Versant English Test For India - Pearson Talentlens

Versant English Test: An Analysis of City-wise Performance across India

A study by Pearson TalentLens

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Objectives 1

To obtain an indication of the standard of spoken English skills across important urban centres of hiring in the country

2

To understand the availability of talent across various geographies and to aid organizations in strategizing manpower sourcing and recruitment.

3

To perform a comparative analysis on the quality of talent hired against the quality of the talent available in the market, thereby helping create an index of communication skills for recruiters across the country

The Study Pearson TalentLens conducted this study in light of a growing awareness in HR about the importance of language and communication skills for success on the job. With customers becoming more discerning globally and within India, and English becoming the global language of business, businesses need to create a pool of talented communicators who can successfully perform customerfacing roles, interact with internal colleagues and, in general, present a positive perception of the business. In response to this need, and keeping in mind the above objectives, Pearson TalentLens studied test data for its flagship communication skills assessment, (Versant) across all regions of the country in order to offer insights to organizations in building a workforce with better language and communication skills.

The study covers an analysis of test scores obtained from test-takers tested across eight cities in India, for the first three quarters of 2012.

The cities covered were Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR, Jaipur and Kolkata. The test-takers in these cities were tested by organizations at the time of recruitment, using the Versant English Test (VET) from Pearson TalentLens.

The Versant English Test is one of the most widely used automated tests to measure spoken English skills and facilitate the identification and development of the right level of communication skills at the workplace. The Versant automated and patented speech processing system scores candidates on overall English proficiency. The overall score is based on a weighted average of sub-test scores on Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Sentence Mastery, and Fluency – the four fundamental aspects of communication skills.

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Average national VET score

55.69

Vocabulary subtest score

53.48

Pronunciation subtest score

53.75

Sentence Mastery subtest score

54.24

Fluency subtest score

59.56

Comparison of VET Scores in 2012 with Scores in 2011: Pearson TalentLens had conducted a similar study last year.

The adjacent graph table compares the overall average of VET scores in 2011 with scores of 2012.

City*

Average total VET score in 2012

Bangalore Chennai Delhi-NCR Hyderabad Jaipur Kolkata Mumbai Pune National Average

57.9 54.3 53.5 55.7 49.5 55.9 58.6 59.0 55.7

Average total VET score in 2011 59.8 53.4 56.1 57.5 49.1 53.0 59.7 60.1 56.1

* The number of test takers varies across cities.

Findings 1

2

The western region appears to offer the best talent available as far as communication skills are concerned. Based on VET scores for Mumbai and Pune, Pune has the highest average score across regions, both in 2011 and 2012.

Interestingly, the average scores in the first nine months of 2012 have dipped as compared to scores in 2011. The national average as well as the average score across cities has come down with the exception of Kolkata.

Unless the demographics in these cities have changed drastically, which is quite unlikely, these scores could indicate that the IT/ITeS industry may not be the most sought after work destination for many English-speaking graduates who have traditionally sought employment in this industry, both out of choice and necessity. IT/ITeS companies have been frequent users of the VET for voice processes that require communication with native speakers of English. If the above observation is true, this may be indicative of an employment trend in the ITeS sector that industry leaders need to make a note of, in developing recruitment and retention strategies. Given an unpredictable economy and market forces that deplete existing talent pools in organizations, recruitment functions will need to realize the importance of identifying and developing talent with the right

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level of communication skills, using objective, volume-based and accurate assessments.

3

Tier II and tier III Indian cities are fast emerging as preferred destinations for many BPO companies. These companies are shifting their BPOs to tier II and tier III cities in order to attract low-cost talent and reduce operational expense. Considering the average VET scores from Jaipur (49.5), the finding from this study is not very encouraging from the point of view of these companies. While moving to a tier II/III city might help manage costs, the absence of a large English speaking talent base may be a major issue. The resultant training costs are bound to increase significantly for such companies, if the Jaipur VET average score is a reflection of the general level of communication skills in tier II/III cities. One silver lining may be to consider whether talent in tier II and tier III cities is more suited to domestic voice processes that cater to Indian customers, as against international IT/ITeS companies. This talent could be assessed using India-centric assessments such as the Versant English Test for India (VETI) from Pearson TalentLens.

The Talent Crunch

Decision-makers in the IT/ITeS industry face a dilemma - Does one invest in improving the image of the BPO industry and make it an attractive job-destination?

Or does one make use of the best talent available to the IT/ITeS industry by investing heavily on training?

