Sujatha Kumaraswamy, CEO, MeritTrac, on hybrid assessment

MeritTrac, an Indian online assessment service, is strengthening the industry with scientific methods and tools. The demand for online evaluation with an analytical approach is in-demand.

They are providing services across the globe over 400 organisations. MeritTrac is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Manipal Global Education Services.

Whether governing bodies, corporate sectors, or education organizations. Hiring talented employees or candidates is the highest priority. In these unprecedented times, an urge to deliver and grow rapidly is crucial for all individuals.

Here, Sujatha Kumaraswamy, CEO, MeritTrac, shares her insight on the hybrid players of the brand. She has shed light on the AI transformation and other interesting factors with CIOL.

What are the three most fascinating things about working as the CEO of MeritTrac?

Rapid Transformation through technology / new products in the Assessment industry, the people, and the changing customer landscape are all continuous learning opportunities for me in this role.

How do you see yourself professionally and personally?

I want to continue to learn, grow and contribute in whichever capacity. I would like to see the impact of the work I am doing.

What is the role of your brand in the assessment industry? Any new projects your brand is working on?

Rapid technological changes, internet penetration & growing demand for a skill-based workforce have led the assessment industry to adopt a blended play. From being a ‘good to have’ option, it has become critical to have a hybrid play. Also, a high level of integrity is required for high-stake assessment drives. In a market where technology is evolving rapidly and the trust factor is critical, establishing a brand that resonates with trust and quality backed by a state-of-the-art technology platform is extremely important. At MeritTrac, we work closely with organizations to ensure that our product-play is well aligned to the market and ahead of the curve. The trust and reliability scores on our remote proctoring systems are higher than ever, as the systems are constantly upgrading to ensure the integrity of virtual hiring, supported by an AI-backed Trust Score.

How is your brand dealing with the current pandemic challenges? Also, elaborate on the impact of AI on the corporate, education, and government sectors?

The focus is on replicating the in-person hiring experience to an online environment, while constantly evolving tools and assessment methodologies for ensuring the right hires. Remote hiring has mandated the usage of technology, which is one of the best ways to eliminate hiring biases due to the nature of the tools and platforms used. As HR processes, including recruitment and hiring, move online, we must track and evaluate competencies and candidate-to-role fit, with utmost accuracy. This evolution in assessments has been made possible due to technology-enabled by AI.

On the assessment-backed learning front, it can identify the medium of learning that is most effective for an individual and can ensure learning modules are nudged in a way that ensures maximum retention for the student. As it evolves, even internal assessments can be made truly adaptive basis candidate competency with clear directions on improvement areas—to ensure that candidates graduate with holistic skills that are aligned and relevant to the industry.

How relevant are B2G and B2B models to the evaluation or online assessment industry?

At MeritTrac, products and technology have always been at the heart of our strategy, and some of the investments made in the past enabled our platforms to handle the growing need for Government and corporate assessments. We have been able to roll out our best-in-class remote/auto proctored platform to serve the market needs while providing a lot of comfort to the exam proctors on the integrity of the assessment. On the Government front, our expertise in assessment science, content development and question paper management, along with delivery through secure platforms across the country, has been our forte. On the Enterprise front, we have seen increasing interest from all our clients to re-evaluate their current processes and identify areas of improvement to make their models more robust and suited to the current working environment. These include large-scale organisations as well as SMEs across industries like IT, FMCG, Automobile and Pharma. I firmly believe that this shift towards digital platforms for assessments will lead to more efficient and effective ways of recruitment and periodic evaluations across industries.

What are your favourite vacation destinations and any retirement plans yet?

Considering we haven’t been able to take a vacation now for 2 years due to the pandemic, any destination will do; Retirement—not for some time!!