Hiring new employees can be a long, stressful chore. You get tons of applications and people interested in being hired, but there’s not enough space for all of them to join the team. You have to consider who will be the best fit for your workforce, and this can be achieved through pre-employment testing.

When you hold pre-employment testing, you examine potential employees to see whether they’re a good fit for your workforce or not. This helps you to hire workers who are fit for duty and you eliminate applicants who may be a threat to workplace safety. In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of pre-employment testing for both you and your employees.

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What Are Pre-Employment Tests?

Pre-employment testing is when companies provide a set of different tests and assessments to gather more information about the applicant. This can involve assessing the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of the potential employee to ensure they’re fit for duty. This testing is done before the candidate is even offered the job.

What Is Tested?

The employer has to set a variety of tests for the candidate to ensure that they’re getting an overall depiction of their skills and capabilities. This means that pre-employment often consists of different tests that help them learn more about their potential employees. The following are a few things you can expect to be tested during a pre-employment assessment:

●      Physical capabilities. If the job requires physical labor, it’s imperative that physical tests are done. It’s important to determine whether a candidate is physically capable of fulfilling the daily tasks that their job requires of them. If these tests aren’t done, it can lead to future injuries in the workplace.

●      Job knowledge. Another important thing to test is the knowledge of the applicants. You want to discover how much they know about the field that they’re applying for. This includes technical and theoretical expertise that they’ll need to perform their job every day. You want to employ someone with at least some general knowledge about your field.

●      Personality characteristics. Pre-employment tests don’t only assess the skills and capabilities of candidates, but they can also be used to gauge a better understanding of their personality traits. An employee's personality makes a big impact on the work environment, as it can disrupt the balance amongst the staff.

●      Cognitive aptitude. Aptitude tests are done to determine the critical thinking skills of the applicant. Having this skill is extremely important for employees since things don't always run smoothly. You need to know how this potential employee will react under stressful circumstances.

●      Emotional intelligence. It may not seem like a relative test to have for the work environment, but one’s emotional intelligence has a major impact on how one behaves around others. You want to hire people with good emotional intelligence, so you can limit conflict in the workplace.

The Benefits of Pre-Employment Testing

There are many ways you and your company can benefit from doing pre-employment testing. If anything, you may find that not using pre-employment testing poses a disadvantage to your company. Practicing pre-employment testing should become a part of your selection and onboarding process for new employees, as it’ll benefit you in the following ways.

Improving The Recruitment Process

Recruiting new employees can be a long and tedious process for employers. There are so many different things you need to consider when you are hiring new staff. Adding pre-employment testing to your recruitment process helps you to streamline it. This gives you a standard routine that drastically improves your recruitment in the following ways:

●      Being more time-efficient. Having this streamlined process will help make recruiting new people more efficient. You don’t waste time on the recruitment process, as you just have to ensure the potential employees meet your requirements through these tests.

●      Unbiased hiring process. When you have a streamlined recruitment process, it helps you to avoid bias. You may not think you’re a biased person, but you may do this subconsciously. A streamlined recruitment process will help you to make a hiring decision based on their test results.

●      More cost-efficient. The recruitment process can be quite costly when you spend money on outsourcing recruitment specialties. When you use pre-employment testing, you’ll find it simpler and more cost-efficient. This helps you to have a standard budget for recruiting that doesn’t break the bank.

Finding People Fit for Duty

Although a resume, CV, and cover letter can tell you a lot about a candidate, this may not be a true depiction of their capabilities. Some people exaggerate their resumes, and in reality, their work ethic doesn’t live up to their standards, whereas other people downplay their skills; this can make you overlook really good workers.

Performing pre-employment assessment testing can act as a trial run for your applicants. You get to see how these individuals will fit into your workforce, as well as gain a better understanding of their true capabilities. This helps you to hire the right employees that will fit into your team.

Not only does it help you to see if they can fulfill the job properly, it also helps them to determine if they actually see themselves doing the job. They may find the job title and description appealing, but once they actually get a taste of their responsibilities, they may feel disinterested in the job and decide it’s not the right fit for them.

Having High-Quality Staff

As stated earlier, pre-employment testing helps you to hire people who are the best fit for your company. Having high-quality staff is beneficial for a number of reasons, and it will make drastic improvements in your business, such as the following:

●      Decreased employee turnover. As a business, you want to have a low employee turnover. Keeping a steady, loyal set of staff members will help your business to run smoothly, as everyone knows what they’re doing. When you hire people who want to do the job after they excel at the pre-employment testing, it’ll drastically decrease your employee turnover.

