Skills assessment tests help you measure a candidate’s competency for specific jobs and overall job fit, and they offer a variety of other benefits for your business, such as:
Hiring mistakes cost companies hundreds and even thousands of dollars in lost productivity annually. According to the Department of Labor, the cost of a bad hire can be as high as 30% of the employee’s first-year earnings. And CareerBuilder reports that 74% of companies that made poor hires lost an average of $14,900 for each hiring mistake.
Onboarding a new employee can cost up to $240,000. And if the new hire does not work out, you lose that money and incur more costs to replace the worker, such as:
So, many companies have added skills testing to their hiring process. According to the American Management Association (AMA), almost 90% of companies that assess job applicants will not hire candidates if their assessment results show they lack basic skills.
Which Skills Testing Is Right for My Business?
Your company is unique and has specific requirements that may or may not apply to other organizations. So, how do you choose the best pre-employment skills assessment tests for your needs?
When it comes to choosing which type of skills test is appropriate, it depends on the job you need to fill and the skills that are required. You cannot afford to rely on a one-size-fits-all testing solution.
You need to test for job skills and employee job fit, and each of these components can be different–even within the same company. Here is what you need to know to select the right skills test for your business.
Job Skills Testing
With the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM, you can access an extensive assessment library with hundreds of skills tests. For example, if you are hiring web developers, you will find skills tests for hundreds of development platforms and 30 job-specific categories. All skills tests can be used as is, or you can build custom assessments by choosing questions from multiple assessments and adding your own questions.
You can use cognitive tests to assess general skills such as verbal reasoning and logical thinking or job-specific skills tests to measure applicants’ knowledge of a particular application or programming language.
Behavioral Assessments Test for Job Fit
Behavioral assessments help you verify that candidates have the required soft skills and that their work style fits your company culture well.
Human resources (HR) professionals now say that soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills, are more important than technical skills. According to Deloitte, soft skill-intensive jobs will account for two-thirds of all jobs by 2030. Many job tasks are being automated, but machines cannot replicate soft skills.
Organizations have found that job fit is a key indicator of future success. If an employee does not “fit in,” it causes problems for them and their team members. Poor job fit is also one of the main reasons people quit.
Since high turnover is one of the leading causes of reduced productivity, it is critical to confirm that someone is a good fit for your job and company culture before investing in onboarding and training.
Skills Testing Customization
A well-designed skills test will capture the information you need to assess candidates accurately and objectively. eSkill offers several ways to customize tests.
Download our Buyer’s Guide, “What You Need to Know About Talent Assessment Platforms,” and use the checklist to choose the solutions that best meet your needs.
Improve Hiring Across Your Organization
When you have the right people in the right jobs, employees are engaged, and everything functions like a well-oiled machine. A study conducted by McKinsey shows if you replace 20% of the average talent working on a project with top talent, the project will take less than two years to complete if the team is 400% more productive and less than a year if it was 800% more productive. And if a competitor’s talent were merely 20% better than yours, they would beat you to market on the same project, even if you had a year or two head start.
Skills testing gives you a complete understanding of candidates’ abilities and behaviors before you hire them and minimizes the risk of hiring mistakes. Contact us to request a demo.