Thursday, June 28, 2012

How to indentify the technical software proficieny of existing teams and new hires?

Good Morning All,

Today I will talk about something new! Ofcourse related to BIM but not fully.

When I first started at BIMES we were recruiting new team members and all of a sudden I was asked to test their technical skills on ArchiCAD.

On the first one, I was unprepared and really did not know how to check the candidate's skills so I just looked at the projects he's done and asked some questions but I had no idea if he is good or not.

Unfortunately it can be very costly if the hiring person can not evaluate the person properly and gives him responsibilities that he can not handle. In our business it can cause even cancellation of the project contract.

Anyway, after the first experience I got smarter:)) so I started to look for methods to measure ArchiCAD skills.

Well, I was lucky as Graphisoft has a very good system for that. ArchiCAD Competency Challange Test! It is an online test that asks you 50 multiple choice questions about anything and everything about ArchiCAD:)

So I started using it but on a candidate, which I knew he was a good user, it did not work. His result was very low and I  noticed that ArchiCAD Competency Challenge Test is good to measure the knowledge on software features but it is not enough. You need to test candidates with some hands-on exercises as well.

So I started to use another test in which a pln file is provided with a simple model and you are required to generate PDF output according to the sample provided. You basically have to set the layer combinations, view sets and publisher etc.

When I started to apply these 2 tests, I was able to evaluate the candidate's ArchiCAD skills fully.

I was thinking of the HR managers in large AEC companies? How do they know they are hiring the right people. Yes, if they are using ArchiCAD there are many tests available but what about the other tools?

Then I came up with KnowledgeSmart!



KnowledgeSmart is a cloud -based solution that has online skills assessment tools, which help AEC firms identify the technical software proficiency of existing teams and new hires.

This is basically cloud-based version of the system I was using... Of course much more developed...

They have both multiple choice and hands-on exercises and as a result it provides skills gap analysis and benchmarking metrics which enable the AEC companies to maximise their return on investment in technology and people.

Many companies are using KnowledgeSmart to evaluate and develop their existing teams' skills which is as important as evaluating the new hires.

Vendors release new versions every year and if an architect / engineer do not train himself on the new features he will be using the software with 60-70% efficiency in 4-5 years time.

At the moment they have tests for Revit (Architecture, MEP, Structure, Families, Project Process), AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Inventor, 3ds Max, MicroStation, Bentley Architecture, Rhino, SketchUp, Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop.

Nice, isn't it?

PS: Yes, we became their local distributor:)))

Diyane Koseoglu
www.bimes.com




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