Historically, employers have relied on reviewing work history and education credentials to find qualified candidates. However, due to historically low unemployment rates, HR teams have begun to rely heavily on online employment tests. eSkill, a reliable and valid testing platform with hundreds of customizable assessments and simulations, enables organizations to vet candidates for any position quickly.

The use of pre-employment testing is part of the growing trend of “optimized hiring,” fueled by today’s tight talent market. The 2019 Paychex Pulse of HR Survey found that HR leaders identify recruiting and hiring qualified employees as the top challenge their organization faced in 2019. With a limited supply of candidates available, it is increasingly important to evaluate potential hires on required skills and personality traits, rather than limiting the candidate pool to those with relevant experience.

eSkill offers hundreds of job-based assessments that measure candidates’ skills, cognitive ability, and soft skills, predicting future job performance. For example, eSkill’s job-specific Customer Service Representative Test evaluates candidates’ ability to ensure consistent productivity and quality of service, maintain customer satisfaction, and efficiently handle customer inquiries. The test simultaneously measures candidates’ soft skills, such as communication and empathy, and technical skills—the ability to navigate the call and chat center software simulations. The test also measures candidates’ cognitive abilities through critical thinking and problem-solving exercises creating a comprehensive assessment of a candidate’s suitability for a position.

eSkill’s job-specific assessments can be used alone or in combination with hundreds of single-subject skills tests. The tests range from Excel simulations to timed typing exercises, knowledge of medical terminology, and much more. Whatever skill is needed for a position, it is possible to test it with eSkill’s wide variety of simulation and multiple-choice tests. All of eSkill’s assessments can be customized to match your business processes and procedures so you can create an accurate and efficient approach to vetting candidates.

The absence of necessary soft skills in prospective candidates is a significant detriment to their ability to perform well in any position. These skills or lack thereof, cannot be objectively evaluated by simply interviewing a candidate. Therefore, eSkill incorporates measures of interpersonal skills and characteristics like teamwork, empathy, adaptability, and problem solving, into every employment test to provide a real, measurable analysis of candidates’ soft skills.

Quantitatively measuring behavioral characteristics takes the guesswork out of determining if applicants’ personalities are the right fit for a position. Leveraging employment testing to make hiring decisions based on data-driven insights lowers turnover, ultimately saving companies the agony of costly turnover. eSkill’s assessments use non-obvious statistical correlations between how an applicant responds to specific questions and their on-the-job performance.

In today’s candidate-driven labor market, using a college degree as a proxy for employability is not sustainable. Online employment tests enable companies to easily identify candidates who possess the needed skills to excel in a position. Implementing a candidate selection process that evaluates applicants based on skillset, instead of a degree, creates a much larger pool of available talent.

Using eSkill’s employment tests to screen candidates levels the playing field as it eliminates the risk of unconscious bias in the initial stage of the hiring process. These assessments produce standardized scores to facilitate a simple comparison across candidates. Scale your recruiting efforts and immediately improve the diversity and reach of your talent pool with eSkill’s employment tests.

Using the results of employment testing helps companies align the right training during onboarding, identify learning needs, and highlight areas of strength so they can create tailored training programs that only cover the skills an individual is lacking. This approach saves businesses time and the cost of unnecessarily long training.

New hires who receive targeted training can perform better, faster. Personalized training provides the new hire with the exact knowledge and know-how needed to succeed in their new role, resulting in a greater sense of confidence. This results in increased productivity and better overall performance, and increased efficiency and engagement decreases attrition.

With quality content, eSkill’s pre-employment tests are not only objective, but they are also valid and well-constructed. eSkill boasts the best compliance record in the assessment industry with a perfect 15-year history of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission compliance. Therefore, eSkill’s pre-employment assessments can accurately and objectively predict potential hires’ retain-ability and on-the-job performance, without the worry of test-related litigation.

Assessing candidates’ skills and aptitude is essential to implementing an effective hiring strategy. Pre-employment skills tests help employers identify the candidates most likely to perform well on the job. Leveraging pre-employment testing can lead to additional company benefits, such as saving time and cost in the selection process, decreasing turnover, and even improving morale.

Learn more about the benefits of using eSkill’s skills tests and behavioral assessments to find qualified candidates quickly.

Request a demo today.