There is a lot of chatter about pre-employment testing, leaving many organizations asking themselves if there is a benefit to implementing them during the interview process. Should I invest in them? Do you find yourself at this juncture? Well I’m here to debunk any misleading information about them and discuss why, in fact, pre-employment testing can greatly benefit your company.
First off, what are they?
Pre-employment tests are a screening process that allows employers to shift through the crowd of candidates and narrow down their search. Pre-employment tests can capture anything from reasoning skills, motor skills, work skills, grammar and writing capabilities as well as get an insight into potential employees’ personalities. Many organizations use them to avoid misplacement of a candidate in conjunction to finding top quality talent.
The Benefits
Apart from saving time and money, pre-employment testing can help to narrow your search. For companies like Google, who receive roughly 75,000 resumes in one week, this is extremely beneficial. Having candidates take a pre-employment test also ensures that their capabilities match the baseline set by your organization. This helps with capturing that top talent. In addition, by hiring the right people you alleviate the possibility of losing an employee later; thus, reducing turnover and that’s always good.
Finally, pre-employment testing can help with placement. By testing employees you get a good sense of where their abilities are in conjunction to your current employees. Finding the perfect fit is essential for company morale, so you definitely want to get it right.
Tips for use
Does your company use pre-employment testing? Are you considering it but need to know more in order to implement them properly? Here are five best practices to consider when implementing pre-employment testing into your hiring process:
- Do your research if you choose to use an outside company for testing ,
- Recognize what it takes to be successful in your business and use comparison analytics to compare your top talent to incoming talent,
- Create a baseline to go off of,
- Make sure your tests are valid, reliable and compliant with EEO compliance standards and
- Use them in combination with your other processes. Don’t make your sole decision based off test results; rather use them as a guide.
Employers have an opportunity to improve their hiring process with pre-employment tests. Given that the tests given are valid, reliable and in compliance with Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws, companies can significantly increase the possibility of hiring right.
