Assessment Testing: Tools for More Informed Hiring

According to a Princeton University study, 4 out of 5 people are wrong for the job for which they were hired, and 85% of sales employees are terminated within 3 months.¹

To cut down on these costly errors, employers are using assessment testing to move beyond resumes and interviews. Assessment testing can help your business capitalize on your hiring and find the right candidate for the job.

Is assessment testing the right move for your small business?

Definitely. If you own a small business, it’s absolutely critical to hire quality employees. Because the business is smaller, individual employees often shoulder more responsibility and play a more integral role in the business’s future.

Employee turnover is especially painful for small businesses. Losing one employee is a nonevent for a company of 500 employees. It can be a complete disaster for a company with only four employees.

Assessment testing can be the key to hiring the right employees and making sure they’ve found the right employer. It provides you with another tool to screen candidates, lets you save time by identifying candidates who would not succeed in a particular position, and helps reduce turnover by pointing you towards the right candidates. That’s a big return on your investment.

If you’re searching for a new employee, the question is not if assessment testing is right for you, but what kind of testing is the best fit for your needs. By answering the following questions before you begin, you can avoid focusing on the wrong issues, or wasting time on the wrong tests:

• What skills, knowledge, or abilities are most important for an employee in this position? These could be anything from strong analytical or writing abilities to a warm and helpful personality.
• What do you hope to gain from assessment testing? If you want insight into a candidate’s personality, you would select a different assessment test than if you wanted to know her accounting abilities.
• What are the resources you are willing to commit? Some companies may find a large investment on assessment testing worthwhile, while other companies simply do not have those financial resources. Assessment testing does not have to be expensive, but it is important for you to know how much time and money you are willing to commit before you begin.

Testing Skills
Perhaps the most common tests evaluate a candidate's knowledge or skills in specific area. You can test everything from sales skills to math. There are two options if you wish to test a candidate's skills:

1. Traditional. For this method, a candidate answers multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank or matching questions. Traditional testing can be done with just a pen and paper, computer software or completed online.
2. Performance-Based. In performance-based testing, a candidate works to complete an assigned task. Often including a computer simulation, performance-based assessment requires the candidate to actually demonstrate proficiency.

Testing Personality
Testing experts estimate that 40% of employers use personality assessments to screen applicants. Personality profiling is helpful in determining if an applicant is suited for a position. Assessments like the commonly-used Myers-Briggs personality test can tell an employer if a candidate is introverted, innovative, flexible, etc.

Another type of personality test is the DISC behavioral test. This test profiles a candidate's personality in context of her behavioral styles. Dr. William Marston, creator of the test, segments behavior into 4 quadrants (D for dominance, I for influence, S for steadiness, and C for Compliance). By suggesting a candidate's behavioral styles, the DISC test can help an employer select the appropriate candidate.

With both the Myers-Briggs and DISC type tests, there are no wrong answers. It is important for you to determine what type of employee you desire before you begin.

Many companies are certified to offer personality tests, which they will administer and interpret for you for a nominal fee. You can find these testing companies online. Alternatively, you can purchase personality tests and do the administration and evaluation work in-house.

Cautionary Notes
Although assessment testing can help hiring practices, employers must be cautious about their tests and how they are using them.

Make sure that your tests are well constructed. The questions must be relevant to the skills needed for the job, and any simulation you use must be true-to-life. For example, testing a potential CFO on her spelling skills will not give you much useful information.

Evaluate the results of your tests against current, successful employees in comparable positions. If good employees fail the test you will need to re-evaluate your assessment test.

It is also important to realize that not everything important to a position can be measured with assessment testing. An employee's ability to interact well with co-workers, for example, is important in many positions but not well measured by assessment tests.

Finally, make sure your assessment tests and hiring practices are legal. It is often difficult to recognize illegal hiring practices, but the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission can provide you with guidelines to follow (www.eeoc.gov). Following these steps will help you avoid illegal practices:

1. Do not ask illegal questions. Whether these questions appear in questionnaires or in some form of assessment test, the following questions are commonly asked illegal questions:

Are you married? Do you have children? How old are you? Did you graduate from high school or college? Have you ever been arrested? How much do you weigh? What country are you from? Are you a U.S. citizen? What is your native language? Are you handicapped?

2. Do not discriminate. Use assessment testing for all applicants, administer the test in similar environments, and provide guidance and monitoring during assessment.

With these warnings in mind, assessment testing can be a valuable hiring technique. It can provide the employer with insight into the applicant’s skills, personality, and potential as an employee.

Michael Alter is President of SurePayroll. His payroll outsourcing firm processes and remits payroll taxes for over 15,000 small businesses across the country.

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¹http://bplab.com/behavioral_profiling.htm