Why Skills Tests Should be Part of Your Hiring Process

Have you ever hired someone who just wasn’t quite right for the role? It’s frustrating for you because you’ve invested resources, time, and energy into onboarding and training this person only to have to start your search over. And it leaves the employee feeling as though you’ve misled them about what the role entailed or that you failed to set them up for success. It’s a lose-lose situation for everyone involved.

It happens to even the best recruiters and hiring managers — no matter how closely you review the candidate’s resume, ask smart interview questions, and even conduct reference checks. And unfortunately the consequences can be enormous. Studies have found that the wrong hire can cost your organization up to $15,000 in addition to the damaged morale of you and your team.

One thing you can do to make sure you’re bringing the right folks on board is to give skills tests during the hiring process, allowing you to gauge capabilities before making a hiring decision. Skills tests are a great way to ensure that the folks you hire are not only a right fit for the role but also have potential to grow and provide long-term value to your organization. Here’s four reasons why skills tests should be a part of your hiring process:

Four key benefits of skills tests

Gain peace of mind

Skills tests help you get a sense of qualifications before you extend an offer, giving you peace of mind about your hiring decision. Tests are available for hard skills like accounting, nursing, or other roles that require specific skills on the job. You can also give tests that gauge soft skills — such as customer service, sales or leadership skills — that often set folks apart but can be really tough to confirm during an interview.

Level the playing field

Not every candidate can give a great interview. And if you place too much weight on the interview alone, you might be overlooking some really great candidates. Skills tests level the playing field by highlighting those who are actually skilled for the role and are a fit for your company — not just those who are charismatic during interviews. 

Find the right fit

In some cases — especially during times when hiring is hard — you might have multiple open roles. And if you have a great candidate, chances are they’re qualified for more than one of those roles. In addition to asking them their preferences, a skills test can help you identify skills or patterns in their behavior that show which position they’re likely to perform best in.

Identify training needs

Even if you know that a candidate is qualified for a role, a skills test can help determine what training needs the person might have once they join the team. Growth is part of what makes someone successful in their roles and data shows that employees are more likely to stick around if they’re offered learning and development opportunities. Skills tests can help you identify where to focus those training efforts right off the bat.
Skills tests are much more than just a way to confirm that candidates do in fact have the skills listed on their resumes. A well-designed skills test can help you identify folks who are not only able to perform the duties in the role but also excel and really stand out in your organization long-term.

Making skills tests a part of your hiring process

This is why skills tests are an integral part of the Hireology platform — designed to help you find better, longer-term fits for your jobs. Within the platform, you can conduct aptitude testing or choose from more than 100 job-specific evaluations to measure hard skills. Our skills tests feature also saves time for you and your team. You can send digital skills tests automatically, set applicants up to complete them on their own schedule, and instantly share the results with the hiring manager. This frees up hiring manager time by automating much of the process with the applicant, and since skills tests are completed online, they are also scored automatically, allowing you to make your hiring decisions faster.

While it adds an extra step to the hiring process, ordering and managing skills tests from an integrated system like Hireology helps keep the process moving, especially with our automated, digital-first approach. And a fast hiring process is critical in today’s New Applicant Economy where competition for top talent is high and those who do want to work can get hired quickly. It can also spare you the challenge of onboarding someone who lacks the skills for the role, which would force you to spend extra time managing a poor fit or reopening the role.

If you’re not already conducting automated and digitized skills tests, learn how Hireology can help you today.

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