In a market with fierce competition for top talent, creating an engaging and human candidate experience is more crucial than ever. However, you must strike a balance between this and selecting the best talent for your position.
In today’s job market, skill-testing can give recruiters a competitive advantage. Candidates that are hired based on their abilities rather than their history tend to remain longer and perform better over time.
So what are skill tests? And how can you use skill tests to hire the best talent? Find out right here.
What is a skill assessment test?
Skills assessments are scientific and formal tools for evaluating the abilities of potential applicants. Employers and hiring managers can use skills tests to get a first-hand look at someone’s ability to perform a certain task, removing subjectivity and prejudice from the decision-making process. This method makes it simple to assess candidates’ suitability for the jobs/roles for which they have applied.
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Skill assessment tests allow you to analyze and screen job candidates for the skills required to succeed in their position.
You can objectively assess a candidate on a variety of soft and technical skills that are most relevant to their work using these tests, avoiding the biases that can arise when screening candidates using (subjective) CVs and resumes.
Even if applicants appear to be excellent on paper, they have likely exaggerated their abilities. In a word, skills assessment tests allow you to determine whether an applicant is well-suited for the job before you invest time in an interview.
Why make skill tests a part of your hiring process?
Giving skills tests during the employment process allows you to measure capabilities before making a hiring choice, which is one way to ensure you’re selecting the correct people. Skills tests are an excellent method to guarantee that the people you recruit are not only a good match for the job, but also have the capacity to grow and add value to your company in the long run. Here are six reasons why you should include skills testing in your employment process:
1. To determine an applicant’s current status
Many resumes contain inaccurate information and misrepresent facts. Employers might use skills tests to verify the legitimacy of an applicant’s résumé. Employers can use pre-employment skills tests to assess the reliability of candidates’ statements and determine whether they possess the skills they claim.
2. Find the perfect candidate-job fit
You may have many open positions in some circumstances, especially when hiring is difficult. And chances are, if you have a terrific candidate, they’re qualified for more than one of those positions. A skills test can help you find skills or patterns in their behavior that reveal which position they’re likely to do best in, in addition to asking them about their preferences.
3. Assist in making the best hiring decisions
Employers occasionally make recruiting errors. Nobody wants to make a mistake, yet it happens. Employers might use job skills evaluations to see if applicants are as qualified for the job and the company culture as they claim. Employers who use skills testing can thus make more informed employment selections.
4. Determine candidate’s training requirements
Even if you know a candidate is suitable for a position, a skills test can help you figure out what kind of training they’ll need after they join the team. Growth is an important component of what makes someone successful in their job, and research suggests that individuals who are given learning and development opportunities are more inclined to stay. Skills assessments might assist you in determining where you should focus your training.
5. Assist in distinguishing between people with equal ability levels
Candidates with similar skill sets need a thorough and objective evaluation of their talents. That’s where skills evaluations come in handy, revealing important details and highlighting differences amongst applicants with similar degrees and experience.
6. Remove biases
Biases can enter the employment process in a variety of ways. One of the most effective strategies to eliminate biases in recruitment is to use a well-structured employee skills assessment. The premise behind a skill assessment is that instead of depending exclusively on CVs, interviews, and gut instinct, offering evidence-based and comprehensive information about candidates’ knowledge and skills streamlines recruiters’ jobs and provides an objective appraisal of talents.
Types of skill tests
1. Technical skill tests
The skill evaluation tests will have to be defined based on the employment role in question. If you’re employing a developer, for example, you should evaluate their coding skills and possibly the quality of the code they’ve created. If you’re recruiting a floor engineer, on the other hand, you’ll need to assess his technical abilities in AutoCAD or conduct a mechanical engineering test.
Technical skill tests are one of the finest techniques to screen candidates for technical employment since they allow the recruiter to establish the candidate’s ability level.
2. Psychometric evaluations
Psychometric exams are methods used to objectively measure a candidate’s aptitude, personality traits, talents, and IQ levels. These tests are widely utilized in the hiring and development of employees. The psychometric exam can match an individual’s personality and abilities to the correct role or career, whether for employment or career counseling. These tests can aid in large-scale recruiting campaigns by narrowing down a big applicant pool to a select few candidates who might be a good fit for a specific post or company.
