Good employees are the lifeblood of a business and are key to an organization’s ability to meet its goals and objectives. Hiring the right talent improves productivity and helps companies maintain their competitive edge. With the wrong talent, operations run inefficiently, and productivity suffers. This is why companies implement online pre-employment assessment test solutions to recruit top talent.
Business leaders know it is important to recruit top talent. Studies show superior talent can increase productivity by up to eight times. Unfortunately, hiring has become very challenging because qualified talent is lacking. Around 77% of employers say they have difficulty finding qualified candidates for jobs they need to fill.
Many organizations have upgraded technology and implemented digital transformation initiatives during the past ten years. Applicants’ skills have not kept pace with these changes, resulting in a serious skills and knowledge gap. According to a Korn Ferry report, there is a worldwide talent shortage of more than 85 million people, which is approximately equal to the population of Germany.
This is why employers in virtually every industry use an industry-leading pre-employment assessment tool like the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM to identify top candidates.
What is a Pre-Employment Assessment Tool?
Pre-employment assessment tools are tests that candidates complete during a job application process. When hiring teams review the results, they can quickly determine which applicants are the most qualified for a specific job.
Questions on online pre-employment assessment tests are normally multiple choice, true/false, and short answer. Many hiring teams also add simulation questions that present applicants with realistic work situations so they can evaluate how applicants would perform in job-related situations.
Customizing Pre-Employment Assessment Tools
The eSkill Assessment Library contains hundreds of pre-prepared online pre-employment assessment tests that hiring teams can use to identify qualified candidates. You and your team can also build customized assessments by selecting questions from multiple skills tests.
For example, if you want to hire an administrative assistant who will have a lot of contact with customers, manage budgets, and create and maintain reports and spreadsheets, you can choose questions from the Customer Service, Administrative Assistant, MS Word®, and MS Excel® online pre-employment assessment tests and include questions from the Basic Math and Telephone and Email Etiquette tests.
A sure way to confirm applicants meet job requirements is to watch them perform tasks they will complete if hired. So, many hiring teams use simulations included in pre-employment assessment tools to present applicants with realistic, on-the-job scenarios.
HR teams use eSkill’s Chat simulation to ensure candidates know how to use popular chat applications and its multitasking simulations when hiring for positions that require good organizational skills. Since almost 80% of all jobs require computer proficiency, hiring teams use MS Office® Simulation to test Word® and Excel® skills. Within ten years, 90% of all jobs will require digital literacy skills. So, many HR professionals also include a Digital Literacy Simulation.
Add Your Own Questions to Online Pre-Employment Assessment Tests
Many employers want a pre-employment assessment tool that enables them to add their own questions. This is essential for organizations that wish to include proprietary content in assessments.
For example, if your organization hires manufacturing technicians to maintain certain types of machinery, you can create an online pre-employment assessment test by selecting questions from the Maintenance Technician and Mechanical Aptitude skills tests and adding questions about the machinery and equipment the employees will service and maintain.
Pre-Employment Assessment Tools Minimize Hiring Bias
Unconscious or subjective bias refers to preconceived attitudes and stereotypes that can influence hiring team members’ evaluation of candidates. Subjective bias can be unintentional preferential treatment, such as favoring a candidate because they attended the same university as an applicant or share common interests.
In a perfect world, we could depend on hiring team members to judge candidates fairly and impartially. However, research shows that unconscious bias enters into hiring processes much more than we would assume. Research also shows that 79% of HR leaders agree that subjective bias exists in recruitment and succession planning decisions.
Online pre-employment assessment tests help organizations minimize unconscious bias in their hiring process, which helps them comply with industry and federal regulations and avoid legal challenges.
Pre-employment assessment tools minimize the chance that unconscious bias will affect hiring decisions because they focus on candidates’ proven skills instead of their background, where they have worked, and their academic background.
Get Started with Pre-Employment Assessment Tools
Requiring job applicants to complete online pre-employment assessment tests will help your organization improve hiring company-wide because recruiters will make decisions based on hard data instead of relying on gut feel. You will also reduce hiring costs and decrease time-to-hire. As a case in point, many eSkill clients have reduced hiring costs by around 70% and time-to-hire by about 60%.
Do you want to see how pre-employment assessment tools can help you identify top candidates for all your job roles? Contact us to request a demo.