Mary Cherry, Client Recruiting Manager
Angela Adams, Client HR Services Manager

Applicant and employee testing sometimes have a bad reputation. Anecdotes abound about candidates being asked to write an essay on what kind of animal symbolizes who they are and why. We’ve also heard stories about current employees being asked to take “general knowledge tests” that require them to use higher math they don’t use in their jobs and haven’t seen since junior year of high school – with no indication from their employer about what the purpose of the test might be. These, of course, aren’t the ideal uses of employer testing.

Testing isn’t always as “far out” there as anecdotes may suggest. Tests can be a beneficial tool when used in the right situations to assess job-related knowledge and skills.

When Is Testing Appropriate?

• • When you need to know the level of knowledge an employee has (like knowledge of general accounting procedures), when a certain level of mastery is mandatory;
  • When a job requires a specific skill for the candidate to function at an appropriate level (i.e., Excel);
  • When you need to know if someone can physically perform certain aspects of a job (climbing a ladder, for example); and
  • When a characteristic like a particular attitude or leadership ability is essential to the job.

Developing an appropriate test, however, can be difficult and is a complicated area littered with legal obstacles. Luckily, there are resources out there that don’t require you to reinvent the wheel, whether you are testing applicants or trying to get a feel for a current employee’s skills to help them get to the next level.

Miller Cooper’s Client HR Services’ Recruiting Team offers its clients a wide variety of assessment testing options. Not only does skills testing take the guess work out of knowing if your selected candidates have the skills that they say they do and at what level, but it can also be utilized as a retention and succession planning technique for your current staff!

Benefits of assessments include:

• • Improved hiring quality (can be predictive of job performance)
  • Reduced turnover
  • Higher productivity

In other words, getting specific information about required skills and attributes enhances the success of the hiring and promotion processes.

Examples of different assessments that can be beneficial to consider adding to your hiring process include:

• • Accounting knowledge
  • Specific areas of Microsoft Office
  • Basic computer literacy
  • Customer service skills
  • Emotional intelligence tests
  • Cognition and reasoning
  • Industry/profession-specific skills
  • Management aptitude
  • Sales aptitude
  • Medical office skills

Like all selection criteria, you want to be sure what you are testing for is a requirement of the job and an indicator of success in the role. The results of any pre-employment test should always be handled as one component of the overall selection process. Understanding the best way to use assessments is key to their effectiveness. And like many aspects of human resources and talent management, developing a consistent approach matters.

Please reach out to our team to learn more about incorporating assessments into your hiring process at chrsusers@millercooper.com. We are here to assist you with any of your hiring and HR related needs.