Kenexa Launches New Customer Service Simulation Platform to Predict Job Performance
Integrity, Teamwork and Safety Awareness Simulations Planned Within Next Year
| Source: Kenexa
CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwire - June 23, 2008) - 2008 SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition --
Kenexa® (NASDAQ : KNXA ), a global
provider of talent management and retention solutions, today unveiled
SimSJT™: Customer Service, the new online simulation platform designed
to assess customer service aptitude. SimSJT engages candidates in a virtual
3D environment that measures knowledge of roles associated with excellent
customer service -- greeting, anticipating, information exchange, task
performance, empathy, solving problems, adding value/upgrading, and
follow-up.
SimSJT requires candidates to indicate how they would handle specific
customer service situations. SimSJT gives applicants a realistic preview of
customer service positions, while enabling organizations to identify the
most talented candidates. The program efficiently and effectively
identifies talented candidates with exceptional customer service aptitude,
thus predicting on the job performance and reducing staff turnover. In
addition, the use of multimedia functionality makes the SimSJT assessment
accessible to a broad range of candidates, regardless of their literacy
level or English-language proficiency.
"Traditional text-heavy Situational Judgment Tests, or SJTs, rely on
candidates reading through and comprehending often lengthy passages before
they respond. Our SimSJT eliminates the need for this text-intensive
approach by replacing it with simulated interactions that the candidate
watches and listens to," said Troy Kanter, president and chief operating
officer of Kenexa. "Kenexa has a long history of delivering custom
simulations for clients in the U.S., Europe, Russia and Australia. Through
this work, we realized that a lot of customer service behaviors are
consistent across positions or cultures. An off-the-shelf product, such as
SimSJT, can be deployed rapidly across a wide variety of market sectors and
industries."
In SimSJT, candidates are led through a series of customer service episodes
taking place in different locations: a restaurant, a hotel, a retail store
and an office. Through the use of engaging 3D simulation -- similar to
online games and virtual worlds like The
Sims™ and Second Life® --
SimSJT captivates and maintains the interest and attention of candidates,
resulting in less candidate attrition through testing stages.
Jeff Weekley, Ph.D., a senior researcher at Kenexa, commented, "We relied
on extensive research from our Industrial and Organizational psychologists,
as well as industry expertise from animators and computer programmers, to
deliver a product that will reduce cost-of-hire by eliminating the need for
in-person testing."
This is the first of the series of SimSJT online assessments built on
Kenexa's e-Psymulate™ platform. In the next 12 months, Kenexa will
release Integrity, Teamwork and Safety Awareness assessments. More
information is available at
http://www.kenexa.com/en/solutions/Assessment/Simulation.aspx.
About Kenexa
Kenexa (NASDAQ : KNXA )
is a global leader in building the world's greatest workforces using a
combination of software, employee research science and business process
optimization. Kenexa's global solutions include applicant tracking,
onboarding, recruitment process outsourcing, employment branding, skills
and behavioral assessments, structured interviews, performance management,
multi-rater feedback surveys, employee engagement surveys and HR Analytics.
Kenexa is headquartered in Wayne, Pa. (outside Philadelphia). Additional
information about Kenexa and its global products and services can be
accessed at www.kenexa.com.