Hackathons as a platform for hiring freshers is fast gaining popularity, a top-level executive of a firm providing online assessment services to companies said.
Describing it as a “very interesting pivot happening in the area of talent assessment”, CEO of Mercer Mettl Siddhartha Gupta said many companies no longer want the test taking relationship with their target audience when it came to hiring.
Two-way street
With many students also not interested in undertaking assessments involving routine tests, hackathons, as opposed to the conventional campus recruitment route, are becoming a preferred mode, he said. “It helps both sides know each other better. Hackathons serve as a forum for the company to showcase itself to prospective employees, while for the candidates, it helps demonstrate their skill sets,” he added.
It is not just IT companies and hackathons. Companies in other areas too through ideathons are taking this route, he said in an interaction on the sidelines of the 5th HR Tech APAC conference in the city on Wednesday.
Towards meeting the requirement of companies adopting such a recruitment route, Mercer Mettl has launched a hackathon platform for its customers. Last year, global HR consulting firm Mercer had acquired Mettl, a tech start up focused on solutions in the HR space.
According to him, the hackathon platform apart from being used by companies for hiring could also be utilised by firms to shape a prototype and reward those contributing in the development. “Hackathon is a space which is the future of assessment,” Mr. Gupta said, adding Mercer Mettl, in about eight months since the launch of the hackathon platform, has around 60 customers using it.
Two-day meet
The HR Tech APAC conference is a two-day event, organised by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) that got under way, on Wednesday.
Addressing the conference, Telangana Industries and IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan highlighted the growing importance of entrepreneurial leadership in organisations. CEO of SHRM-India Achal Khanna said the workplace environment is rapidly changing due to technology disruption and automation.
