The prospect of expanding your manufacturing company can be exhilarating. Growth is exciting, whether your expansion involves adding to your existing facility, purchasing a new building in another region, or merging with another manufacturing business.
However, growing your business also entails overcoming several significant challenges. Some of these hurdles include reorganizing your infrastructure, maintaining clear communication, or managing a larger cash flow.
Another potential barrier that you are sure to encounter is finding and retaining top talent. To overcome this particular challenge, Forbes warns growing businesses to engage in careful hiring practices.
While careful hiring will entail traditional practices such as conducting interviews and reviewing an applicant’s resume, you must take things a step further.
One of the most effective ways of vetting candidates is to use a manufacturing skills assessment test. These assessments are designed to measure an individual’s hard skills. Hard skills can best be defined as “skills gained through education or training.”
If you are new to the world of manufacturing skills tests, it can be tough to decide which assessments you should be using during your hiring process. To help, we have compiled a list of the top manufacturing skills tests used by growing companies.
Basic Manufacturing Skills Test
As you might expect, a basic manufacturing skills test is designed to cover the most rudimentary elements of manufacturing. Several assessments may fall into this category, depending on what position you attempt to fill. However, most manufacturing employers use the Assembly Skills test when screening candidates for introductory level assembly line positions.
The Assembly Skills assessment is a 20-question test. It includes drawings of unassembled objects. During the examination, candidates must identify and assemble parts to create a complete unit. This skills test measures their spatial aptitude.
Candidates who score well on this assessment are well suited for production or assembly line positions. They possess the basic abilities necessary to assemble products in a manufacturing setting accurately.
Mechanical Engineering Skills Assessment
The Mechanical Engineering Skills assessment contains a total of 40 questions. These questions are in several formats, including multiple select, simple select, and true/false. This assessment covers 2D drawing comprehension, mechanisms, forces, functionality, parts manufacturing, and process capabilities.
When screening mechanical engineering candidates, this assessment can verify if their abilities are consistent with their reported level of education and experience. Mechanical engineers are integral to the success of your business, especially when expanding your operations. That is why you must screen these candidates using quality skills tests.
Blueprint Reading Assessment
The Blueprint Reading assessment also contains a total of 40 questions. However, this skills test only includes true/false and simple select style questions. It covers basic blueprint reading, electrical blueprint reading, blueprint terminology, etc.
Candidates will receive a cumulative score upon completing the assessment. Their performance will also be broken down by topic, which allows your hiring team to identify which subjects the candidate is least proficient in.
Mechanical Aptitude
The Mechanical Aptitude assessment is an extremely common exam used by most growing manufacturing companies. This exam is used to screen candidates applying for technical positions within the organization. It includes 40 questions in true/false, simple select, and multiple select formats.
The Mechanical Aptitude assessment covers deflections, dynamics, manufacturing, buckling of compressed columns, mechanical properties of materials, structural analysis, and power transmission elements.
CNC Skills
The CNC Skills assessment is another popular skills test in the manufacturing industry. This skills test also includes 40 questions. These questions use true/false, multiple select, and simple select formats.
The test measures the candidate’s ability to use and understand CNC systems. The topics covered in this assessment include CNC programming, CNC machines, CNC manufacturing systems, fundamental concepts of CNC manufacturing, and types of CNC systems.
Behavioral Assessment
While behavioral assessments are not a form of manufacturing skills assessment test, they are used by top companies to ensure that candidates are a good cultural fit. A behavioral assessment measures an applicant’s behavioral traits, such as their work ethic and sense of loyalty. This type of assessment provides invaluable insights into an individual’s personality.
Before you bring on a new employee, you must determine whether they will work well with your existing staff. An employee that is a bad fit for your company can create friction throughout an entire department. This friction will diminish the morale of existing staff members and hinder productivity. If the issue is severe enough, it might even cost you some of your most talented employees.
Given the current state of the manufacturing labor pool, you simply can’t afford the risks associated with hiring employees who are incompatible with your existing company culture.
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