Candidate skills testing for a robust recruitment process

Every recruiter’s pain point is going through piles of resumes, and that’s exactly why skills testing is so important. 

Research suggests 82% of companies are already using some kind of pre-employment assessment as part of their hiring process.

Screening out unqualified candidates and hiring and retaining skilled employees is made simple with skills testing. These tests rely on an advanced algorithm that identifies skill gaps among potential employee populations based on IT experience or education level and not just work history! 

Team Testlify has seen how this type of assessment transforms the way companies approach hiring and how it has proven beneficial for everyone involved. These tests are a great way to quickly and efficiently find the skills that your company needs and our objective is to enable you to make informed hiring decisions with ease.

This article will provide insight into how skills testing works and why it plays an important role in hiring decisions.

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What is skills testing? 

Skills testing is like an exam that can objectively evaluate prospective employees on their necessary soft skills and technical abilities. It helps avoid biases from CV/resume assessments because those documents don’t always reveal hidden talents or weaknesses in candidates.

It allows you to determine whether or not an applicant has the knowledge for your desired role. 

Moreover, these quick screenings save valuable time by identifying promising candidates from those who aren’t qualified in enough areas before investing hours into interviewing them.

Also, these tests give specific pointers before the interview that the interviewer can discuss with the candidate to get a deeper understanding of their knowledge and experience.

Testlify recommends using candidate skills testing as the first step in your screening process and tailoring them specifically to match what you need. 

It’s not only about screening candidates; our skill tests are designed to identify each applicant’s strengths so you can focus your hiring efforts on those who will make a great fit for the position. 

Candidates can apply for open jobs by uploading their resume or CV, which will allow employers to see all aspects of a person’s skill set before deciding whether they are qualified enough.

Why choose candidate skill-testing over other assessment methods?

Candidate skill testing is an unbiased method to evaluate a candidate’s core & actual skills ranging from hard skills such as coding ability or soft skills such as effective communication. 

Other pre-employment assessment tools are: 

• Personality tests
• Job referrals
• Job Interviews 

These may offer some insights but are less objective. 

Candidate skills tests are designed based on set standards and can help you make the right hiring decisions backed by accurate data. 

Testlify’s skills testing assessments

At Testlify, we believe that using multiple tests is the best way to measure a candidate’s skills.

Our platform lets you choose which skill tests are most relevant for your open role and then compile them into one easy-to-learn format so they can be administered with ease!

Benefits of using skills testing for recruitment

A candidate’s resume only goes halfway towards revealing their existing skills and abilities. Skill testing helps you assess a potential hire, understand their strengths and weaknesses, and identify gaps in your hiring process or training needs for new employees coming on board.

Here are the top seven reasons why skill-testing should be a part of your recruitment process:

1. Objective screening

With skills testing, you can objectively screen candidates for the perfect hire. By directly testing them on their relevant skill sets, you can identify the ‘qualified hires’ while screening out’ unqualified hires.’ 

2. Provide great candidate experience

A structured and engaging hiring process would portray your organization as one that values people while prioritizing innovation and user experience. 

3. Select the most qualified candidates to interview

The time to interview is limited, and skills testing helps you identify the most qualified candidates for whom it’s worth spending your precious resources.

4. Improve employee retention

Qualified candidates are necessary to maintain an efficient workforce, but finding them can be challenging. 

Therefore hiring those who are most suited is imperative to reduce employee churn. 

Additionally, skill-testing also assesses the individual’s personality and culture fit beyond traditional skill sets. This provides insights about candidates who will thrive in your organization by aligning to its goals and vision. 

5. Recognize strengths and areas of improvement

Skills testing gives a clear picture of candidates’ strengths and areas of improvement, thus providing key information to map out career development strategies for more productive future interactions. 

6. Spend less on resources 

By bringing in candidates who already have the needed skills, you can save time and resources. By incorporating cognitive ability tests in your skills testing, you can identify quick learners because they’re more predictive of performance on cognitive tasks than personality tests or work experience alone!

7. Higher profits

Research studies have shown that companies with a strong recruiting process experienced 3.5 times more revenue growth and double the profit than companies with a weak recruitment process. 

So, it’s no wonder why more organizations rely on skills testing to find top talent with skills needed for their business goals! 

