All businesses want a productive team. High turnover reduces productivity, places pressure on existing staff, and wastes money, time, and effort in onboarding and integrating employees that only last a short while. Employee skill assessment during recruitment may be the answer.
What is an Employee Skill Assessment?
A skill assessment is a series of tasks and questions that measure knowledge, competencies, and skills in a specific area. This process provides a comprehensive evaluation of a candidate’s potential. It’s generally undertaken in the later stages of the hiring process when choosing between high-quality applicants.
What are the Benefits of Employee Skill Assessment?
Employee skill assessments provide a company with many benefits.
- Understanding of competencies: Employee skill assessments support understanding of a candidate’s weaknesses, strengths, and abilities.
- Boost retention: Skill assessments assist in choosing the best candidates, increasing the chances of retention.
- Improve training programs: Employee skill assessments provide information that assists in improving training programs.
- Ensure compliance with regulations: For some industries, skill assessment ensures that a company meets regulatory requirements.
- Manage employee performance: Employee skill assessments assist in setting clear expectations and discovering ways to maximize talent.
- Identification of skills gaps: Employee skill assessments assist in identifying skills gaps within an organization.
- Support succession planning: Skill assessments offer an understanding of employee strengths and capabilities, allowing the discovery of essential leadership attributes and providing information for succession planning.
Types of Employee Skill Assessment
There are many types of skill assessment, each with its specific purpose.
- Hard-skill assessment measures proficiency in specific skills (data analysis, design, computer skills, marketing, writing, etc.) through certification tests, questionnaires, and test cases.
- Soft skill assessment evaluates skills such as communication, time management, and collaboration through performance evaluations, case studies, questionnaires, and psychometric tests.
- Cognitive ability assessment measures problem-solving, learning agility, attention to detail, and verbal, numerical, and logical reasoning through predictive index learning indicators (MMAT, CCAT, etc.) and game-based tests.
- Industry-specific skill assessments focus on knowledge and skills candidates require for a specific sector (finance, IT, telecommunications, etc.) through test projects, licensing exams, and professional certification programs.
- Technical skills assessment evaluates proficiency in skills relevant to the specific role (coding, specialized knowledge, software proficiency, etc.).
- Communication skills testing measures the ability to write and speak clearly.
- Cognitive assessment provides insight into problem-solving, memory, critical thinking, and logical reasoning and predicts learning speed.
- Personality assessment predicts the ability to contribute, collaborate, communicate, and adapt.
- Cultural fit assessment determines how well a candidate aligns with your company’s work environment and values, ensuring a good fit with your team.
How to Conduct an Employee Skill Assessment
To successfully conduct an employee skill assessment:
- Define your goals and objectives to help you determine what you wish to achieve and what questions/tests/questionnaires to utilize.
- Identify the skills to be evaluated by reviewing job requirements and industry standards.
- Create a skills assessment test tailored to your requirements. This may be a combination of several tests/methods.
- Analyze data collected using skill mapping and gap analysis tools.
Employee skill assessment ensures that your company chooses candidates that are right for your organization. It assists in improving the hiring process, boosts retention, and streamlines training/mentoring programs.
How Equation Staffing Solutions Can Help
The team at Equation Staffing Solutions provides pre-employment support services, including managed testing, reference/background checks, and phone/resume screening. Contact us for help with employee skill assessment.