A candidate tells you they are advanced in Excel, while another says they have excellent written English. Someone else tells you they are highly accurate, computer literate and comfortable working with numbers. They may be completely right, but the problem is that, during recruitment, we often accept these claims without testing them.
CVs, applications and interviews are important sources of information, but they largely depend on what candidates tell us about themselves. Adding a relevant skills test gives you another piece of evidence and, importantly, one that asks the candidate to demonstrate an ability rather than simply describe it.
This does not mean every candidate needs to complete a battery of tests. The skill being assessed should be genuinely relevant to the job. However, where a skill matters to successful performance, there is a reasonable argument that it should be measured rather than assumed.
Here are seven practical examples.
Microsoft Excel 365
The Excel 365 assessment measures the ability to complete tasks from basic through to advanced level and combines three interactive simulations with 12 multiple choice questions. It takes approximately seven minutes.
For positions where spreadsheets are part of everyday work, those seven minutes can provide considerably more useful information than asking, “How would you rate your Excel skills?”
Microsoft Word 365
Word is so familiar that employers can easily assume candidates know how to use it effectively.
The Word 365 assessment contains 12 multiple choice questions and takes approximately five minutes. It can be used independently or combined with other Microsoft Office assessments depending on the requirements of the role.
Microsoft PowerPoint 365
The same principle applies to PowerPoint, particularly for positions requiring candidates to prepare professional presentations, reports or client material.
The PowerPoint 365 assessment contains 12 multiple choice questions and takes approximately five minutes.
English Language Proficiency
For some positions, the ability to communicate clearly in English is central to successful job performance, particularly when the role involves customers, written correspondence, reporting or regular communication with colleagues.
Language proficiency can be assessed across reading, listening, writing and speaking. Each module takes approximately seven minutes and can be administered independently, meaning employers can assess only the areas relevant to the position rather than testing language ability unnecessarily.
Basic Skills
Some roles depend less on specialist qualifications and more on whether a candidate has solid foundations in
basic mathematics, reading comprehension and accuracy.
A Basic Skills Test measures these areas in approximately 15 minutes and can be particularly useful for clerical, administrative, customer service and other entry level positions.
Again, the objective is not testing for the sake of testing. It is identifying capabilities that matter to the job and obtaining some objective evidence about them.
Computer Literacy and Internet Knowledge
We tend to
assume that most people entering the workforce are computer literate, but familiarity with a smartphone or social media does not necessarily translate into competence with workplace technology.
This assessment measures practical knowledge of internet browsers and common desktop applications including email, chat and word processing. It also covers areas such as basic cybersecurity, calendars and operating system features.
For reception, administration, customer service, data entry and similar positions, basic computer literacy can be fundamental to productivity from the first day.
Data Entry
Where a role requires regular numerical data entry, both speed and accuracy matter. The Data Entry assessment measures keystrokes per hour as well as the number of fields entered correctly and takes approximately seven minutes. It can be relevant to positions including accounts, administration, reception, customer service and data processing.
None of these assessments should make the recruitment decision on their own, and that is not their purpose. Good recruitment comes from the convergence of information from several relevant sources. The CV tells you something and a structured interview tells you something else. Psychometric assessments may add information about cognitive ability, personality or behavioural tendencies, while a well-chosen skills test can answer a much simpler question:
Can this person actually do the thing the job requires them to do?
Sometimes seven minutes spent answering that question before employing someone is a very worthwhile investment.
Candidates regularly describe themselves as proficient in areas such as Microsoft Office, English communication, computer literacy and data entry, but good recruitment should not rely solely on self-report. Relevant skills testing can provide another objective source of evidence by allowing employers to verify capabilities that genuinely matter to the job. Used alongside CVs, structured interviews and psychometric testing, skills assessments can contribute to the convergence of evidence needed to make more confident recruitment decisions.
Better hiring decisions come from better evidence. Psychometric assessment helps you understand how candidates are likely to perform, not just how they present.
The focus of Fermion is
"Psychometric Testing for Recruitment" and
“Recruitment to Retention: How to Select Good Staff & Keep Them”. If you would like to learn how to select good staff and keep them, please
contact us at Fermion.
“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”
Eleanor Roosevelt.
