnalyst in other decision-making functions here at the main office, such as vendor selection.”

Herbert Tobin, president and CEO at US-based property firm, Tobin Properties, has used it to make a decision over an internal promotion. He had four candidates on the shortlist and there were “rumblings” among employees that favouritism might play a part in management’s decision.

“Those concerns were assuaged by seeking an objective consensus from the division managers through the use of ChoiceAnalyst,” he said.
ChoiceAnalyst is available worldwide.

http://go.catalyst.com/8035217
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