Choosing the right pre-employment skills test provider will help your organization reduce overall HR costs and expedite time-to-hire. When researching assessment providers, you should evaluate these criteria.
HR and hiring managers use pre-employment skills tests because they offer an easy way to evaluate job candidates and employees objectively. According to the American Management Association (AMA), almost 90% of companies that assess job applicants will not hire candidates if pre-employment testing shows they lack basic skills.
Pre-employment skills tests are typically used to screen candidates during hiring but are also used to:
Pre-employment skills tests also enable faster onboarding and training. When new hires have the right skills, they assimilate into their jobs more quickly and rapidly become valued team contributors.
HR leaders and hiring managers know that pre-employment skills test significantly reduce hiring costs and decrease time-to-hire. Many organizations that use the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM have reduced hiring costs by up to 70% and time-to-hire by 60%.
Selecting the Best Pre-Employment Skills Testing Provider
Choosing the ideal pre-employment skills testing solution will significantly impact your company’s hiring outcomes. These are some criteria you should evaluate as you research assessment providers.
Pre-Employment Skills Test Quality and Validation
Pre-employment skills testing only provides an objective assessment of candidates if questions are validated and asked correctly. Therefore, you should only work with an established company with a perfect compliance and legal challenge record that offers validation services. eSkill provides validation services and has a perfect compliance and legal challenge record after over 20 years in business—the best in the assessment industry.
Comprehensive Assessment Library
The best skills testing providers offer clients access to a library of pre-employment skills tests written and validated by industry experts. They also allow you to customize assessments for each job role because one-size-fits-all assessments are ineffective. The eSkill Assessment Library contains hundreds of skills tests that you can use as is or add or delete questions. You can also create customized assessments using questions from multiple tests and add your own questions.
Remote Working Skills
In 2020 and 2021, the number of remote workers increased, and experts say it will continue to grow. According to a McKinsey report, 58% of employees in the U.S. work from home one or more days per week. This means you need skills tests that test a candidate’s ability to work independently without supervision. eSkill offers pre-employment skills tests that measure candidates’ software and Internet abilities and the skills required to work effectively in a less structured environment, such as time management, organization and planning, and collaboration.
Video Response Questions
Including on-demand (video response) questions in pre-employment skills tests allows you to evaluate skills that are impossible to test using a written assessment. A couple of examples are verbal communication and foreign language abilities. This is particularly important because employees who work remotely must be able to collaborate effectively with team members and co-workers online and conduct business via video conference. Video response questions also provide a 360o view of candidates and help you standardize the interviewing process by ensuring all candidates answer the same questions in the same order.
Ease of Use
A pre-employment skills testing platform should be easy to set up and use immediately. The eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM includes a dashboard that easily tracks sent and completed test status, assessment analytics, and much more. You can run reports that provide a comprehensive view of individual candidates’ results and measure the effectiveness of one or a group of assessments. eSkill is so easy to set up that most clients are up and running the first day, and 82% go live within a month.
Integration Options
Ensure your pre-employment skills test provider offers integrations with popular Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Learning Management System (LMS) systems, as the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM does. This will save you countless hours and eliminate the need to toggle back and forth between applications.
Expert Guidance
Your assessment solution should be so intuitive that you and your staff can use it with little or no training. However, there may be times when you need help. You might have a paper-based skills test that needs to be digitized. Perhaps you want to create an unusual pre-employment skills test or launch a new hiring or training strategy. Confirm that the assessment provider you choose offers 24/7 support and that you can get prompt assistance when you need it. eSkill offers 24/7 support via phone, email, and chat, and every subscription client is assigned a dedicated Assessment Expert.
Questions to Ask Pre-Employment Skills Testing Providers
When researching pre-employment skills test providers, these are some important questions you should ask:
Pre-Employment Skills Testing
Test Management
Technical Features
Cost
Support and Training
Do you want to see how pre-employment skills tests can help you streamline and simplify your entire hiring process? Contact us to request a demo.