When it comes to finding the best fit for a position, more goes into the decision than just finding someone with the best technical skills. While many candidates may possess the right set of hard skills necessary to perform a particular role, fewer candidates may have the soft skills that make them a match for the position.
We call this Job Fit, which means that a candidate has the right mix of hard and soft skills to give them the best chance to perform well in a role. A good Job Fit increases the possibility that a given employee will continue to develop and grow in their role, making them valuable contributors to the company’s future as well.
For staffing firms, personality and behavioral tests provide a valuable way to assess Job Fit or the compatibility of their candidates. While it is more difficult to test potential hires to determine their personality traits, eSkill’s employment personality tests offer firms the ability to gain insight into which candidates have the right behavioral profile to succeed in a given position.
Why Employment Personality Tests Are More Important Than Ever Before
According to the SHRM, hiring and recruitment is a big concern for many U.S. employers. This reality is certainly understandable, considering the impact COVID-19 has had on the business community. Many companies are looking to hire new employees, either to build their workforces back to normal levels or to expand their business during the recovery.
These hiring efforts are complicated by the fact that there are so many job seekers looking for positions. According to Glassdoor, even before the pandemic, professional job openings attracted an average of 250 applicants each. That number is only going up over time.
In order to meet recruting demand, staffing firms need to leverage all of the tools at their disposal.
Skills testing is not new. Having candidates take a personality test for employment offers a greater number of data points that you can use to compare potential new hires. This information is especially useful because the soft skills that these tests are designed to measure can help to separate candidates who have similar experience or hard skill sets.
In the mad rush to hire, every data point matters. Soft skills go a long way to ensuring proper Job Fit.
How Using a Personality Test for Employment Works
At eSkill, building a customized test to measure skills that are directly related to your job openings is an easy, straightforward process. With our intuitive dashboard, you do not have to go hunting for results — they will show up in a simple, easy-to-read format on your user dashboard.
There are three ways to build tests in eSkill’s Talent Assessment PlatformTM. The fastest method is to simply choose from the library of more than 800 subject- and job-specific tests.
However, if you need a test specifically designed for your opening, you can combine multiple tests into a single assessment tool, or you can build a new exam by selecting individual questions from our vast library and even supplementing them with your own material.
Say, for instance, that you were building a skills test for a retail manager position. You can have candidates take the Retail Manager test, or you can combine that test with additional ones aimed at examining a candidate’s personality, like the Communication and Working Styles tests.
Building Employment Personality Tests into the Recruiting Process
One of the greatest benefits of the eSkill platform is its flexibility. You can easily integrate skills tests into almost any ATS system, which allows you to automatically administer personality tests for employment to candidates as a part of their application. Users can adjust their settings to automatically send each applicant a link to the exam. You’ll even be able to see results on your dashboard the moment that a candidate is finished.
With eSkill, you can also add video or audio questions to your tests. This powerful tool provides you with a host of benefits. By incorporating video responses into your tests, you can get a more complete picture of a candidate’s verbal communication ability, while also getting to know more about their personality.
You can set the criteria for how these answers are scored, allowing you to determine what your recruiting teams should be looking for and how much weight to apply to each aspect.
Whether you are relying on video, audio, free response, or multiple-choice questions, personality tests for employment can be a great tool in determining how well-suited a candidate is for a particular job opening.
While technical skills continue to be an important part of the hiring process, behavioral assessments help to separate out candidates who seem to be equal in other traits, raising your chances of finding the one with the best Job Fit.
Interested in Leveraging Personality Employment Tests with Your Staffing Firm?
Learn how eSkill’s intuitive testing platform can give you the boost you need to make the right hires. Request a demo today.