3. Behavioral assessments
Behavioral exams are formal frameworks used to evaluate candidates’ behavioral competencies in a simulated workplace. Individuals completing these tests demonstrate their behavioral abilities in tasks that are similar to those found in the job. Behavioral evaluations are an important element of the evaluation process since they attempt to watch, comprehend, evaluate, forecast, and even correct the actions of the candidates. It’s a form of pre-employment test that companies use to evaluate key behavioral attributes needed to succeed in a specific role. Based on behavioral abilities, the test can assist recruiters to decide whether an applicant is a suitable fit for the firm.
4. Cognitive Ability Tests
While cognitive skills may not measure specific job-related talents, they do assess a candidate’s overall aptitude and ability to think critically. These abilities are desirable in any candidate, regardless of the position.
The cognitive ability test assesses the candidate’s general mental capacity by evaluating them on linguistic, logical, numerical, and abstract themes. This type of test assesses the candidates’ memory, focus, speed, language, and thinking ability. Employers use such assessments as the main scanning test to shortlist candidates based on their ability to think.
Can we interrupt you for a moment?
Wondering who we are and why we wrote this?
Testlify is a plug-and-play skill assessment platform with a large test library of technical, cognitive, and soft-skill assessments.
Why opt for software to do skill tests?
Employers can benefit from skill assessment examinations. By weeding out unwanted individuals, these tests give businesses valuable insight into the recruitment process. Apart from appropriately assessing applicants’ ability, a software-based test makes it easier for talent teams to hire the right people at scale.
Skill assessment platforms like Testlify are also accessible and easy to use, making them more economical and convenient for employers. These solutions provide a fantastic candidate experience by allowing candidates to access skills assessment exams from anywhere.
Benefits of online skill assessment tests
Online tests are auto-evaluated, hence, there is no prejudice involved, and they are more objective than other forms of assessment.
● Poor acquisition decisions can be caused by unconscious hiring bias and an unfair hiring procedure. As a result, online skill assessments are critical in the employment process. Such exams provide an objective assessment of a person’s abilities and degree of expertise, assisting in the elimination of elements that may influence a human recruiter or hiring manager without their knowledge.
● Periodic skills assessments can validate or point out areas where training interventions are insufficient and have enough data to track an individual’s progress or workforce growth.
● The online tests provide a measurable assessment of a candidate’s overall strengths and limitations, which can help an employer make hiring decisions.
● Paying for in-person testing infrastructure and reimbursing candidates for travel fees is more expensive than using online testing.
● By employing these exams, the employer can restrict the candidate pool and save time and effort.
● Online testing systems allow identical tests to be given to all candidates, everyone has the same chance of succeeding.
Conclusion
Many businesses build a healthy competitive culture that encourages positive reinforcement and incentives to succeed for the greater good of the company. These skills assessment tests are used to identify a person’s fitness and capability for a job, as well as whether they have the motivation to achieve and prosper in the organization.
FAQs
- What exactly is a skills assessment?
The competency-based examination of an individual’s ability to do a given skill-based task is known as skills assessment(s). This procedure is methodical, evidence-based, and gives an objective assessment of the candidates’ potential.
- What should you expect from a skills assessment test?
The purpose of skill assessments is to determine the skill level and competency of possible applicants. This technique allows a corporation to get in-depth knowledge of each employee’s competencies, level of dedication, and ability to accomplish the job. Skills assessment exams necessitate mental, physical, and psychological preparedness; to ace the assessment, one must be properly prepared to take these assessments at the appropriate time.
- How would you describe the candidate’s experience?
Candidates want to know what working at your company is like. Having the ability to construct tests that represent the actual role allows them to get a taste of the experience, so candidates who complete your evaluation are more likely to be engaged and less likely to quit once employed.
- How can I use Testlify to run my skill assessment tests?
Testlify is a do-it-yourself platform. It is very simple to configure and send out skill assessments test via Testlify that HRs will not need any IT/technical support to do it. Just sign-up on the platform, choose from our list of assessments, or create your own. And then shoot it out to your candidates.
5. Do I need to pay to use Testlify?
Testlify is currently free, which means you can access all the tests, send them out to candidates, and access results just by signing up, for free.
