If you’re thinking about conducting pre-employment skills testing, you’re probably wondering which you should choose. There are plenty of options out there, and plenty of reasons why each option is the one for you. Fortunately, we’re here to break it down for you so you’ll have an understanding of which pre-employment tests are being administered most often and why.
Before I get into which three are the MOST popular, it’s important to caution that you should only use a skills test if you are sure your job requires that particular skill. Most jobs require these three skills which is why they’re the most commonly used.
1. Microsoft Excel Test: In the information age, many jobs require their employees to have a basic understanding of excel functions. Whether or not your candidates have this skill is not as easy as looking at their resume. In fact, we’ve found that a large portion of candidates who list Excel as a skill on their resume can’t back it up when tested. Employers can avoid wasting time on resume padders by administering this type of test early in the hiring process.
2. Sales Ability Test: There are several variations of these – all of which tend to measure a candidate’s natural drive, achievement orientation, and persisitence. Most jobs these days involve some elements of sales: be it a business development role, a waitress at a restaurant, a consultant, or a high-level executive, these jobs all require the person to “sell” ideas, services, and/or products.
3. Management Success + Applied Reasoning Test: Anytime you’re hiring someone into a management role, it’s important to make sure that they can work well with a team, motivate others to achieve desired results, and have sound reasoning. A test like this will give employers a clear picture of a candidate’s ability to manage others on top of the candidate’s ability to make logical decisions. Promoting from within is no exception. Just because someone is good at their job doesn’t mean they’ll be a good manager (this fallacy is often referred to as the peter principle): test before you promote to avoid this blunder.
While pre-employment testing is only a small piece of the puzzle, it can be worth the extra $ because it takes no time on your end and will help verify that your candidate has what it takes to do your job!
