Firms with the best recruitment evaluation methods in Malaysia

Innovation and transformation were the two goals towards which British American Tobacco (Malaysia) (BAT) worked when designing its recruitment strategy.

The firm was heralded with the title of the company with the best recruitment evaluation technique at the inaugural edition of Asia Recruitment Awards, Malaysia, while Media Prima bagged the silver award for the category.

"The Gold Award for Best Recruitment Evaluation technique is a great achievement for BAT Malaysia," said Fiona Geddes HR director, BAT.

"We invest highly in this area, in terms of tools, dedicated time and training of our line managers as assessors. We do so as we strongly believe that talents deserve our detailed attention and investment, as they too, invested time in the potential of our company."

Indeed, recognising that it takes talent to attract talent, the firm adjusted its Direct Recruitment Model to ensure it has what it takes to equip itself with a pipeline of quality talent.

One of the first steps it undertook was to ensure its people were shaped into discerning recruiters, armed with the right assessment tools to accommodate different types of recruitment.

It successfully set out two different training sessions for its hiring managers titled “License to Hire” and “Interviewing & Assessment Skill”.

The company's employee referral programme and employer branding methods were also enhanced to ensure BAT had an upper-hand in attracting the right and most passionate candidates.

The positive results obtained from such efforts reflected the effectiveness of the training invested into the company's hiring managers.

Armed with new skill sets to perform higher quality recruitment, they were able to create a malleable atmosphere aimed at deriving the best out of candidates

Over 90% of candidates interviewed shared that the pre-screening process by the company has been clear, pleasant and professional.

Close to 80% of the candidates expressed their satisfaction with the degree of understanding that was provided to them prior to the interview.

The company's efforts into building a shining employer brand also seemed to have paid off.

Regardless of the job offer status at the end of the interview, 96% of candidates also professed to have good impressions of BAT.

Such similar results were also displayed by Media Prima's hiring team.

The firm was aware that its then existing tools were not extensive enough to gauge real potential of candidates, and assessing their authenticity in one or two evaluation sessions was a real challenge.

"Gone are the days where we just depend on paper and pencil evaluations," said Dona Siti Zawina Don Najib, who is managing talent development and learning as part of HR.

To overcome such difficulties, the company enhanced its recruitment planning, sourcing, screening, selection, appointment and employee evaluation processes.

Media Prima acknowledged that such techniques have resulted in a better quality of candidates, along with boosting its new hire retention rates.

The company has hired a total of 11 candidates in its Young Engineer Programmes and 10 are still serving in the company.