Having pre-employment testing is essential for employers and candidates alike. It is a process that helps you make informed hiring decisions and filters out unsuitable candidates. It also allows you to make your candidates’ experience better.

Improves the Candidate’s Experience

A great candidate experience can increase your company’s profitability and improve your employer brand. 

In addition to attracting more qualified candidates, a positive candidate experience can help you retain employees. Research has shown that employees who need to be the right fit for a position tend to underperform in their engagement with the role.

A pre-employment skills testing is a great way to help managers understand candidates’ strengths and weaknesses. In fact, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, 56% of employers use pre-employment tests to evaluate candidates. This helps you understand if you need to train or hire the right person.

The best part is that implementing pre-employment skills tests can reduce the time it takes to hire a new employee. According to The Talent Board, 40% of recruiters say they are more satisfied with their new hires after implementing a pre-employment test.

A pre-employment skills test can also provide insights into your candidate’s work style. This information can help you create long-term collaborative relationships. In addition, it can also improve your team’s productivity.

In addition, pre-employment skills tests can help you understand what personality traits to look for in new hires. Understanding the different types of personality can be particularly useful, as it allows you to tailor your hiring process to identify candidates who will fit well within your company’s culture and meet the specific demands of the role.

Filters Out Unsuitable Candidates

Whether hiring for a new position or trying to improve your recruiting process, pre-employment testing of skills can help you filter out unqualified candidates. This allows employers to hire the best candidates and avoid making hiring mistakes.

Pre-employment tests assess a candidate’s cognitive, behavioral, and soft skills. These tests also help to hire managers understand the character and culture of the candidate.

These tests can be done online or offline. It is important to select tests that are legal and valid. The tests also need to be reliable and equitable.

The pre-employment screening process can be accelerated by taking advantage of technology. It can also help eliminate human error in the interview process. An online system allows you to organize data easily and analyze answers for better selection.

Several companies offer online tests. These tests can be customized to specific job roles. They can also measure a candidate’s technical and academic qualifications.

Another type of pre-employment test is the Berke assessment. It measures innate traits, adaptability, and personality. It also assesses how well a candidate can work with others. The Berke test helps organizations determine if a candidate is a good match for the role.

Behavioral compatibility for the job helps determine how well a candidate will fit. These tests also assess behavioral tendencies and stress tolerance.

Helps Employers Make Informed Hiring Decisions

Using pre-employment testing to screen out candidates who need to be corrected for the job is crucial to a company’s ability to hire the best employees. Hiring a bad hire can be costly and affect employee morale and productivity.

The most effective way to make pre-employment testing work for your company is to choose tests designed to measure skills relevant to the job. For example, if you are looking to hire an accountant, you should assess their accounting, communication, and problem-solving skills.

Another way to improve your hiring process is to track the success rate of candidates who complete a test. This helps you determine which candidates have dropped off or who could be performing better than you expected. It can also help you optimize your process and improve pre-employment testing.

Pre-employment tests can also be used for elimination. For example, if you have a lot of applicants, pre-employment testing can help you filter them out of the pool. Doing so can make better hiring decisions and minimize hiring time.

Another benefit of pre-employment testing is that it helps eliminate bias and discrimination. This can lead to better employee morale, lower turnover, and higher productivity. It can also help companies avoid bad hiring decisions and reduce training costs.

There are many different types of tests. Some are designed to assess soft skills like emotional intelligence and personality traits, while others assess cognitive skills, physical abilities, and knowledge. These tests may be accessed through an online system that analyzes resumes, videos, and other forms of data.

Legal Implications

Various legal issues continue to arise surrounding pre-employment skills testing. These issues range from psychological tests to discrimination against protected groups.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination against employees because of race, color, or national origin. If pre-employment skills testing has a negative impact on minority groups, it may be illegal.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has a rule that does not allow employers to ask questions that would discriminate against protected groups. The questions should be relevant to the position and not be used to judge behavior.

Psychological tests can be used to assess a candidate’s personality. They measure how a person relates to others. However, if an employer uses a psychological test to judge personality traits, it may adversely impact a protected group.

Other legal issues related to pre-employment skills testing include using credit checks. Credit checks are typically used to screen applicants handling large amounts of cash. However, some organizations may be able to justify credit checks in pre-employment screening.

Another legal issue involves the use of cognitive tests. These tests assess verbal and math skills. These tests can disproportionately screen out non-white job applicants.

Finally, there is the issue of negligent hiring. If an employer negligently places a dangerous applicant into a position that it would have known would present a risk of injury to others, it may be held liable. This type of lawsuit is increasing in number.