More often than not, companies have taken the second approach. However, before investing in training, it is important to understand the quality of English language proficiency and the specific strengths and weaknesses in spoken English skills in each region.

For the eight cities in the study, there wasn’t much difference in the sub-skill score for Fluency. However, sub-scores on Pronunciation, Sentence Mastery (Grammar), and Vocabulary provide a clearer picture of the areas of strength in the spoken English proficiency of test takers in these cities.

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Pune

Mumbai

Kolkata

Jaipur

Hyderabad

Delhi-NCR

62.0 60.0 58.0 56.0 54.0 52.0 50.0 48.0 46.0 44.0 42.0 40.0 Chennai

Understanding Performance on Sub-skill Scores:

1. Sub Skill: Fluency

Bangalore

Growth in the Indian BPO services sector isn’t what it was 10 years ago partly because a growing talent shortage is squeezing company bottom lines. Although the ITeS industry has brought well-paid global jobs to a country that has people with widely varying levels of education, aptitude, and English language skills, the talent bar would certainly need to be raised to continue attracting international clients. Consequently, a growing need for training the workforce in tier II cities has emerged that will see organizations invest heavily to develop English communication skills that will serve the needs of international clients.

Fluency An interesting finding from the analysis of Fluency sub-scores across the cities was that candidates’ Fluency scores were higher than their scores for any other sub-skill, within each city as well as in terms of the national average scores on Fluency. This may mean that there is a subgroup of candidates whose overall scores are being elevated slightly by their Fluency scores. Candidates who have been speaking English as a second language for most of their lives may speak with ease and confidence but their actual pronunciation, vocabulary or grammatical skills may not correspond to the high degree of spoken fluency they demonstrate.

2. Sub Skills: Vocabulary and Sentence Mastery Scores on Sentence Mastery and Vocabulary are related to acquiring fundamental content-based skills of a language. High scores on these sub-scores indicate a good command over the basic structure of the English language. From the following two illustrations it is clear that Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and, to an extent Hyderabad, have the best talent available in the market in terms of English grammar and vocabulary.

Pune

Mumbai

Kolkata

Jaipur

Hyderabad

Delhi-NCR

Chennai

Pune

Mumbai

Kolkata

Jaipur

Hyderabad

Delhi-NCR

Chennai

Bangalore

Bangalore

60.0 58.0 56.0 54.0 52.0 50.0 48.0 46.0 44.0 42.0 40.0

60.0 58.0 56.0 54.0 52.0 50.0 48.0 46.0 44.0 42.0 40.0

Sentence Mastery

Vocabulary

3. Sub Skill: Pronunciation

Pronunciation

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Pune

Mumbai

Kolkata

Jaipur

Hyderabad

Delhi-NCR

Chennai

Bangalore

60.0 58.0 56.0 54.0 52.0 50.0 48.0 46.0 44.0 42.0 40.0

Pronunciation is an indication of the extent of Mother Tongue Influence (MTI) on an individual’s spoken English language. The higher the score on this sub-skill, the lower the influence of MTI. Pune test-takers scored the highest on Pronunciation. Mumbai, Kolkata, and Bangalore test-takers fared relatively well on the pronunciation sub-skill.

The test data indicated that test-takers in Delhi-NCR (51.9) and Jaipur (49.8) may be impacted the most by MTI on their English language ability. Chennai (52) and Hyderabad (53.5) pronunciation scores indicated the next highest impact of MTI.

Conclusion: The Road Ahead From the study it is clear that there is no single aspect of communication that, by itself, influences overall spoken language proficiency. If a city has a low average score on the VET, all the four sub-scores contribute to the low score and vice-versa. Going by the Versant test data for 2011 and 2012 (Q1-Q3), the Western region in India appears to be the best choice for companies to find candidates with desired communication skills for employment in the IT/ITeS as well as any industry that requires good communication skills in English for success on the job. However, since it is the tier I cities in these regions that have topped the score chart, manpower costs need to be factored in when companies decide where to recruit. As for tier II and III cities, more data is needed to conclude with reasonable confidence that training candidates in these cities would fetch enough returns to make the shift from tier I cities profitable for international ITeS companies.

Companies will need to decide whether they are willing to invest in identifying and developing the right level of communication skills in their employees, using scientific and objective methodologies such as assessments, or face the risk of dealing with a less than desirable talent pool that will adversely affect the business in the short and long term.

For more information on the study, please contact us at info@talentlens.in For more information on Versant tests, visit http://talentlens.in/versant-tests-for-communication/

Pearson TalentLens www.talentlens.in

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