A Milnathort entrepreneur is planning more growth for his online psychometric testing venture.
Managing director Nik Plevan founded eTalent to give businesses access to an effective recruitment tool.
Mr Plevan’s venture, set up in 2009, includes personality and behavioural profiling.
At the time, he was representing several US assessment companies in the UK and selling personality and behaviour assessments for development, training and recruitment.
Mr Plevan said: “The assessment market business model was, and largely still is, based on a cost-per-assessment basis.
“This is quite lucrative for suppliers, but expensive for customers – especially in recruitment.
“Therefore, because of the cost and the way assessments are administered, they are seen as a second or third-tier screening tool.
“This means often the best candidates can be overlooked because they’re rejected at an earlier stage.
“I saw an opportunity for a software tool where every applicant is assessed on personality and behaviour within an online process, and all on a flat-fee, unlimited use, pricing model.”
eTalent’s turnover up to £125,000
The business turned over £25,000 in its first year, and that had increased to £125,000 in the latest financial year.
There are only two eTalent employees currently, as every other part of the venture is outsourced or sub-contracted.
The company now has around 65 customers, from multinationals to small firms.
Mr Plevan added: “I do a fair bit of work with franchisees.
“They find eTalent helps reduce churn costs by identifying people with the right attitude for their jobs.
“One of our clients, a Costa Coffee franchisee with 52 branches, saved at least £90,000 in staff turnover costs in just seven months.
“I was named the recruitment partner of choice for TaxAssist Accountants, a UK-wide accountancy firm with more than 410 offices.”
Expansion plans for Milnathort business
Mr Plevan is targeting big expansion for eTalent in annual turnover and customer numbers in the years ahead.
He added: “We doubled our turnover in the last 12 months, so in five years I’d expect our turnover to be somewhere in the £2 million to £5 million bracket, with 200 to 300 customers.”
Mr Plevan said the Covid-19 pandemic had a positive impact on the business.
He explained: “We were able to scale down quickly, as well as respond very quickly when some of our clients needed to recruit quickly.
“For example, one of our clients is an Edinburgh-based recycling business who were looking for drivers.
“At one point they had received more than 750 applications from mostly-unsuitable people. We helped them find the best-suited in minutes.”
Mr Plevan sees the continued growth in franchising as a major opportunity for eTalent.
He believes there are opportunities in helping franchisees recruit staff, as well as helping recruit franchisees.
“We are also continuing our geographical expansion, both in Europe as well as Australia and the Far East.”
