How Basic Excel Skills Tests Help Companies Hire Remote Employees

The prospect of having access to better talent, reducing hiring costs, and improving productivity make building a remote workforce appealing to employers. But hiring remote employees requires a different approach. With a pre-employment testing solution, like eSkill, employers can test candidates only for the skills they need. A skill many employers are looking for today is basic proficiency in Microsoft Excel.

The degree to which Excel is used in businesses is no surprise. From making simple accounting ledgers to generating pivot tables and data visualizations, Excel’s broad range of features helps companies organize financial- and data-related projects such as sales forecasts, quarterly expense reports and make field data.

Many middle-skill positions and high-paying jobs start with a solid foundational understanding of Microsoft Excel. In fact, 78% of mid-level jobs require proficiency in productivity software, according to a Burning Glass Technologies study analyzing data mined from nearly 27 million online job postings, and about two-thirds of all middle-skill positions require proficiency in Microsoft Word or Excel or similar productivity software such as Google Docs or Sheets.

eSkill’s basic Excel skills tests might look deceptively simple, but they can provide valuable insights that help hiring teams make data-driven, shortlisting decisions effectively and efficiently.

Evaluate the Skills and Proficiency Level of Any Position Across Industries

Since the business landscape has become increasingly dependent on database and information management, accurately and consistently measuring candidates’ ability to use Excel is critical to mitigating the risk of a costly bad hire. When taking eSkill’s Excel skills tests, candidates are presented with an Excel® scenario that might include managing workbooks and databases, formatting, functions and formulas, creating and editing charts, and more. The level of difficulty and complexity of test questions is easily customizable to match the requirements of any position.

eSkill has the largest library of off-the-shelf tests in the employment testing industry. Easily find a job-based or single-subject test that directly aligns with any role, or generate a customized skills test by choosing questions from multiple tests.

Job-Based Tests: Choose questions from hundreds of job-specific tests with an Excel section to create questions for positions such as Billing Coordinator, Administrative Assistant, Data Entry Operator, Office Manager, Call Center Operator, Financial Assistant, Account Executive, and Telemarketer.

Single-Subject Tests: Choose single-subject computer skills assessments to match the exact software and processes used in a position. eSkill offers a wide variety of Excel simulations and skills tests to measure candidates’ knowledge and expertise, including varying levels of difficulty in many versions of the software from MS Office XP – Excel® to MS Office 2019 – Excel®, and  MS Office 2016 – Excel®.

Over 600 Modular Subjects: Generate multi-subject skills assessments in seconds by handpicking Excel-related questions from eSkill’s professional skills library and combining them with other questions or skills tests.

Predict On-the-Job Performance

With eSkill’s customizable Excel skills test, you can ensure that the potential remote employees who will regularly work with spreadsheets are experienced Excel users. By requiring candidates to take an Excel skills test, employers can evaluate their spreadsheet knowledge as it relates to a particular role.

eSkill’s Basic MS Excel Skills Test covers the following topics:

• Creating and using formulas. Excel formulas serve important functions for virtually any task, project, or organization because they are used to perform math calculations and interpret data. Understanding the basics of Excel formulas helps employees get a grasp on more complex functions.

• Formatting: Formatting cells simply means changing the format of a number, such as changing a percent to a decimal or changing the alignment, border, and font of a value. This is one of the most commonly used functions in Excel.

• Reporting: Creating reports in Excel is another common practice since data is best featured on a spreadsheet. Many employers expect their staff to have a basic understanding of how to create a report using Excel.

• Pivot tables: A pivot table allows users to reorganize information in a spreadsheet to extract the data needed. This feature is especially useful with large amounts of data, and it is used to create reports quickly.

When used at the beginning stages of the talent pipeline, an Excel skills test can be used to narrow the pool of candidates by weeding out those who don’t have the required Excel skills.

With quality content, eSkill’s pre-hire skills tests are not only objective, but they are also valid and well-constructed. eSkill boasts the best compliance record in the assessment industry with a nearly 20-year history of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission compliance. eSkill’s pre-hire skills tests use data-driven insights to predict potential hires’ retain-ability and on-the-job performance, without the worry of test-related litigation.

Assessing remote candidates’ basic Excel skills is essential to finding the right candidate for a variety of positions. eSkill’s pre-hire skills tests help employers identify top talent, saving time and money during the selection process, decreasing turnover, and improving productivity levels.

Interested in Using Basic Excel Skills Tests to Hire Remote Workers?

Learn more about the benefits of using eSkill’s basic Excel skills tests and simulations to find qualified candidates quickly.

Request a demo today.