Testing a person before employing him in the company is the best way to enhance the efficiency of the workforce. We all are grown up by giving tests from our childhood. Tests play a very important role in life as it helps to know where the person stands. It is the best way to know about the person’s knowledge and capability regarding the particular field. While hiring new employees, technical test plays a very important role in selecting the best candidate for the vacant position. Different organizations take different types of technical tests according to their requirement for the position available.
Here is the list of some of the common technical tests taken by the organization at the time of hiring. Let’s have a look at them.
- Job knowledge tests:
This type of test measures the candidate’s theoretical or technical expertise in a particular field. For example, if you are hiring an accountant for your company, in this test you will ask him the basic principles of accounting. These tests are taken for a high level of job or job that requires specialized knowledge. This test does not take into consideration the very important attribute that is learning ability. There may be chances that the candidate might have limited knowledge but he might be a fast learner. Even we all know that there is always a gap between knowing something in theory and applying it in practice. So this gap cannot be measured in this type of test.
- Integrity tests:
Most of the tests that are conducted related to the hiring starts from integrity tests. These tests are performed right in the beginning so that the company can avoid hiring a dishonest, undisciplined, and unreliable person. While conducting this test, direct questions are asked from the candidate regarding ethics and integrity. These tests can be a good predictor of the job performance of the candidate. Moreover, this test can be performed with the least biasness. But every coin has two sides, the same is the case with this test, as while giving this test the candidate can give fake answers to convince the employer that he is better from others. Once they are selected they can change their ways of doing work.
- Cognitive ability tests:
These tests are conducted to measure the candidate’s mental capacity that can be correlated to the job. These tests provide the hiring team with more accurate results than that in the interviews or any other experience-based test. Generally, GAT that is a general aptitude test is conducted by most of the companies that include numerical, logical, and verbal reasoning. The major drawback of this test is that this test alone cannot help you to hire the best candidate from the lot. You need to take one or the other test to increase the level of accuracy regarding your decision for the selection of the candidate. You can use the results of this test as your guide in further steps of screening.
- Personality tests:
These tests are often performed to check whether the candidate can fit into the work culture of the organization. Being a human we all come from different families, cultures, religions, etc. it is not always that the work culture of the company will suit the candidate. All these factors make up the personality of the person. It is quite obvious that the performance of the employee can be correlated with the type of personality. By conducting the type of test you will come to know about the personality of the candidate. For example, if you are hiring salespeople in your company, then you need to check that the person whom you are hiring is outspoken and can convince other people. The major drawback of this test is that the person who is undergoing the test will provide you with the answers that will impress you and afterward they will end up doing nothing like that. So it is better to conduct this test with utmost carefulness.
- Emotional intelligence test:
Emotional intelligence means how well the person builds a relationship with others and understand their emotions in the best possible way. Being in a professional world you need to understand all these things so that you can maintain a good interpersonal relationship with your subordinates. An emotional intelligence test is conducted to know the job performance of the candidate in the future. In reality, while conducting this test people are not able, to tell the truth, related to their emotional intelligence abilities. Even the company need to hire experts to conduct this type of test in the company.
- Skill assessment test:
The skills assessment test focuses on both the hard and soft skills of the candidate that are required for the specific job. For example, if you are hiring someone to do the job of secretary, you need to analyze that, she is having writing and presentation skills, and she is having good communication and management skills. The only drawback of these types of tests is that these tests are time-consuming on the part of both candidates and the hiring management team. Even these type of tests are more effective if you are taking less number of candidates.
- Physical ability tests:
This type of physical test is used to measure the strength and stamina of the candidate. If a person’s job is more into physical work like fire-fighters, then these types of can’t be ignored at any cost. These tests help to reduce the chance of any mishappening at the workplace. Even while doing these tests the no candidate can fake the results.
So, these are some of the types of tests that are conducted commonly in many organizations. These tests help the hiring management teams to hire the best candidate from the pool. As we all know that human resources are real resources of the company that will help to achieve the set goals. Of these are selected with most carefulness, surely they will provide the company with the best results with optimum utilization of resources.