In a recent study, researchers predicted that nearly two and a half million manufacturing-related positions would go unfilled over the next ten years. This trend is creating a major skills gap. As a result, manufacturing companies are scrambling to find quality candidates to fill vacancies within their organizations.
Unfortunately, this mad dash to hire candidates before someone else extends an offer allows some underqualified individuals to make it through the screening process. This oversight occurs because many businesses still rely on outdated hiring practices, such as resume reviews and interviews.
Hiring the wrong person for a manufacturing position can have severe consequences. Not only can this lead to high turnover, but it can also negatively impact employee morale. Since manufacturing professionals are often expected to perform highly technical work, bad hiring practices may create an unsafe environment and increase workplace accidents.
To avoid these risks, manufacturers must reevaluate the way they screen candidates. They must incorporate advanced assessment protocols into their hiring process. Specifically, they should implement an aptitude test for manufacturing jobs. By doing so, they can hire top talent, fill vacant positions faster, and protect existing staff from the dangers of working with unqualified individuals.
What Do Manufacturing Skills Tests Measure?
Manufacturing skills tests are designed to measure a candidate’s “hard skills.” According to Investopedia, hard skills are “learned abilities acquired and enhanced through practice, repetition, and education. Hard skills are essential because they increase employee productivity and efficiency and subsequently improve employee satisfaction.”
Once a candidate completes a manufacturing aptitude test, they will receive a numerical score. They will receive a cumulative score, and the results will also be broken down by topic. Hiring staff can review this data to determine which candidates should advance in the selection process.
While assessing a candidate’s hard skills is important, this does not reveal if they will be a good cultural fit for your company. If you want to gain even more comprehensive insights into a prospective employee, you should also administer a behavioral assessment.
Behavioral assessments are designed to measure an individual’s personality traits and attributes, such as their work ethic. If a candidate scores well on a manufacturing skills test and possesses desirable behavioral characteristics, they are highly likely to be a valuable addition to your organization.
Importance of Using Manufacturing Aptitude Tests
Now that you know what manufacturing aptitude tests are designed to measure let’s discuss how they can benefit your organization. These skills assessments offer several notable benefits to your staff and the company as a whole.
The most apparent advantage to using skills testing is that it streamlines the hiring process. Your hiring team can administer aptitude tests early in the assessment process. If candidates fail to achieve an acceptable score on an assessment, then you can remove them from your hiring pool.
Skills assessments also reduce the costs of hiring. Your staff can eliminate unqualified individuals sooner, which means that they will not have to waste time and resources conducting countless interviews.
The results of these assessments will help you select the right candidates the first time. This approach will ultimately translate to less turnover, which means that you do not have to invest as much money into advertising vacant positions.
Manufacturing skills tests are great for your employees too. They will not be tasked with working with or for underqualified individuals.
While hiring an unqualified line-level employee can have serious negative consequences for your business, bringing in supervisory staff that is not a good fit can be even more detrimental. One bad supervisor can ruin the morale of an entire department, which will result in decreased productivity and possibly an increase in turnover.
The Top Manufacturing Aptitude Tests
There are dozens of manufacturing skills tests available. You can administer a single assessment or multiple skills tests depending on the position. Some of the most frequently used skills reviews are:
Assembly Skills: The Assembly Skills assessment is designed for line-level manufacturing or production staff. This skills test measures a candidate’s ability to identify and assemble parts.
Basic Industrial Skills: The Basic Industrial Skills assessment covers fundamentals of electricity, material distribution, power systems, and warehouse management.
Mechanical Engineering Skills: The Mechanical Engineering Skills test covers common engineering topics such as mechanisms, forces and functionality, parts manufacturing, 2D drawing comprehension, and more.
The examples above are just a few of the many different manufacturing skills assessments available. eSkill also offers the option to create custom tests based on our collection of thousands of prebuilt questions in various fields.
Develop an Aptitude Test for Manufacturing Jobs With eSkill
Request a demo to learn how using manufacturing aptitude tests in your hiring process can help you hire top candidates who can help produce quality products.