Why Employers Use Pre-Employment Testing and What To Know About It

You submitted your resume for an exciting job or just a part-time, extra money position, and after submitting your resume, you must take a test. Test taking could be a new and not necessarily pleasant surprise. But this isn't a drug screening that many employers routinely conduct before a person can start with a company. You are prepared for this. No, this is often a computer-based test. So, what is going on?

Many employers use testing before employment to screen applicants so that only the best qualified move on in the process as determined by the company. The types of testing that an applicant may be asked to complete are numerous. They can be anything from testing your knowledge, critical thinking skills, personality, integrity, and even physical skills like the ability to lift a certain amount of weight. 

For purposes of this article, we will not be discussing drug testing. Instead, the focus will be on other, less common testing you may encounter as a job seeker.

Is This New?

Not really. Believe it or not, the Song Dynasty used some sort of employment testing in China around 960 AD – 1279 AD to standardize admission into the state bureaucracy. Modern cognitive testing started in France in the 1800s, and well-known pre-employment tests are civil service examinations, used at the local through the federal level in the US.

We see a proliferation of testing for many different types of positions in various fields and at varying levels of experience required, from entry-level to more senior positions. Now that many employers use Applicant Tracking Systems and have automated their application process, it has made administering some of these tests much easier. 

 Why Employers Use Pre-Employment Testing

Employing people is a risky business. Unlike a product, where you can use quality assurance standards to decide its ability to do what its manufacturers claim, you can't do this will people. Testing is a way for employers to try to reduce the risk of making a bad hire.

Less Reliance on Resumes

Traditionally, someone in HR or Talent Acquisition would review all resumes and screen people in or out. They would depend on what was written on the resume in terms of experience, knowledge, or skills. But just because a person says on their resume that they have specific knowledge, experience, or skills, it doesn't mean they truly possess it. Testing can help an employer to get a better idea of one's true skills or culture fit.

It Reduces the Candidate Pool

Anyone who has worked in recruiting knows that a significant percentage of job applicants do not have the skills to do the job. Because of the ease of applying online, many job applicants apply for opportunities with only a small fraction of the requirements. Testing is a good way to weed out people who do not meet the company's criteria for success in a specific job.

It Can Be a Better Predictor of Job Success Than Interviews

Unless an interviewer has been trained well to ask good questions that elicit responses to assess a person's knowledge, skills, and abilities, an interview can often be a worthless exercise. Plus, it can introduce a lot of individual biases that disqualify individuals from the process. Testing, if done correctly and with validation behind it, can, in many cases, better predict job success than an interviewer can.

Can Change the Focus of Interview Questions

As I have said, many interviewers are just not that good at asking questions and assessing the answers. So, suppose an interviewer can focus on asking about specific skills required for a job and not general questions about skills or culture fit. In that case, that may be a better use of the interviewer's time and expertise. With expertise in a specific area, they are the best person to gather information on specific knowledge or abilities regarding performance at this job. The interview can be used to focus on this.

There Is a Multitude of Types of Pre-Employment Testing

Employers can choose from an assortment of types of pre-employment tests. Some employers purchase tests from vendors to administer, while others devise their own tests. Generally, tests do fall into certain category types.

Job-Knowledge Tests

As the name implies, these types of tests assess whether the candidate has specific knowledge or mastery of a subject. An Accountant may be given a scenario and asked to apply basic accounting principles to reconcile an account, or an employer may assess a Computer Programmer on their coding knowledge in a specific computer language.

These tests are administered when the role requires extensive experience or specific training. In place of this type of testing, some organizations will rely on acquiring a license or certification as "proof" that the individual has the requisite abilities.

Skills Tests

These tests attempt to assess your overall skills, which can be both soft and hard. So as an example, in a Business Analyst position where the role requires extensive use of Excel, candidates may be asked to take an assessment to understand their proficiency in Excel. Or an applicant for a bookkeeping job may be asked to take a 10-Key test. 

Cognitive Ability Tests

These types of tests assess how your think or reason. Employers may want to understand a candidate's cognitive ability to determine how quickly the person can learn new information or problem-solve on the job. Questions you might find on these types of tests can involve solving math problems, reading comprehension, spatial relations, or compare and contrast problems. 

Personality Tests

This broad category of tests helps an employer determine several factors to your personality, including what motivates you and how you communicate with others. These tests are often used to assess culture fit because they can help understand what makes you "tick" and whether the employer's environment matches your natural tendencies. 

When people think of personality tests, the Myers Briggs Inventory or the DISC profile most often come to mind. However, these tests are not validated for hiring in the US (see below in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission section about validation).

Integrity/Honesty Tests

These are specific personality tests that you might see for jobs involving honesty and trustworthiness. While questions that try to assess this can be part of general personality tests, some employers make these questions part of a stand-alone assessment test. Often these tests are part of the hiring process for cash-handling positions, accounting, or positions involving the handling of high-value products.

Emotional Intelligence Tests

Many employers feel that having good emotional intelligence makes a considerable difference in positive job performance. Having good emotional intelligence helps a person understand their own emotions and how to use them productively. It also allows people to know how others feel and how to better communicate with and motivate others. Emotional intelligence testing might be used when a job involves much interaction with others, both inside and outside the organization.

Physical Ability Tests

Some jobs require physical exertion or skill, so an employer may want to know if you can do the job's requirements, such as having flexibility, muscular power, cardiovascular endurance, or balance. Employers need to take caution with these types of testing that they are valid and not discriminatory and that they are not a medical test, which is not allowed in the US before making a job offer.

Testing and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) monitors that employers are not violating federal anti-discrimination laws in the US. So, the EEOC is interested in whether any employment testing results in discrimination based upon race, color, sex, national origin, disability or age (40 and up), or what is termed "protected classes." A big no-no for employers is adjusting scores or changing cutoff scores based on any of these protected classes.

The EEOC also disallows anything that falls into their definition of "disparate treatment" or "disparate impact." Disparate treatment means treating people in a protected class differently when it comes to employment than non-protected classes. An example would be making female applicants take a physical ability test and not male applicants. 

Disparate impact is a bit trickier. A disparate impact happens when the nature of the test excludes people in a protected class, even if the test is neutral. If this happens, the employer must show that the test is job-related and consistent, and necessary for running the business. There must be no other alternative testing that is less discriminatory. 

US Employers need to ensure that their testing does not run afoul of any laws or regulations. Tests need to be made to have consistent reliability (the results do not change over time) and are valid (it measures what it seeks to measure).

Conclusion

More and more, employers are relying on pre-employment testing to help them select people who they believe will perform better in a role. If you are in a job search or thinking of one, do not be surprised if you are given one of these tests, either upon application or further along in the process. While you may prefer not to spend the extra time to complete the test, if it is a well-developed assessment, it may work to your advantage by keeping you from going farther in the hiring process for a job that would not be a good fit.  

You may also be interested in more information about marijuana testing as part of drug screening.

Shelley Piedmont is a job search coach. She wants to help job seekers put their best foot forward by providing the tools for a successful job search. If you need career coaching, resume preparation, interview skills assessment, or LinkedIn profile assistance, she can help. Schedule a 15-minute no-obligation consultation.