Excel is recognized as one of the most popular software applications in the world and is seen as indispensable by managers in 99.9% of all businesses. So, it is no surprise that these organizations list Excel proficiency as a requirement for many jobs.
It is difficult for HR teams to determine if applicants have the required skill level for a given position because the information on resumes is often unreliable. Over 77% of applicants exaggerate their qualifications on their resumes, and approximately 65% overstate their capabilities during interviews to gain favor with recruiters and hiring managers.
Since Excel knowledge and experience are essential to efficient business operations, HR teams use basic Excel skills tests along with Data Entry and Typing assessments as part of their hiring process. This helps them determine which candidates have the experience and knowledge to perform a specific job.
How Do Employees Use Excel?
Excel is rated one of the best data management tools for day-to-day business operations. Employees across all departments and at all experience levels use Excel to efficiently manage data by leveraging various helpful functions and formulas it offers. These are some examples of how they use it.
- Manipulate, Analyze and Store Large Volumes of Data: Excel is an excellent application for managing and organizing large volumes of data, such as when preparing sales forecasts, production and inventory reports, and mailing lists. Versatile features such as PivotTables enable employees to analyze data at the most granular level and manipulate it to produce reports.
- Visual Data Presentation: Excel enables business professionals to create presentations that show trends and make data easy to understand. In addition to creating spreadsheets, employees can easily create pie charts, bar and line graphs, scattergrams, organizational charts, and other visual presentations.
- Supply Chain Management: Supply chain management is the cornerstone of efficient business and operations management. While comprehensive solutions work for large companies, they are not practical for small- and medium-sized businesses. With Excel, business owners can easily track and manage purchasing and inventory without paying for an expensive solution that includes features they do not need.
- Contact management: Excel is a great contact management tool because sales and marketing teams can manage sales data, create customer relationship management (CRM) databases, perform mail merges, and create email campaigns.
- HR and Training Management: Although Excel was not designed to handle human resource and training-related tasks, HR and training managers find it useful to perform basic administrative tasks such as creating interview and training schedules, managing benefits, tracking time logs, and creating project management charts.
Which Job Roles Require Excel Experience?
Microsoft introduced Excel in 1985 as a competitor to Lotus 1-2-3. It has since become a powerful program that employees use at all levels of virtually every company. These are examples of jobs for which HR leaders use Excel skills tests to hire the best candidates.
- Accountants: Excel is the number one program used by accounting professionals worldwide because it offers them an easy way to analyze and manage financial data.
- Business analysts: As most business analysts will attest, no program helps them crunch numbers or handle and manage data better than Excel.
- Sales managers: Sales managers use Excel to create sales reports and forecasts, track leads and commissions, manage expense reports, and organize customer and prospect information.
- Administrative assistants: Excel is an essential tool for administrative assistants and office support staff. They use it for invoicing, mailing list management, records keeping, and general data organization and management.
- Retail managers: Retail managers use Excel for inventory and supply chain management, to monitor product prices and discounts, create employee work schedules, and track performance. Small business owners can also use Excel with point-of-sales programs to generate receipts, manage discounts, and calculate and track sales tax.
Why Employers Choose eSkill’a Basic Excel Skills Tests
Many businesses that want to administer basic Excel skills tests partner with an industry-leading assessment provider like eSkill. They have access to the eSkill Assessment Library, which contains hundreds of validated assessments such as Excel Skills Tests for all versions, Data Checking, Numerical Proofreading, and Attention to Detail.
HR teams also appreciate the flexibility that the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM offers. They can choose a pre-prepared basic Excel skills test or create their own assessments by selecting questions from multiple skills tests.
For example, if you work for an accounting firm and are hiring data entry operators, you can build an assessment using questions from the Excel skills test and add questions from the Excel vLookup and Accounting and Bookkeeping Principles skills tests. You can even add your own questions if needed.
Do you want to learn how Basic Excel Skills Tests can help you instantly identify and hire top candidates? Contact us to request a demo.
