Did you know that hiring a single employee costs over $4,000 on average? This price means that you throw thousands down the drain every time you choose the wrong candidate.
However, the costs associated with bad hires go far beyond recruiting and training expenses. According to Harvard research, toxic employees can ruin company culture, crush productivity, and drive away your best team members.
While filling any vacancy with an underqualified individual can be detrimental to your business, the risk is especially significant when searching for mechanical engineers as these professionals are tasked with ensuring the success of large-scale projects.
With so much at stake, isn’t it worth taking the time to vet and screen your mechanical engineering candidates properly? We think so too, which is why we created this guide that outlines how you can hire better by incorporating a skill test for mechanical engineers into your applicant screening process.
What Is a Mechanical Engineering Skills Test?
A skills test is a specific screening tool that can be used to assess an applicant’s knowledge and learned abilities. Depending on the subjects the test covers, skills tests can measure “soft” or “hard” skills or a combination. Soft skills are abilities and talents essential to an engineer’s success but are not directly related to the field. One example of soft skills is attention to detail.
Hard skills are job-specific abilities that engineering candidates should have acquired during their education or past roles with other organizations. Hard skills may include mechanical aptitude or building design. These skills are measured via a mechanical engineering skills test, but more on that a bit later.
In the past, skills tests were administered in person. While this approach does allow employers to gather detailed information about each applicant’s abilities, it is also incredibly inefficient.
Employers had to schedule a testing time that worked with the schedules of both applicants and HR staff. They also needed to purchase physical testing materials, such as booklets and answer sheets. In addition, at least one HR staff member would have to be assigned to proctor the skills test, which prevented them from attending to their other responsibilities.
Fortunately, modern skills tests for mechanical engineers can be administered exclusively online. Administering skills tests online is much more efficient, as applicants do not have to commute to a centralized testing location, and HR staff is not tasked with proctoring test takers.
In addition, the results of online skills tests are viewable almost immediately, which means that HR staff can begin narrowing down their list of candidates as soon as candidates complete their assigned skills tests.
How Mechanical Engineering Skills Tests Can Help You Hire Better
Now that we have looked at what mechanical engineering skills tests are let’s focus on more important questions, like how you can use them to hire better.
When implementing skills tests into your screening protocols, we recommend administering them early in the hiring process. Ideally, skills tests should be administered before any interviews are conducted, which expedites the screening process.
HR staff can review each applicant’s performance on their assigned skills tests and use this data to eliminate underqualified candidates from contention. They can then schedule interviews with only the most talented applicants.
Skills tests will save your hiring team time, but they will also provide detailed insights into each applicant’s abilities and talents. This insight means that your staff no longer has to rely on subjective processes, such as interviews, to hire engineers. Instead, they can gather quantifiable data on each applicant and base hiring decisions on this information.
In short, skills tests reduce the risk of hiring an underqualified engineering candidate. Your team can confidently choose an applicant from a refined candidate list, knowing that each person in the pool has been adequately vetted using a proven screening tool.
What Is the Best Skill Test for Mechanical Engineer Screening?
There are many skills tests available for screening mechanical engineering candidates, including:
Mechanical Aptitude: The Mechanical Aptitude skills test includes 40 questions of various formats. The question types included in this skills test are multiple-choice, select-all-that-apply, and true/false. This test covers Deflections, Dynamics Manufacturing, Buckling of Compressed Columns, and Power Transmission Elements.
Mechanical Engineering Skills: Like the Mechanical Aptitude skills test, the Mechanical Engineering Skills screening exam contains 40 questions. It covers topics such as 2D Drawing Comprehension and Process Capabilities.
Attention to Detail: The Attention to Detail skills test covers Word Analysis, Finding Errors, and Word Meaning. While this skills test is not directly related to engineering, it does measure a candidate’s ability to pay close attention to key details.
Innovative Testing Solutions from eSkill
eSkill’s online testing solutions help you evaluate mechanical engineering candidates and make data-driven hiring decisions. Request a demo to learn more about mechanical engineering skills tests.