It is a pretty safe generalization that most every staffing company uses some sort of testing to evaluate candidates. Computer-based testing started in the late ’80s and continues today. But do you use your assessment service when you are hiring your staff? Or for developing benchmarks? Or evaluating your training needs?
Sometimes it is easy to forget that you have a valuable tool that can and should be used for your own hires. Even my own company has a tendency to forget. After all, we’re familiar with the questions, so we know which ones to ask. But as we’ve discovered over the last couple of decades, the answers that come out of the mouth aren’t as accurate as the scores of an online skills assessment system.
As I’ve said many times before, if all things are equal don’t you want to hire someone with greater skills? One time I was about to hire an individual who was going to spend most of the time writing correspondence via letters and email. At the last minute I realized I’d neglected to even administer a typing/keyboarding test. Shame on me! But I gave the individual a battery of tests, and what did I discover? Typing speed of 16 words per minute with 60 percent accuracy, virtually no knowledge of Microsoft Word and spelling that would have made my third grade teacher cringe.
PREMIUM RESEARCH: Providers of skills testing and other front-office services to the staffing industry
And while we are at it, why don’t we test our own staff to see who could benefit from additional skills acquisition? There is no point in training staff who already possess the required skills; so, save some time and money by training only those who need it. If your assessment provider doesn’t have tests on the skills you require, inquire about customized assessments. These assessments can be specific to processing your own documents.
You might as well get your money’s worth out of your skills assessment service and use it to improve your own staff as well as to provide high quality candidates to your customers.
After all, what is good for the goose…
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