Key Employment Tests for Successful Hiring

Types of Employment Tests

Understanding the various types of employment tests is crucial for effective candidate evaluation and successful hiring. These assessments help organizations identify individuals with the right skills, abilities, and personality traits for specific roles.

Assessment Centers

Assessment centers are designed to measure many different types of job-related skills and abilities. They are often used to assess interpersonal skills, communication skills, planning and organizing, and analytical skills. Typically, an assessment center consists of exercises that reflect job content and the types of problems faced on the job.

Biographical Data

The content of biographical data instruments varies widely, and may include areas such as leadership, teamwork skills, specific job knowledge, and specific skills. These tests typically use questions about education, training, work experience, and interests to predict success on the job.

Cognitive Ability Tests

Cognitive ability tests typically use questions or problems to measure a person's ability to learn quickly, logic, reasoning, reading comprehension, and other enduring mental abilities that are fundamental to success in many different jobs. These tests assess a person's aptitude or potential to solve job-related problems.

Integrity Tests

Integrity tests assess attitudes and experiences related to a person's honesty, dependability, trustworthiness, reliability, and pro-social behavior. These tests typically ask direct questions about previous experiences related to ethics and integrity.

Interviews

Interviews vary greatly in their content, but are often used to assess interpersonal skills, communication skills, and teamwork skills, and can also be used to assess job knowledge. Well-designed interviews typically use a standard set of questions to evaluate the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other qualities required for the job. The interview is the most commonly used type of test.

Job Knowledge Tests

Job knowledge tests typically use multiple-choice questions or essay-type items to evaluate the technical or professional expertise and knowledge required for specific jobs.

Personality Tests

Some commonly measured personality traits in work settings include extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to new experiences, optimism, agreeableness, service orientation, stress tolerance, emotional stability, and initiative or proactivity. Personality tests typically measure traits related to behavior at work, interpersonal interactions, and satisfaction with different aspects of work.

Physical Ability Tests

Physical ability tests typically use tasks or exercises that require physical ability to perform. These tests typically measure physical attributes and capabilities, such as strength, balance, and speed.

Work Samples and Simulations

These tests typically focus on measuring specific job skills or job knowledge, but can also assess more general skills such as organizational skills, analytical skills, and interpersonal skills. Work samples and simulations typically require the performance of tasks.