Two of the focuses of my blog are Organizational and Management Discussions and Career Discussions. One of the most important decisions you can make as an employer, running or managing an organization/business is choosing the right employees. How do you properly vet potential employees? The following guest post is entitled, The Most Important Tests You Should Give Potential Employees.
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Finding the right employee to hire is essential for building a company that can perform effectively and have a trusted network within that can gear it toward progress and innovation. Often, the downfall of businesses that would otherwise be successful comes at the hands of poor management and bad hires who take away from the company in one way or another. While you can find ways to root out these offenders, the best course of action is to avoid hiring them in the first place.
A vital tool in finding the best individuals who can contribute to the workforce is by conducting a test (or a number of them) before employment. With platforms like Aptitude that create comprehensive online assessments for potential hires, it all comes down to what specific sectors you want to filter.
• Integrity
This factor is an essential one when figuring out the character of the individuals you will be bringing into your workspace. Employee theft and fraud have been on the rise in recent years, with the statistics showing alarming numbers. In general, companies lose 5% of their revenue to fraud annually, over 50% of employees have stolen company equipment or supplies at least once, and around a fourth of workers falsify their work hours.
Sifting out these potential threats from even getting into your business is the first step that should be taken. It necessitates a complete test of responsibility, trustworthiness, compliance, and transparency.
• Skill
Part of your screening, of course, needs to accurately show how reliable a person may be with designated tasks and performing well in their role. A survey of job interviewees revealed that the majority of candidates lie or manipulate parts of the truth to make them seem like the most viable choice for the position. Within this, 60% of those lie about their skills, saying they have proficiency in programs and services that they don’t have that level of mastery with.
To accurately assess their actual abilities, you can’t merely base it off of references and job history. You should provide a monitored test that can be timed and directly hits skills that should be appropriate for getting the desired spot.
• Personality
Although this factor is more important for titles that place the worker in charge of a team or department, it’s generally essential to figure out their work ethics and how well they can adapt to the environment in your business. A study of employees and their work habits revealed that, on average, more than eight hours a week are spent slacking off and doing other non-work related tasks on company hours.
Allowing this type of mindset in your workforce can affect productivity levels significantly and end up costing you crucial time and money. Testing this early on can also give you insights on how to best engage your employees and get them working efficiently.
Once you’ve covered all these markers, you can be more assured that you are getting the best fit for your business and that you can focus on operations.
