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When companies face unique challenges, they implement innovative solutions. KPMG Jamaica Extended Support Services (JESS) is a shared-services affiliate of KPMG in Jamaica and a top audit, tax and advisory firm in Jamaica. It needed a way to attract candidates who had the accounting and financial reasoning skills required for some newly created accounting and financial positions and needed to hire qualified candidates by a specific deadline.
Management was finding it hard to attract candidates to the company website and apply for these positions. They also found that simply getting the word out on social media was not enough, So, they needed a way to up their game.
Hiring managers were aware that social media is one of the best vehicles to reach potential candidates, but their challenge was how get their message to stand out above all the “noise.” KPMG was already working with eSkill, a Massachusetts-based skills and behavioral assessment company, to administer pre-employment assessments to evaluate candidates’ accounting skills. So, the team decided to develop a skills test challenge and post the link on KPMG Jamaica’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages.
The challenge included five brain teaser questions from the eSkill validated test library that were pertinent to the skill set required for the accounting and financial positions. Anyone who completed the test was entered into a drawing for an Amazon gift card, regardless of their score. Participants were encouraged to share the test with friends and followers, compare results and challenge each other.
The KPMG Jamaica and eSkill teams partnered to choose the questions. Since eSkill offers an extensive test library, the pre-employment assessment was simple to develop, deploy and manage. The skills test was called the “Accounting Challenge” and included a total of five critical reasoning, accounting and financial questions. A public link was created so the test could be included in social media posts and advertisements.
eSkill developed and added contest rules that were listed on the candidate login page and included an acceptance checkbox so the participants could confirm they had read and understood them. Once participants finished the test, they were shown their score and encouraged to share the link. The login page collected the names and e-mail addresses of each participant, and recruiters could access test scores and results on-demand using the eSkill platform they already used for sourcing candidates.
Recruiters sent a follow-up email message to all participants that provided information about KPMG Jamaica and invited them to explore current career opportunities. As a result, recruiters built a pool of hundreds of qualified candidates to evaluate as potential employees.
“We were expecting maybe 100 to 200 responses, but we ended up receiving close to 1,000 responses,” said Teri Vigneux Executive Director. “eSkill provided the content and flexibility we needed to hire the right candidates for our accounting and financial positions.”
KPMG Jamaica was able to recruit the qualified candidates they needed to fill the new positions, candidates, and many candidates who took the skills test also applied to other open positions. Managers declared the promotion to be a huge success because it helped KPMG Jamaica build a well-qualified team that will help the company accomplish its goals and objectives.
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