What You Need to Know about Business Skills Assessment

A business skill test is one of the methods for checking an individual’s ability in a specific business field. Many businesses and companies use these tests to determine if a job candidate has the required skills for the position.

Business skills are necessary for many job positions, such as consultants and business analysts. Business skill assessment tests can help companies to find the fit candidates with the right skills for the job.

These tests usually involve multi-choice questions; candidates should choose the correct answer between multiple options. These questions can be based on a business case study, client relations, customer support, etc.

You can design a business skill test according to your job requirements and the positions you are recruiting for. At WeTest we will provide you the opportunity to customize your own test based on your job position requirements. 

This test’s questions can be different due to difficulty and capacity. Business skill assessment tests can identify qualified candidates for the interview round during the recruitment process.

Business skill assessment tests are different from personality tests because these tests mainly evaluate a person’s traits and characteristics to evaluate if they are suitable for starting a job role.

During the business skill assessment process, employers will evaluate a candidate’s specific qualities, which they should use for performing their job’s tasks and responsibilities.

Some skills assessed during these tests are coding, typing, proofreading, language skills, computer operations, and machinery.

These tests usually will be designed for a specific job position, and they can evaluate how the candidates will be able to perform in the job role. The Business skill assessment test will help employers to differentiate the candidates through this test.

When to use business skill assessment?

Business skill assessment tests have a critical role during the recruitment process of new candidates. These tests also play a vital role in promoting existing employees because they can evaluate employees’ skills and abilities.

These tests help to hire managers and decision-makers identify qualified candidates for a job position. In a developed business market, hiring employees who are flexible to changes and eager to learn is vital.

Companies, employers, and hiring managers should use business skill assessment for some critical purposes as below:

Hiring

These tests can help employers to shorten the list of candidates and choose suitable candidates for the final interview step.

Learning and Development

While employees are training, a skill assessment test can help employers ensure that these training are working and employees are on the right path.

Adopting New Skills

As we all know, since the COVID-19 pandemic, skills have been developing so fast. We have learned new social distancing rules and followed some protocols, and we had to change in so many different ways. These tests can quickly evaluate if candidates have mastered new, necessary skills before counting on them for the job role.

Reskilling and Upskilling

Many hiring managers and employers motivate current employees to learn new skills to fill their talent gap, if any because it can lead to more experience and better success.

Why do employers use business skill assessment tests?

As mentioned, employers use business skill assessment to find the best candidate for a job based on their qualifications. 

Some other reasons that companies use this test are as below:

• To develop specific employee skills that can benefit the company 
• To find out if employees need more training
• To assess existing employees for other job roles that fit them.
• To decide about an employee promotion or raise. 
• To identify employees’ strengths and weaknesses.
• To improve current employees so they can ring more value to the company.

Business skill assessment tests are beneficial for a company’s growth. It doesn’t matter if they want to use these tests to hire new employees, evaluate current employees, or decide about further training or promotion; these tests can help in all those areas. 

How to choose the right skill assessment test as an employer

Employers can hire a new workforce through five methods: skill assessment tests, job interviews, resumes, reference checks, and job simulation. Business skills assessments have a solid and standard structure. 

These tests don’t evaluate a candidate’s personality or knowledge level but mainly concentrate on assessing candidates’ hard and soft skills.

Companies need to choose the proper skill assessment test to ensure their hiring decisions are accurate. In addition, companies should be aware of their need and required skills in potential candidates.

Before choosing a business skills assessment test/tool, companies should pay attention to some factors as below:

Easy to use: These tools should provide a user-friendly interface and be able to evaluate a large number of candidates in the shortest time and should provide features such as customization for the assessment test. 

Straightforward Performance

These tools should have the ability to invite candidates to the platform based on their name, email address, or IP address and be able to schedule a date and time for the test based on an agreement between the candidate and employer.

Reliable Testing Process

One of the most significant drawbacks of online skill assessment tests is the lack of monitoring. Many employers worry that candidates might cheat during the test and that the result won’t be authentic anymore.

Return of Investment

Pre-employment tests can cost a lot of money for any business or organization; therefore, companies should be confident about the tool they want to choose for the skill assessment and make sure that they can save some time in the hiring process, boost their recruiting productivity and, gain higher returns in all contexts. 

Benefits of using business skill assessment test

Business skill assessment tests will help employers choose between candidates who gain almost the same results on paper and choose the most engaged ones. In addition, these tests offer a broader point of view to hiring managers so they can determine if the candidate is a good choice for the company considering their expertise range and cultural fit. 

