Hiring is a time-consuming, frustrating process. The average time-to-hire is around three weeks to a month, but the process takes over 40 days in some industries, such as defense, scientific research, and financial services.
Business leaders may think it is easy to recruit administrative employees. However, HR professionals disagree. Administrative employees work in many different areas and with diverse groups of people, so they must be excellent communicators, well-organized, and manage their time effectively. They must also have strong MS Office® skills and be able to learn new computer applications.
Many employers have implemented an industry-leading assessment solution and use clerical skills tests to identify top candidates and eliminate unqualified applicants.
How Online Clerical Skills Tests Help Companies Improve Hiring
When you review resumes and interview candidates, many may seem perfect because people are good at writing resumes and put their best foot forward during interviews. These are some ways online clerical skills tests help you determine which ones warrant a closer look:
How Companies Use Clerical Skills Tests
Are you still wondering if clerical skills tests could help you improve hiring outcomes? Many studies show that they can. The following hypothetical scenario shows how skills tests could have helped a company avoid an expensive hiring mistake.
A regional financial services company with branch offices throughout the West and Southwest U.S. needed an administrative assistant to support two senior vice presidents. Mitch, the HR manager, posted the job and reviewed resumes and applications. The company did not use assessments. The only test applicants were required to take was a typing test to measure speed and accuracy. So, he spent hours reviewing resumes and scheduled phone interviews with a few promising candidates.
When Riley and Jasmine, the two senior vice presidents, completed their interviews, Regan stood out as the top candidate. Her test result showed that she could type fast and accurately. Her resume showed that she had excellent phone skills and experience working with senior executives. Mitch offered her the job, and she accepted. Then the problems began.
Branch office managers received weekly reports every Friday that provided critical information they needed to plan their work for the following week. One of Regan’s jobs was to create the reports and a summary spreadsheet for each office and send them by overnight courier on Thursday, so they arrived in the branch offices on Friday morning.
Regan got along well with Riley and Jasmine and developed a good rapport with the managers at the regional offices. She also had no trouble creating reports or spreadsheets since her typing skills were excellent. However, she was not good at organizing or managing her work and had difficulty completing and sending the reports on time.
She missed the courier pickup deadline on Thursday afternoon several times, and the managers received their reports late. Since she had been told the reports were a priority, she rushed through the process to avoid missing the deadline. However, this caused her to make critical errors.
She sent the reports on time, but many arrived at the wrong address. Some branch offices received the wrong report. Others received their report and another office’s report, too. A few offices did not receive anything. On Friday morning, several regional managers called the head office in a panic.
It was necessary for Janine, the office manager, to stop working on an important project and call each branch office to see which ones were missing reports or received the wrong report. Then she made new copies and sent them priority overnight so the branch managers would receive them on Saturday.
Strong organizational and time management skills were required to do the job well, but these were not Regan’s strong points. If Mitch had been able to require applicants to complete an online clerical skills test, he could have included questions to evaluate these skills, and Regan would not have been offered the job.
Get Started with Online Clerical Skills Tests
Using clerical skills tests takes the guesswork out of hiring administrative staff. Companies also reduce recruiting costs and decrease time-to-hire. Many organizations that have implemented the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM have cut hiring costs by 70% and reduced time-to-hire by 60%.
Are you ready to learn how online clerical skills tests help you recruit the best-qualified administrative candidates? Contact eSkill to request a demo.