Hiring teams know that using skills assessment tests is the best way to improve hiring outcomes. According to an Aberdeen Group survey, companies that use skill assessment tests in hiring have a 36% higher satisfaction rate with their new hires.
A Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) study shows that 25% of employers that use skills assessment tests plan to expand their use during the next five years, and one in 10 organizations that do not currently use assessments plan to implement a solution.
When HR professionals research skills assessment testing solutions, they are intrigued but have many concerns. Two of the most common questions we hear are, “How do skills tests help companies hire better employees?” and“Can skills tests be used for all kinds of jobs? Keep reading for answers to those questions and others.
What is a Skills Assessment Test for Employment?
HR leaders use skill assessment tests during hiring to identify top candidates and eliminate unqualified applicants from consideration.
Skills assessment tests include multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions. Many hiring teams also include simulations that replicate typical job situations to evaluate how applicants will perform in those situations.
Hiring managers use skills tests and behavioral assessments to improve hiring outcomes and reduce the chances of expensive hiring mistakes. By evaluating skills test results, they can instantly screen hundreds of candidates and see which ones are top contenders. They also avoid wasting hours reviewing resumes.
HR professionals know that teams with good “chemistry” are more productive, so they use behavioral assessments to identify applicants who are a good fit for a job and the company culture. Around 65% of companies say that using behavioral assessments makes hiring decisions almost foolproof.
Behavioral assessments are not diagnostic like skills tests are. They simply evaluate candidates’ behavioral tendencies and personality traits and help recruiters determine whether they will be successful on the job and assimilate well into their team and company culture.
By reviewing behavioral assessment results, hiring teams gain insight into how applicants think and approach problems. This gives them a better understanding of their communication style and enables them to predict how they will perform in typical job situations.
How Skill Assessment Tests Help Organizations Improve Hiring
Business leaders worldwide ask, “What is a basic skills test for employees?” and are surprised to learn how many organizations depend on skills assessment tests to maximize hiring outcomes and help their HR teams operate efficiently.
According to SHRM, 56% percent of businesses use skill assessment tests to evaluate job applicants’ skills, knowledge, and abilities, and 79% say they consider skills test scores to be just as important, if not more important than the information candidates list on their resumes and provide during interviews.
When we ask HR leaders how they benefit from using skill assessment tests, they cite these advantages.
Do Skills Assessment Tests Ensure Fair and Accurate Hiring?
Organizations striving to hire top employees find it pays to abandon long-standing, time-honored hiring methods.
When organizations hired employees in the past, they listed the required qualifications and experience and noted whether a college degree or specific technical training was needed. An HR professional wrote a job description and recruited candidates who met the criteria. Candidates who met the job requirements were invited to interview, and the best one received an offer.
More and more companies are abandoning this practice in favor of skills-based hiring, also called merit-based recruiting. Applicants are only evaluated on whether they have the required skills to do a job, regardless of how they acquired them.
For example, a hiring team recruiting a Python programmer would typically recruit candidates with a college degree and work experience and reject applicants who learned Python on their own. If they use skills-based hiring, they would consider candidates if their skills assessment test results showed they could do the job.
Many private-sector companies began prioritizing skills over education and work experience around 2017. In 2020, the federal government enacted Executive Order 13932, which requires hiring managers to place more weight on candidates’ practical experience and less on education and experience.
Many business leaders were initially concerned that skills-based hiring would result in hiring mistakes that hindered productivity. However, they have found that merit-based hiring actually improves productivity.
What Are Some Examples of Skills Tests?
Skills assessment tests are designed to evaluate applicants’ ability to perform a job. Businesses that implement an industry-leading testing solution have access to an assessment library that contains hundreds of validated, subject- and job-based skills assessment tests.
HR teams can use standard off-the-shelf tests or modify them by eliminating irrelevant and inappropriate questions and designating question difficulty levels. Here are some examples of popular skills assessment tests.
HR teams can also build skills tests that perfectly match their job roles by selecting questions from multiple assessments. So, when HR leaders ask us, “What is included in a skills assessment test?” our answer is, “Whatever you need to include to tailor it to your job requirements.”
For example, if you are hiring a web developer with good WordPress proficiency and strong JAVA and C# programming skills, you can create a skill assessment test by choosing questions from the eSkill Web Designer, Web Developer, Java Developer, C# Developer, and Quality Assurance Tester assessments.
What Can I Expect from Skills Assessment Tests?
You are probably wondering if implementing a skills assessment testing solution will have a major impact on hiring outcomes. The following example illustrates how assessments can help you avoid expensive hiring mistakes that negatively impact productivity.
A regional financial services company with offices in 15 Western and Southwestern states needed to hire an administrative assistant to support several senior executives. After applicants submitted resumes, the HR team selected several for an interview. The company did not use skills assessment tests, but applicants were required to take a typing test.
When recruiters and executives evaluated the candidates on the shortlist, Bree stood out as the top candidate. Her typing test results showed she was fast and accurate, and according to her resume, she had extensive phone and customer service experience and had supported senior executives. The company extended her an offer, and she accepted. Then the problems began.
The managers at the company’s regional offices received weekly reports every Friday that provided critical data they needed to plan their work for the following week. One of Bree’s jobs was to compile the required information, summarize it on spreadsheets, and send the reports by overnight courier on Thursday so the managers received them on Friday morning.
Bree had no trouble completing the reports accurately, and she developed a good rapport with the executives she worked for and the managers at the regional offices. However, she was not well-organized and had poor multitasking and time management skills. So, she had trouble completing and sending the reports on time.
She missed the courier pickup deadline several times, which meant managers received their reports late. Her boss reprimanded her and emphasized the importance of sending the reports on time. So, she rushed to complete them in time for courier pickup. Unfortunately, this caused other problems.
When Bree rushed to meet the courier deadline, she sent many of the reports to the wrong offices and some packages to incorrect addresses. The next morning, several managers called the corporate office in a panic because they had not received their reports or had received the wrong reports.
Sasha, the office manager, had to stop working on an important project and call each office to identify which were missing reports or had received incorrect reports. Then she made new copies and sent them priority overnight.
Organizational, time-management, and multi-tasking skills were essential for this job. If the company had used skills assessment tests, it could have evaluated candidates’ skills in these areas. The results would have shown Bree was not strong in these areas and was not qualified for the job.
How Employers Use Skills Assessment Tests to Improve Hiring
Organizations in every industry use skill assessment tests to streamline recruiting, reduce time-to-hire, and decrease turnover. These are just a few companies that have simplified hiring by implementing a skills assessment testing solution:
The Future of Skills Assessment Tests
More and more organizations will implement skills assessment tests and other tools and applications to maximize hiring outcomes.
Ravin Jesuthasan is a global thought leader on the future of work and human capital. In his book, Work Without Jobs, he says the pandemic changed the work landscape forever, and companies cannot return to how things were. To be successful, organizations must align their operations with the digital world by:
Get Started with Skills Assessment Tests
Leading skills assessment testing solutions like the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM help organizations simplify recruiting, improve quality of hire, decrease time-to-hire, and decrease hiring costs. Many eSkill clients have reduced hiring costs by up to 70% and time-to-hire by around 60%.
Are you ready to learn how skills assessment tests can help you improve hiring outcomes organization-wide? Contact eSkill to request a demo.