●      Fewer injuries happen on-site. If your employees are required to participate in hard labor, it’s crucial to ensure that they’re physically capable of doing so. These tests will ensure that you hire people physically fit enough to work on-site without endangering their own safety or the people around them.

●      Decrease in errors and delays. When you have high-quality staff, it’ll minimize the number of mistakes they make. You’ll find that things run smoothly and efficiently, and your staff is mentally, physically, and emotionally equipped to fulfill their job tasks.

Best Practices of Pre-Employment Testing

There are many different ways you can perform pre-employment testing. You want to ensure that you use a process that is suitable for your business and potential employees. Here are some practices that will help you to perform the best pre-employment testing.

Find A Suitable Vendor

When you’re getting into pre-employment testing, you’re probably going to want to find a vendor that helps you meet all your needs. In this case, a vendor is an organization that provides pre-employment testing services in various forms. You need to determine which vendor is right for you, and this can be determined by considering the following:

●      What type of tests do they provide? We’ve discussed most types of tests you can expect from a pre-employment test, but some vendors don’t have all options. They may just specialize in a certain type of testing, so it’s important to look for a vendor who provides the tests you want for your applicants.

●      Are the tests customizable? Another important thing you should consider is whether the tests the vendor provides are customizable. You may want to add your own questions or assessments that help you to get more accurate results, so it’s best to work with a vendor that allows you to make adjustments.

●      Does the vendor have good customer support? You want to have a vendor that’s hands-on, especially when you’re getting started with pre-employment testing. To check if they are good with customer support, you should look at reviews from past customers.

Ensure Results Are Accurate

You need to ensure that the results of your test are accurate, as these results determine the future of you and your employees. You want to have accurate results that you can use to make a fair decision. These are some things you should consider to ensure validity through your pre-employment screen testing:

●      Do you have sufficient data? You need to use tests that provide you with sufficient information about your applicants. To help you narrow down the competition or make a calculated decision, you have to have enough valuable data to review. It’s important to ask enough questions (the right questions) throughout this assessment.

●      Are the questions relative to your field? The questions you ask throughout the different tests should be related to the job requirements. For example, if the job role requires someone to understand a lot of technical terms and practices, you should ask them questions that will make them aware of their job knowledge.

●      Are the physical tests valid? You can get your applicants to participate in any ordinary physical assessment; for example, they can do jogging on a treadmill, or lift heavy things. These may be good tests, but you have to assess physical capabilities that are specific to the job they’re applying for.

If you consider all of these things when you are implementing pre-employment assessment testing, you’ll be able to get results you can rely on. This is also something you should consider when you’re looking for a vendor, as you must use tests that will provide valid test data.

Set Tests At The Right Time

Timing is really important when it comes to pre-employment assessment testing, as you want to accelerate our hiring process. The recruitment and selection process can be a long and tedious process, especially when you have a long list of applicants, so it’s important to consider when throughout this process you’ll implement pre-employment screening.

You want pre-employment testing to make this process more manageable and stress-free, instead of making more work for yourself and your recruitment team. If you have a lot of applicants, you should first narrow down the list by doing interviews and resume checks. This helps you to lighten the load of applicants.

Once you’ve shortlisted the candidates that you think are the best pick, you can start doing pre-employment testing. This way you have fewer test results to consider and review when you have to make your hiring decision.

Utilize Test Results As Guidance

Lastly, it’s important to remember that the results from these tests shouldn’t be the only factor that helps you make the hiring decision. There are other parts of the recruitment process that are important to consider, such as the interview, the application, and whatever else your onboarding process consists of.

You need to give your applicants a fair chance by adding all of these factors together, instead of just judging them on their test results. With that being said, the test results do make up the majority of the recruitment decisions, as it’s physical evidence of the applicants' capabilities.

Advantages of Pre-Employment Testing for Employees and Employers

Pre-employment screening tests are beneficial for both employers and employees. It makes the recruitment, selection, and onboarding process more manageable for all members involved. Implementing this testing system will only provide positive impacts for everyone.

Benefits for Employers

We’ve discussed most of the ways employers can benefit from performing pre-employment testing, but there are even more reasons why you should strongly consider implementing these tests into your recruitment or selection process.

