Upon submission of a resume and or application letter, the candidate may begin to expect receipt of correspondence for a potential employer. Such correspondence may be an invitation, an examination or test and in some instances an interview. Due largely to deluge of candidates and the need to be transparent, most organisations require candidates to go through a selection process tests.
Testing systems
Recruitment can be described as the method of identifying and selecting an individual to perform a specific job or role, in an organization.
This identification and selection stages are made up of different steps that ultimately form the recruitment process. Usually, the recruitment process commences when there is an established need for a vacancy to be filled in an organization; and, the vacancy will only be satisfied if certain requirements, such as skills, qualifications, work experiences, etc, are met.
Once it is established that there is a vacancy, and there is also information or profile of individuals suitable for the role, the next step is to advertise the vacancy. These vacancy adverts would generally generate a lot of responses, and several candidates would apply for the role. After the applications have been received by the company, it can introduce a recruitment or pre-employment test. This is typically used by large organizations, such as banks, manufacturing, consultancy and oil & gas firms with a view to screen candidates.
Criteriacorp.com defines pre-employment tests as an objective, standardized means of gathering data on candidates during the hiring process.
According to en.m.wikipedia.org, employment testing is the practice of administering written, oral, or other tests, as a means of determining the suitability or desirability of a job applicant.
Other objectives of the tests include the following:
- Screening out the unqualified candidates, thereby reducing the number of candidates or prospective employees.
- Identifying different attributes of prospective employees, such as character and thought process.
- Identifying different skill sets in prospects (such as technical skills), to find matches for vacancy requirements.
Types of pre-employment/recruitment tests
Most of these tests are often generally combined and referred to as Psychometric Tests. The more popular ones, according to resources.workable.com, include:
Job knowledge tests: these help determine the prospects theoretical or technical knowledge in certain fields, and are often for specialized areas. For instance, an architect may be tested on his design knowledge. Whilst this is a good place to start, the reality is that theoretical knowledge applied in practice may yield slightly different results.
Integrity tests: these assist in determining the character of the employee. However, the applicant could also fail to disclose certain information. For instance, if prospect is asked if he or she has a criminal record, candidate could deny this, even if the answer is positive, and it would be almost impossible to ascertain the truth in our environment. Further, if the prospect responded to the question truthfully, he may not be given a chance, even though his or her character may have changed.
Cognitive ability tests: these tests attempt to measure the prospect’s mental capacity, as this is strongly correlated to job performance. Examples of these types of tests include General Aptitude Tests (GAT). This test measures logical, verbal and numerical reasoning of the candidate. Again certain individuals are known to suffer from exam fever thus the saying that examination may not be the best way to test knowledge.
Personality tests: as the name implies, this tests the applicant’s personality, as it relates to a specific role. For instance, a candidate with high scores in confidence and extrovert type questions would likely do well in a sales role. A disadvantage of this type of test is the possibility of the applicant to make false claims about his personality.
Skills tests: these measures the individual’s skills set; both soft and hard skills. Soft skills include interpersonal skills, which is necessary for smooth teamwork in an organization. Hard skills would include things like computer appreciation skills, which also aid smooth and efficient work in the organization, as it would save training time. These types of tests are better conducted when the hiring managers are able to successfully reduce the number of applicants to the barest minimum, as it takes time to evaluate the results.
Emotional Intelligence (EI) tests: tests that measure EI attempt to understand the prospect’s emotions and if he understands others’ emotions, as he will be dealing with colleagues regularly
Pre-employment medical tests: these tests are not classified under psychometric tests. The objective of these set of tests is to determine the health status of prospective employees, so they can deliver efficiently on the job, and are not a risk to themselves and co-workers. Further, the types of tests taken vary from industry to industry.
In conclusion, these tests are very important and could limit the prospective employee’s chances of securing a job if test performance is poor. Consequently, prospective employees are advised to continuously practice these tests, and familiarise themselves with how the tests work. In general, all employers are desirous of hiring individuals who are willing to learn and learn fast.
Further, a lot of free resources on pre-employment tests are available online for practice; these include; www.pschometricinstitute.com.au, www.practiceaptitudetests.com and www.aptitude-test.com
“Recite: In the name of thy Lord who created man from a clot. Recite: And thy Lord is the Most Generous Who taught by the pen, taught man that which he knew not.” (Quran, 96:1-5)
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing (1 Thessalonians 5: 11)
