Onboarding is one of the most overlooked facets of hiring. In many organizations, onboarding new employees consists of little more than a short greeting, a quick tour, a few hurried introductions, and completing reams of paperwork.
Not having a formal onboarding process is inefficient as well as costly. According to a survey conducted by Gallup, only 12% of employees think their company does good job onboarding new hires, which illustrates how little attention it gets.
It is important to help new employees become fully integrated with their team and assimilate into your company culture. Yet, few companies have a formal onboarding process, which makes this widespread dissatisfaction entirely understandable.
Organizations that have a formal onboarding program find the results pay off in higher productivity and employee retention. According to Harvard Business Review, 62% of companies with onboarding programs see higher new-hire productivity, and over half experience higher employee retention rates.
Effective onboarding programs make employees feel welcome and help ease the transition into the company culture. They also encourage managers and new hires to review and agree on performance expectations so there are no misunderstandings down the road.
Pre-employment testing should play as prominent a role in the onboarding process as it does in the hiring process onward. With the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM, you can seamlessly integrate pre-employment tests with your applicant tracking software (ATS) to make it easy for potential candidates to take assessments when submitting their resumes. Their test results can then be used to expedite onboarding.
Make the Right Hire with Pre-Employment Testing
It is important to make the right hire in the first place. If you hire an employee who lacks the skills that are required to do the job or who is a bad fit for your company culture, no amount of onboarding will make a difference. If that happens, your best bet might be to cut your losses.
Pre-employment tests minimize the chance that you will make a bad hiring decision. With the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM, you have access to a library of hundreds of pre-prepared skills tests. You can also create custom skills tests that perfectly match each of your job roles by choosing questions from multiple assessments and adding your own questions. This helps you ensure applicants have the required skills to perform the job.
How Pre-Employment Tests Can Guide Onboarding
Once you extend an offer, pre-employment tests help you streamline the onboarding process. Each test generates a detailed report on the candidate, which identifies the skills the new hire has mastered and areas where they need more training. These reports help you make hiring decisions and continue to provide value throughout the employee’s tenure.
There is no such thing as a perfect employee. So, one of the first things you need to determine is what training the new hire needs to be successful in their new role. Most new hires will have skills or knowledge gaps that need to be addressed immediately. So, you can refer to the new hire’s pre-employment test results to create an onboarding blueprint that skips areas they already know and focuses on areas where they need more work.
Measuring Progress Against Pre-Employment Testing
It takes time for a new hire to climb the learning curve and reach their expected performance level. Adapting and understanding a new company culture also takes time. This is why it is important to think of onboarding as an ongoing process.
Many companies expect onboarding to last somewhere between a week and a month. However, the process can extend much longer. And pre-employment tests can make the entire onboarding process more effective.
When measuring a new employee’s progress, it helps to set milestones for each month. During that time, employees should learn new skills, but they should also have the opportunity to repeat job-related skills over and over until they master them completely.
You should think of pre-employment tests as a baseline. At 30 days, you retest the new hire and compare the results to your initial assessment. This will show you which training has been effective and which skills s/he should focus on next. By repeating this process each month, you create a training and development roadmap and a path for advancement opportunities, which are custom-tailored to each employee’s needs, skills, and career goals.
Are you ready to learn how pre-employment testing can make your onboarding process more efficient and get new hires up to speed faster? Contact us to request a demo.