If your company is like many retail businesses, it can seem like you are constantly in the middle of the hiring process. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), retail and wholesale stores have the highest turnover rates in the nation as of 2018 at 60.5%.
While there are several reasons behind this statistic, the fact remains that HR departments in the retail industry are constantly on the hunt for new talent. One way to fight this extremely high turnover rate is to hire the best possible candidates in the first place. Employees with a better Job Fit are more likely to remain with a company long-term, especially if a company demonstrates that it is invested in the employee’s future.
Identifying and hiring better candidates starts with integrating retail skills testing into your application and hiring process. With skills tests from eSkill, you can assess a candidate’s abilities in essential areas like basic math and computer skills to soft skills like customer service and dependability. With these tests, you can be sure that you hire top talent, which makes it less likely that you will find yourself back on the hiring treadmill.
How eSkill’s Retail Skills Tests Work
Skills assessments have become increasingly popular throughout the retail industry, especially for upper-level management positions. However, retail skills tests are just as useful for applicants at any level because they provide you with unbiased, quantifiable data about each candidate’s skills and abilities. Since eSkill’s Talent Assessment PlatformTM integrates seamlessly with most ATS software, it is easy to add tests to your application process.
Choose from more than 800 available job- and subject-based tests or build your own retail skills tests by selecting questions from the existing tests and adding your own questions, including open-ended video and written test questions.
For instance, if you are looking for a retail salesperson, you might start with the General Retail Knowledge test and add sales and customer service questions and questions that are specific to your company. You can also include questions about your product inventory, operations and workflow and any other questions you think are relevant to candidates’ ability to be successful in the job.
Once the test is complete, it will generate a professional-looking report that can be distributed to your team, hiring managers and entire hiring teams. The reports provide assessment scores for each candidate that can be interpreted at a glance. With this quantitative data right in front of you, you have a much better chance of hiring a candidate with the right skills and experience.
Retail Personality Tests Assess a Candidate’s Soft Skills
While hard skills are important, every HR member who works in retail recognizes the importance of soft skills. This is where eSkill’s retail personality tests are especially useful. These tests come in several forms and can include short answer or multiple-choice questions to allow you to gauge how effectively a candidate can function in a retail environment.
In another article published by SHRM, the author notes that 97% of employers believe that soft skills are at least as important as hard skills. Yet a surprising number of hires do not work out because the employees lack these skills.
When you partner with eSkill, you can use retail personality tests to evaluate these all-important traits by posing hypothetical employee situations and grading candidates on how they react and respond in real-life job situations and ultimately improve hiring outcomes.
The Long-Term Benefits of Testing
Although turnover in the retail industry is high, retail workers can work their way up the corporate ladder. In fact, many retail management employees started as cashiers or sales associates and gradually gained skills and experience over the years as they progressed in their careers.
The value of retail skills tests does not end when you extend a job offer because you can also use assessments to supercharge training and development. A new hire’s pre-employment test results can serve as a guide for future development by showing you weak areas where training is needed and identifying new paths for future growth.
Investing in employee development is a win-win for your company. You receive the benefit of building your employee skills base and employees feel like the company is dedicated to helping them improve their skills and grow their careers. Employees frequently stay with a company when they are satisfied with their opportunities for growth and because they want to repay the company that invested in their future.
Interested in Adding Retail Skills Tests into Your Retail Hiring Process?
Learn more how retail skills tests can help you hire the best employees. Request a demo today.