Some of the other benefits of skill assessment tests are as below:

Reduce Bias

Human biases can interfere with hiring decisions during the hiring process. These tests provide a clear evaluation of candidates despite their age, gender, address, previous employers, and many other factors which can cause a judgment toward a job applicant.

Identify Skill Gaps

 Skill assessment tests offer a clear picture of employees’ qualifications, abilities, and expertise, and this can help employers to identify the skill gaps inside their company.

Consistency

Without skill assessment tests, employers should only depend on reports provided by one employee about another employee’s performance. There is no consistent scale on these reports for evaluating employees, while assessment tests will assess candidates based on a persistent scale every time. 

Provide Detailed Analysis

These tests provide detailed information to training managers to identify skill gaps within team members and prepare a training plan for needed employees. 

Different types of business skill assessment tests

There are different kinds of business skill assessment tests, which will evaluate the different sets of skills and expertise in candidates for a specific job role. It depends on the company and hiring managers to choose one of these tests based on the company’s needs and required skills there are searching for in potential candidates. Some of these tests are as below: 

Hard skills assessment

These tests evaluate a candidate’s skills in a particular area required for a specific job. For instance, graphic designers will be assessed for their design skills. 

Some of the job positions that require hard skills are as below:

• Coding languages
• Typing skills
• Software
• Language Translation
• Using Machinery

Soft skills assessment

Soft skills are a set of skills that are required in many job positions. For instance, communication skills are needed in many job roles. Evaluating these skills are more complicated because there are no right or wrong answers to some questions.

Some of the job positions that require soft skills are as below:

• Time management
• Communication skills
• Organizational skills
• Motivational skills

Psychometric testing

These tests evaluate job applicants based on their responsibilities and achievements they should reach a job. Candidates can be tested for their problem-solving skills, and analytical, leadership, and critical thinking abilities.

Leadership assessments

These tests evaluate senior job candidates’ leadership skills. Leadership skills are critical for many job roles, and job candidates should understand their part in the company based on the company’s needs and requirements. 

Management skills assessment

These tests will evaluate the skills of potential managers to ensure they can manage a productive team that can achieve the company’s goals. 

Best business skill assessment tools 

There are many different business skill assessment tools on the market with various features which can help companies and businesses to execute the hiring process faster and easier. Some of the best business skill assessment software are as below:

WeTest

WeTest offers automized tests that can help companies save time in finding the best candidate quickly and straightforwardly. In addition, hiring managers can customize tests on this platform for different topics, such as problem-solving, technical knowledge, programming language, communication skills, etc., to evaluate candidates’ skills. 

WeTest also evaluates candidates’ performance based on a scoring system and provides a list of qualified candidates based on their performance on the test. In addition, WeTest prepares a report which will provide detailed insight into a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, helping employers to make well-informed decisions. 

eSkill

This online assessment tool helps companies establish the most reliable tests for evaluating candidates’ skills and identifying skill gaps. Companies can choose between 600 tests and 5000 topics or make their test for a specific job position. 

Google Forms

This tool is free skill assessment software and an easy-to-use platform for evaluating candidates’ skills and expertise. Hiring managers can create tests, surveys, and assessments for job applicants. In addition, there are different categories of question types, such as checkboxes, multiple-choice, dropdowns, and an option for uploading images or PDF files. 

iMocha

More than 2500 skill assessment tests, such as aptitude tests, are available on iMocha. Hiring managers can choose between a vast, diverse collection of skill tests or customize a test to assess candidates’ skills and performance.

Codility

This tool will help employers and hiring managers to assess job applicant skills in the coding area. Codility provides automatic reports, including candidates’ scores and their coding abilities. 

Mercer Mettl

You can evaluate candidates’ skills, abilities, and personalities on Mercer Mettl platforms. This tool provides an extensive cognitive, technical, and psychometric tests library. Recruiting managers can also create customized tests for a particular job position. 

Conclusion

Companies are trying to gain more detailed data about potential employees. This process involves evaluating candidates’ expertise and measuring their capability to ensure they can learn new skills. 

When companies have access to a constructive business skill assessment tool or software, they can make progress in hiring, improving, and keeping employees. 

The hiring industry is evolving very fast, so employers should know that they will need a skill assessment tool sooner or later. Hiring managers using skill assessment tests are one step ahead of the ones who don’t use this software and stick to the old-school hiring methods. 

Using skill assessment tests has many advantages for companies and organizations. For example, they can make more informed decisions for hiring new employees and identify the skill gaps between their current employees. 

As a result, the company can stay ahead in the competitive market and accomplish its goals faster. Because, after all, a company is nothing without a capable team of employees.