Hiring a new employee is an exciting time. If your business is growing, wonderful news! If you need to replace an existing employee, it’s an opportunity to make a great match! Whatever the reason behind the new hire, obviously you want it to be successful (for all involved). That’s where an assessment test comes in.
Prefabricated assessment tests are plentiful out here and some are very popular. But you’ll likely find it worthwhile to develop your own. Doing so ensures that the test is accurately aligned to the requirements of the position(s). What factors should it include? While questions will be custom to the role, the areas touched on are fairly universal.
What to include in an assessment test
- Skills test. And don’t forget about ‘soft skills’ as well. While knowledge of any tech/processes the role requires is important, you should also be looking to make a match on a candidate’s experience with problem-solving, for example. This leads us to:
- Situational experiences. You’re looking for evidence of emotional maturity here. How well they’ve worked in a group, for example, or if they can provide examples of leadership or proactive project management. These can be done short answer-style, or you can provide them with a multiple choice list of responses to choose from.
You don’t want your assessment to be too long or complex, as you’ll get into the bigger questions in the interview but you do want each question to count. Assessments should be a collaborative effort with your team. Through discussion, identify the skills that are the most important to the success of both company productivity and culture. Have your team take the assessment test and then review, looking for confusing, irrelevant, or redundant questions. After you’ve completed your assessment test, it is very important to have it reviewed by HR. And that’s where we come in! Eos can take the guesswork and headache out of hiring new staff, making sure your policies and procedures are not only legally legit but also make the process as efficient as possible. We can even collaborate with you to write the test! We’ll make growing your team less stressful so you can focus on successfully leading them forward. Schedule a free consultation today to learn more.