Skills Testing: what do they measure?

The competencies required for a job are often measured by skills testing. These include technical skills that are directly observable to the innate, latent talent that is hard to uncover without objective testing. 

Skills can be into two categories, i.e., Acquired Skills (based on knowledge and experience) and Cognitive Skills & Abilities. 

Let’s understand more about these:

1. Acquired skills (based on knowledge and experience)

Acquired skills include hard skills directly correlated to on-the-job tasks and can be learned only through training or direct experience. More often than not, they will have very specific roles linked to them. 

Here are some examples from the Testlify test library:

• Programming skills: Ruby on Rails, PHP (coding), Laravel, React Native, etc.
• Software skills: Microsoft Windows, WooCommerce, WordPress Developer, Tableau, etc. 
• Role-specific skills: Google Analytics, HR Fundamentals, SEO Copywriting, AWS, etc. 

It’s important to note that the hard skills needed for a particular job are often easier to train than the soft skills. For example, it’s easier to teach a learnable skill such as HR Fundamentals than a ‘soft skill’ such as Empathy. 

2. Cognitive skills & abilities

These include soft skills or rather the thinking process or behavior of an individual. 

Personality or situational judgment testing is apt to understand whether a candidate aligns with your organization’s goals and vision. 

On the other hand, cognitive skills testing tests an individual’s reading comprehension or problem-solving skills.

Here are some examples from the Testlify test library:

• Situational judgment: Communication, Time-management, Business ethics & Compliance, etc. 
• Personality & Culture fit: Big 5 (OCEAN), DISC, etc. 

The examples given here are just individual tests. A complete skills testing battery would include up to 5 tests that would provide insights and a holistic candidate overview. 

Incorporating skills testing into your hiring process 

Skills testing is more than just administering a battery of tests to assess candidates. It requires implementing effective strategies into your hiring process to ensure you are testing the ‘right’ skills in alignment with hiring goals. 

Here’s how you can go about it:

1. Organizational needs and gap analysis

Before creating a skills test, analyze your organization’s needs as a whole. 

Identify the skills that every member must possess to thrive in your organization. A gap analysis would also be prudent. What are the existing gaps which could be effectively addressed and filled by a new hire?

2. Analyze your hiring goals

What is your ideal candidates’ profile? List down the technical and soft skills they must possess for the job role. Should the candidate be evaluated against certain benchmarks? Or is someone who has all the listed skills good enough? 

In other words, you need to decide whether you are looking for an individual who just about ‘fits the role’ or someone who raises the bar on performance to push boundaries. 

Depending on the role, certain competencies such as team player or leadership skills can be given a higher weightage. 

3. Choosing your skills testing tool

Here are a few points to consider when choosing a Skills Testing tool that is suitable for your organization:  

• The type of tests are you looking for, i.e., technical, cognitive, or a combination of both?
• Test customization should be available, or would ready-made tests work well?
• Subscription plan that suits your needs, i.e., monthly, yearly, per candidate, etc. 
• An objective measure to assess a large volume of candidates in a single sitting. 
• A tool that integrates with your existing ATS. 
• Full-fledge proctoring features such as anti-cheating checks, etc. 

Testlify is the perfect skills testing tool with all the features mentioned above and a lot more! Its easy-to-use interface has made it a popular choice for hiring managers and organizations alike. 

4. Create skills testing for job roles

As discussed earlier, this should be done keeping in mind your hiring goals and ideal candidate profile. 

Testlify’s extensive test library has a range of skills tests that help you easily choose the one you want to build your skills testing tool. 

It also recommends skills tests ideally suited for a specific job role, thus saving precious time and effort. E.g. for the position of Android Developer, tests such as Flutter, CSS, Attention to Detail, DISC would be the recommendations.  

Once the Skills Testing battery is created, you can screen and assess candidates. The results from the tests can be used to set performance benchmarks and modify or add tests/skills over time. 

Use skills Testing for a streamlined recruitment process

Candidate skills testing can streamline your recruitment process, enabling you to save time and resources and get qualitative hires. 

Screening and interviewing candidates, acquiring objective data & information, making better hiring decisions that lead to better employee retention, all these and more are the benefits of incorporating skills testing in your hiring process. 

Looking to hire top talent quickly, accurately, and affordably?

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