What if there is a way to make the hiring process more efficient? Wouldn’t it be great to get all the relevant information about candidates by implementing an effective and time-saving strategy?
1. Pick the Most Suitable Test
Particular skills for a particular job. This is the basis of effective pre-employment testing. When NASA hired Neil Armstrong to walk on the Moon, they did not care about his knitting skills. You shouldn’t either. Test your potential employees only for those skills which are relevant to the position they are applying for. However, this is not enough. Exceptional ability is often not enough to excel in a certain position. It is a great starting point, but there are other factors which can influence a person’s success rate within the company. Pre-employment tests should focus on these factors too. Look for those correlated attributes and strengths that can contribute to developing a talented individual into an outstanding professional.
2. The Sooner You Test Them, the Better
Testing your candidates should be one of the first things to do in the hiring process. There are several logical reasons for this. First of all, testing provides equal conditions for everyone applying, which will bring you insight into the applicants’ skills before you even check their resumes. Testing sooner can help you find those hidden talents whose resumes might not look impressive (fresh graduates and inexperienced applicants). It is also a good early factor of elimination, saving you time and resources on the way.
3. Keep It Short
A recent study performed in Canada has shown that the average human adult has an attention span of only eight seconds. That is one second less than the average goldfish. Even if this is only true for Canadians, it still raises a question – do people perform better when given short tasks? Apparently, they do. In testing, less time equals better completion rates. A perfect time interval for a test is somewhere between fifteen and forty minutes. This is the perfect amount of time to get all the relevant information, providing that you have chosen the right test.
4. It’s Not All About the Test
Albert Einstein failed his college entrance exam. At the time, he was a fourteen-year-old boy with an utter disregard for French and Zoology. Later he became the most famous scientist of all time, but this had nothing to do with French or Zoology. He excelled in other fields and achieved greatness. This goes to show that you should not make a decision about hiring someone based on testing only. There are other factors to consider too. Gather all the relevant information and consider everything carefully. This is the only way to choose the best candidate.
