How Organisations Use Skills Tests to Improve Hiring

Hiring well-qualified candidates is critical for the success of your organisation. Every business leader understands that hiring top-quality employees is necessary to maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, recruiting top candidates is often easier said than done. You probably receive responses from hundreds, or even thousands, of candidates when you post a job. However, approximately 75% are unqualified for the role. This means you and your team must spend hours reviewing CVs to find the few candidates who have the required skills and abilities.

Another problem is that we are in the midst of a global talent shortage. A study conducted in late 2023 showed European companies were having difficulty filling around 1 million open jobs. This is a critical problem because the working-age population is decreasing. This narrows the pool of available candidates and makes it more difficult to find top talent.

This is why many organisations use a leading skills testing solution like the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM. When candidates return completed skills assessment tests, HR teams can sort and rank them by score and instantly identify the best-qualified candidates.

What is a Skills Assessment Test?

A skills assessment presents job applicants with questions that measure their ability to perform a job successfully. Top solution providers offer clients access to an assessment library of pre-prepared skills tests for various jobs.

‍eSkill offers a variety of pre-prepared basic skills assessment tests to help you can your team instantly identify candidates with the abilities and attributes required for a given job. Some basic skills tests in the eSkill Assessment Library include:

• Data Entry Operator

• Office Manager

• Marketing Concepts

• Java Programmer

• Customer Service Representative

• Attention to Detail

• Negotiating Skills

• Verbal Reasoning

• Numerical Reasoning

• Systems Administrator

• Network Manager

• Salesforce Developer

• Webmaster

• Shipping & Receiving Manager

• Supply Chain Manager

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eSkill clients also have the option to customise pre-employment skills assessments by choosing questions from multiple tests, building their own assessments, and adding their own proprietary test content. For example, if you’re hiring a customer service representative who will communicate with customers by phone and email, you can build a skills test using questions from the Customer Service test and add questions from the Verbal Reasoning and Email Etiquette skills assessments.

If you’re recruiting technicians to operate or maintain specific types of machinery, you can build a skills assessment using questions from the Mechanical Aptitude, Assembly Skills and Blueprint Reading skills assessments and add questions that pertain to operating and maintaining the specific machines the employee will be working on.

Why Should I Use Skills Tests?

Skills tests provide insight into applicants’ abilities, aptitudes and skills to help you improve hiring outcomes. This helps your organisation improve productivity and meet goals and objectives. According to a McKinsey study, hiring top talent can increase productivity by up to eight times. These are some of the benefits clients cite from using skills assessments:

• Assess Skills For Specific Roles: Many jobs, particularly specialised roles, require precise abilities and experience.

• Evaluate Leadership and Management Potential: Leadership skills like strategic planning and change management expertise are required for many jobs, particularly in middle and upper management.

• Assess Soft Skills:  Soft skills like adaptability, collaboration and emotional intelligence are essential for jobs throughout your organisation.

• Identify High-Performing Employees: Skills assessments help you identify top performers who are ready for new challenges and align talent with current and future needs.

• Customise Training and Employee Development: Personalised training and development plans can be tailored to each employee’s needs and career aspirations.

What Types of Skills Assessments Should I Use?

Skills testing helps HR teams evaluate skills and competencies organisation-wide. Some common types of skills assessments are:

• Skills Tests: Skills assessments measure abilities that are required to do a job and technical proficiency in specialty areas like software development, financial and risk analysis, and machinery operation and maintenance.

• Cognitive Assessments: Cognitive assessments evaluate attributes such as problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, quantitative reasoning, decision-making, and analytical reasoning.

• Simulations: Simulations present applicants with realistic scenarios they are likely to encounter during a typical day so you can see how they will handle job-related situations.

• Video Interviews: On-demand video interviews provide insight into attributes that you can’t test effectively using a written skills test. For example, if you are hiring technical support representatives who must have excellent English or French proficiency, you can ask them to respond to questions in those languages.

Get Started with Skills Assessments

Using skills tests will decrease applicant screening time and help you improve hiring outcomes. You will also reduce hiring costs and decrease time-to-hire. Many eSkill clients have reduced hiring costs by around 70% and time-to-hire by about 60%.

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Do you want to see how skills assessments help you identify top candidates for all your job roles? Contact us to request a demo.