Background on Assessments:
- Assessments are job suitability tests that are given to job applicants either online or in pencil and paper format before they are hired or promoted. Assessments are also used for coaching, training and team building activities.
- To be most effective, the assessment should be designed to specifically test for qualities or attitudes that are important for the job by comparing the applicant to a benchmark of the knowledge, skills, abilities and behavior required in the job.
- Tests are based on valid principles of psychology and should be designed and developed by occupational psychologist with expertise in job profiling and test design. Such persons are referred to as Psychometrists.
Q&A
1. What kinds of small businesses find these assessments most helpful? (e.g. size of company, industries)
A: The heaviest use of testing is for the following types of jobs;
- Managerial/supervisory at the entry and mid levels of management
- Technical professionals like programmers
- Sales
- Customer Service
- Call Centres
2. What is the average cost of a new hire for a small business? This would be based on research you might have done in support of your service.
A: Cost to hire data is generally only collected by larger companies that have a recruiting department or by recruiting firms. Smaller companies tend to focus more on cost of turnover. In other words, what is the cost of a bad hire? I’ve commented on this subject in question # 5.
3. What problems or challenges do assessments resolve for small business?
A: Testing is generally focused on two aspects of job performance. The first and most simple is “Skills testing” to measure knowledge on subjects like software programs. The second and somewhat more mysterious is “Job Fit testing” to match applicants to the demands or preferred behaviours of specific positions, usually measured by abilities, interests and personality tests (the Prevue Assessments are Job Fit Assessments).
There is an old saying that “people are hired on skills and fired on fit”. Skills testing assure the candidate actually has the knowledge required for a position while Job Fit testing provides information on whether the candidate will be comfortable addressing the demands of the position in terms of things like ability to assimilate new information quickly, conscientiousness, interest in working with people, capacity to deal with stress, etc.
4. How expensive and time-consuming is it to get an assessment prepared?
A: With the advent of online testing in the 1990’s the time required to administer a test to job applicants has been reduced to minutes. The cost of testing is usually dependent on the volume of tests used by an employer, and depending on the types of tests that are used and the amount of support required or requested by the employer. Prevue Distributors may also charge a consulting fee.
5. How many hires or how long do you expect it would take for the assessments to pay for themselves in saved HR costs?
A: We expect our Prevue Assessments will more than pay for themselves from the first hire made with the use of assessments. Most turnover is caused by lack of job fit – things such as the inability to close sales, reluctance to make sales calls, failure to make timely decisions, failure to complete and deliver reports, failure to show up to work on time. Information from valid and reliable job fit assessments can provide insight into the characteristics that cause these behaviours.
Cost of turnover has been proven to be at least 30% of an employee’s annual salary and anywhere up to 100% of that annual salary, depending on the extent of recruiting and training costs that are related to the position. So if you can reduce turnover by even as little as 5 to 10%, the cost of testing the best 2 or 3 applicants for a position is pretty cheap relative to the return – and that ignores the cost and interruption to the performance of the manager and fellow workers.
6. How do you think the assessments would help an immigrant business owner (or someone whose first language is not English) to improve their business?
A: This is tough one. Although the concept of typing people based on intelligence, personality and interests goes back almost as far as recorded history, modern business testing was only borne in WW II through the efforts of the English and the British to place people in military positions where they would be most effective. Thus most test development has, until recently, been based upon a white English speaking population. That situation and the use of assessments have however undergone significant change over the last 25 years with the introduction of testing in virtually every corner of the globe. Thus, we at Prevue Assessments have developed and validated versions of our Prevue Assessments in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Arabic and are scheduled to complete translations to German, Russian, Mandarin, Polish and Japanese.
Testing is definitely finding a market in all cultures and languages so there is no reason why immigrant business owners should not take advantage of these tools in whatever language they or their job applicants prefer.
