MS Excel® is considered to be the most popular MS Office® application since it is used by 99.99% of global organizations. Employees in virtually every department use Excel to create spreadsheets so they, their managers, and their teams can organize and manage data efficiently. Business leaders rely on Excel to create financial statements, sales forecasts, and inventory reports to formulate decisions that impact business strategy and growth goals.
Since virtually all team members use Excel, organizations need employees who know how to:
Many organizations use skills testing when they screen candidates and throughout their hiring and training process to ensure candidates have the Excel knowledge and experience required to be successful in a job.
Why Employers Use Excel Skills Tests
HR teams list Excel as a requirement for many jobs. However, they often have difficulty determining whether candidates have the required skill level. Studies show that over 77% of applicants exaggerate their qualifications and experience on their resumes, and around 65% claim to have expertise they do not have when applying for in-demand jobs.
HR leaders who partner with an industry-leading skilling testing provider like eSkill can use Excel skills tests to instantly verify applicants’ knowledge and experience. In addition to helping improve quality of hire, skills tests also reduce employee turnover.
Why Reducing Turnover is Important
HR teams and hiring managers review resumes, schedule interviews, and check references to hire the best person for the job. Despite their efforts, around 50% of new hires do not work out. This happens at every job level and in all departments, from a machinist on the manufacturing floor who is paid hourly to senior managers in the executive suite who earn six figures.
Hiring mistakes are expensive. The U.S. Department of Labor claims a bad hire can cost a company 30% of an employee’s first-year earnings. Staffing agencies estimate the cost to be higher, up to $850,000 per employee. According to a Gallup study, turnover costs U.S. companies $1 trillion annually.
How Excel Skills Tests Help Reduce Turnover
HR professionals know that hiring top candidates is the key to reducing turnover. Employees are less likely to leave if they have the right skills to succeed in their jobs and are a good fit for the company culture. These are some ways eSkill helps you hire the best candidates.
Since organizations have different needs, one-size-fits-all assessments are not always practical. With the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM, HR professionals can build customized skills tests that perfectly match their job roles.
For example, recruiters can use the Excel Skills Test, choose the difficulty level, and add or delete questions. They can also create assessments using questions from multiple skills tests. For example, if they are hiring data entry operators for a hospital, they can implement a skills testing program using questions from the Excel Skills Test, Medical Typing, Medical Terminology, and Data Entry Assessments.
The best way to see which applicants are best qualified for a job is to present them with situations that replicate job-related conditions and see how candidates perform. With the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM, recruiters have access to MS Office®, Chat, Multitasking, and Digital Literacy simulations. So, if they are recruiting customer service representatives with strong Excel skills who can manage multiple callers simultaneously, they can create an assessment using questions from the Customer Service Skills Test and the Excel, Chat, and Multitasking Simulations.
As the expression goes, two heads are better than one. This is especially true in hiring, which is why many organizations set up group interviews. The Team Scoring feature included in the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM makes it possible for HR teams to set up and administer group interviews in which members “blindly” rate candidates’ recorded responses according to specific criteria. This helps reduce unconscious bias because hiring decisions are based on hard data instead of team members’ “gut” reactions to candidates.
Get Started with Skills Testing
Organizations implement skills-testing solutions so they can identify top candidates and screen out those who are unqualified. Assessments like Excel skills tests provide them with measurable data for all applicants so HR teams can instantly focus on top candidates and quickly move them through their hiring process.
Businesses that use skills tests also reduce recruiting costs and streamline hiring by eliminating hours that would typically be spent reviewing resumes and scheduling interviews. Many eSkill clients have cut hiring costs by up to 70% and expedited time-to-hire by 60%.
Do you want to learn how skills testing can help you improve quality of hire? Contact us to request a demo.