Testing a candidate's skills is nothing new. TRecruitment agencies have been using skills testing since the original Qwiz product came on the market in the 1980s. What is relatively new and not so widely used, however, is the 'build your own' skills test. This is when recruitment agencies or organisations use a customisation tool within a skills-testing package that enables them to build a test to suit their particular requirements at a particular time.

"We provide tools for agencies to build their own tests within their products," says Laurie Dobson, managing director at the skills-testing firm, ISV Software. "It is an added tool they can use to make specific tests for specific projects. For example, for a legal recruitment drive, you could make a test that looks at commonly used legal spelling."

The 'build your own' facility enables users to drill down to specifics, such as whether or not a candidate really does know their stuff, and recognises all the legal jargon necessary to work in a particular legal role. And it means they don't have to pay a skills-testing company to design a new test every time they want to run a different recruitment drive.

Skills testing is an expensive business, so this is an obvious way users can dramatically reduce their costs if they want to have tailor-made tests on a regular basis.

Also, providers claim the facility means that users can get a more accurate and detailed picture of whether or not a candidate has the specific skills and knowledge to perform a role. And what their strengths, weaknesses and subsequent training needs are. "It's great if a client has a specific requirement, such as a product, process or procedure that they want to test on," says Jane Owen, UK sales manager at recruitment and retention specialists, Kenexa, which has a 'Make your own' tool within its ProveIt! product.

Nicola Ives, support services manager, North and Midlands, at recruitment company, Search Consultancy, says her organisation has benefited hugely from using Kenexa's 'build your own' facility. "It is easy to use and enables us to create our own bespoke multiple choice tests for both internal and external use," she says. "It means we can tailor questions to specific sectors and employers in order to identify the most suitable candidates with the relevant skills and experience for our clients. Our industrial, hospitality and catering, and medical divisions have been using the system to great effect, enabling them to recruit faster and more efficiently."

It tends to be larger organisations that use 'build your own' services rather than small firms. And most of the current 'build your own' clients are the corporate clients themselves, rather than recruitment agencies. Agencies are not making much use of these tools at the moment. "It's not so often that recruitment agencies buy 'make your own'," says Owen. "We sell more to corporate clients who have a specific requirement, and I would say a good 50% of our corporate clients are interested in it."

According to Owen, demand is strong and growing from the corporate market. "They love it. They think it's a great idea. It is a very good product if you want to test something niche."

Owen says there is less demand for commercial clerical roles. A lot of Kenexa's 'build your own' users come from the care sector or from clients who need to devise some health and safety tests. "We don't have a test specifically on health and safety, partly because the legislation is changing all the time," she says.

The 'build your own' tools are really good for niche markets such as legal roles or medical roles. "Then you can use it to create tests which are really pertinent to the client base," says Sue Salts, office manager at the online testing company, Skillsarena, which offers what it calls the 'Create your own' facility.

Salts says recruitment agencies are starting to cotton on to the benefits of building their own tests in conjunction with skills testing companies and that a third of Skillsarena's recruitment agency client base makes use of 'Create your own'. "Because it's so flexible, they can use it to mould tests to what the client wants," she says. But again, most of the take-up comes from the corporate market at the moment. "A lot of councils are using it, as are housing associations, insurance companies and universities," says Salts.

Dobson says call centres are heavy users of ISV Software's 'build your own' services. Like Owen and Salts, he says it's corporate clients that are really using the technology, but he thinks agencies will catch up soon. "A lot of agencies are now thinking, 'Hey, this is an opportunity to offer clients tests that are more suited to their operations'." Dobson thinks demand will grow from recruitment agencies as awareness of the benefits of 'build your own' services increases and as more products come onto the marketplace. Also, as more and more clients hear of such tools, they will start asking recruitment agencies if they can include such tests as part of their services when conducting recruitment drives - although it is more likely to be the case with big recruitment drives and repeat customers.

'Build your own' tools are not just being used for testing candidate's skills during the recruitment process. They are also being used for training purposes, most particularly as part of the induction process when new recruits are being trained. "The facility is being used for in-house induction training when an organisation wants to ensure staff have learnt what they are supposed to have learnt," says Dobson.

As an increasing number of the big agencies, in particular, are becoming involved in more than just recruiting people into organisations, this is a service they may want to consider offering. "Agencies have to be competitive and look at other ways to improve what they can offer," says Dobson. "They could take over the whole recruitment process, including the product knowledge training. It's a real opportunity for agencies to add value."

The beauty of the product, according to Dobson, is that it is so easy to use. Training in how to use the tool is minimal, so that is not a concern for users. "It's so simple," he says. "It's just word processing — using the right click button. So if an organisation were to have a specific need for a specific recruitment project, they could literally do it in a morning."

Obviously, there is the time the agency or corporate client would have to spend devising the questions they would want to ask, but that might be a process they would have to go through anyway if they were asking a skills agency to customise a test for them.

This makes it very cost-effective option as well. Rather than commissioning a skills-testing company to write a new test each time there is a new requirement, an organisation or recruitment agency can modify the test themselves. "Agencies could save a lot of money doing this if they have a need for specific testing," says Dobson. "It's extremely cheap." In today's highly competitive market, this is a big draw.

Sometimes the 'build your own' facility is bundled in as part of an overall skills testing package. Other times it is an add-on feature, but at a minimal cost. There aren't many providers at the moment, but that could all change very quickly if demand increases the way the current providers expect it to. Also, as the technology gets more sophisticated and cheaper, more providers will emerge.

If, as Ian Newcombe, director of assessment operations (Europe) at Kenexa, says, there are no pitfalls, there is every likelihood that agencies and clients will start making greater use of these services should need to customise tests.

"They allow more effective streaming and placing of candidates," he says. "They provide a better service to the organisation that is using the agency and there aren't really any pitfalls with using them."