One of the biggest ways pre-employment screening tests are valuable is that they give employers a deeper understanding of the candidates' potential. Reading a resume can only give you so much information, but having the applicants engage in various tests can help you see who has a good future with your organization.

This helps you to hire people who are a good fit for your company, which can improve your efficiency. Many companies notice drastic improvements in their performance, as their efficient employees make them leading competitors in their field.

Benefits Employees

Not only do pre-employment tests benefit employers, they also have a big positive influence on potential employees. When you look after the overall well-being of your employees, you create a safe and efficient workspace for your staff. Pre-employment testing can benefit your employees in the following ways:

●      Understanding their potential job role. As much as pre-employment testing is important for employers to see if they see a future for applicants, it’s also valuable for potential employees. These tests help applicants and potential employees find comfort, familiarity, a better understanding, and a vision for the future in the company.

●      Ensuring workplace safety. Performing a pre-employment physical ability test helps you to choose candidates who are fit for duty and you eliminate the options that could pose a threat to themselves and the work environment. This is beneficial to the potential employees, as they avoid doing a risky job for themselves.

●      Benefitting your current employees. Not only do these tests benefit your potential employees, but they are also important for your current employees. All the different elements of a pre-employment assessment test whether the applicant is physically, emotionally, and mentally stable, which has a big impact on the rest of your staff.

How Reliable Are Pre-Employment Screening Tests?

If you’re still not convinced to implement pre-employment tests because you’re scared it’s unreliable, it’s important to take a look at the facts. Many successful companies are using pre-employment testing for their benefit, as it adds an element of fairness and reliability to their recruitment system.

If you feel as though pre-employment screening is not reliable or valid enough, you can do a trial run during your next hiring phase. To determine whether it’s reliable or not, you can ask a volunteer to take a test multiple times, and if it’s reliable, they should get the same results each time.

Frequently Asked Questions

After reading the article to this point, you probably have a better understanding of what pre-employment testing is and why you should implement it into your recruitment system. There are countless reasons why it’ll be beneficial for you and your employees. If you have more questions and curiosities, they may be answered through the following frequently asked questions.

What Should Applicants Expect From Pre-Employment Testing?

Before you implement pre-employment testing for your applicants, you should inform them of what they can expect. It can be nerve-wracking for them knowing they have to do some tests, while not knowing what you’ll expect from them. It’s helpful to let the candidates you’ve shortlisted know what they can expect from this procedure.

Let them know what type of clothing they should wear if they are going to participate in a physical test. You can inform them how long they can expect to be there and what time they should arrive.

How Long Does The Test Last?

The length of a pre-employment test varies for each test. It can range from 15 minutes to 45 minutes. It depends on the tests that are being implemented and what job role that the applicants are applying for. For example, if it’s an entry-level job, it’ll be shorter. If physical tests are included, it may take longer.

What Do You Do With The Results?

The results of a pre-employment test are crucial, as they will help you to determine whether a candidate is a good fit or not. You can decide how you mark the tests, and you don’t have to necessarily pass or fail your candidates. You can use their results to compare them together, so you can determine who’s the best fit out of the competition.

What Type of Physical Tests Can You Expect?

If the job people are applying for entails them doing hard labor and physical activity frequently, it’s important to add physical assessments to your pre-employment screening. This will ensure that the workers are in good enough physical shape to fulfill the daily tasks.

It’s important to let shortlisted candidates know what to expect from their physical examination, as they can arrive properly prepared. The tests should have assessments that are relative to the work they’ll be required to do. For example, if they do heavy lifting throughout the day, you can test their strengths and resilience.

Where Can I Find The Best Employment Testing?

When it comes to finding pre-employment testing, you want to find a vendor that offers you the help you need. You want to work with an organization that’s flexible and provides you with maximum results and feedback. One vendor you should consider using is PCP works. PCP works can test employees after hire but before your new employees begin working on-site.

They will help you to test the physical capabilities of your candidates and provide you with reliable results. PCP also offers post-employment testing that helps you to maintain the safety and efficiency of your employees.

Conclusion

As a company, it’s important to find ways to make your practices more efficient and professional. The recruitment and selection process can be a stressful time for any company, as it can lead to bad hiring decisions that aren’t good for the business. You never know who’s the right fit for your company once you see their true skills and capabilities.

Using pre-employment testing will help you to implement a streamlined hiring system that not only accelerates the recruitment process, but also improves employee retention and efficiency in getting tasks completed, as well as it makes a happy, safe, and stable work environment.