How Does Pre-Employment Testing Improve Employee Retention?

To improve employee retention in your organization, you may want to consider pre-employment testing. Here are the benefits.

Pre-employment testing comes in many forms but shares the format of an assessment, given to applicants before they’re hired for a job. While commonly called tests, a test implies asking questions that have right answers and wrong ones, and maybe even a test score. Pre-hire tests that all under this category might include:

But while testing technical skills like typing and proficiency using spreadsheet software like Excel might fit the traditional definition of a test, other forms of “pre-employment testing” merely assess how a candidate approaches problems, projects, and people. With this type of testing, there can be multiple “right” answers, but maybe some of them won’t fit the company culture or department, or be a good fit with other members of the team. In other words, it helps separate candidates who have the right educational degrees and work experiences from those that just won’t embrace the company’s purpose or fit with the manager’s style.

For example, a reserved, organized employee might excel in one job role or one company environment but be a fish out of water in another. The enthusiastic, charismatic, and outspoken individual might be the inspiration and top performer in one department but nothing but disruption and distraction in the next.

In these cases, the testing isn’t a matter of grading the candidate’s proficiency or knowledge, but gaining a better understanding of how he or she might fit with the manager and co-workers – or even work collaboratively or work from home.

Therefore, hiring managers commonly want to test for things like:

In this way, you’re getting a better picture of a potential employee than a resume could ever provide. It’s like flipping the hood on your car or truck before you purchase your next vehicle.

Every employee likely has their reason or reasons for quitting. But, some of the common ones include things like:

There are a lot of job hoppers out there that have honed and practiced their interview skills but don’t have the aptitude or attitude to back up what they’re selling.

The key to reducing the employee turnover rate then starts with the root cause. Weed out these applicants who either don’t have the basic skills you need or the job fit required before you get them on the payroll. Pre-employment testing is just the right solution for this problem.

Testing helps improve employee retention by making sure the candidates you interview are the ones worth investing your managers’ valuable time to screen and interview and avoid hiring skilled workers who have the credentials but don’t fit the team and culture.

It ensures that the candidate has all the technical skills, traits, and behaviors that you want for the job role. What’s more, it helps managers focus on what they should be evaluated during the interview and offers tips and insights on how best to manage the new employee is hired.

Many pre-employment tests include personalized, tailor-made questions for each candidate based on how they responded to the questions.

Often overlooked as a benefit of pre-employment testing is that it reduces the chance of a high potential slipping through the cracks. It forces HR and managers to take a second look at the candidate who didn’t interview well but the assessment reveals untapped potential and fit.

When you have employees that are truly devoted to their role and the company values, they’re much more likely to stick around for the long term.

Let’s not forget that improved employee retention isn’t the only benefit that comes with pre-employment testing software.

It also makes recruitment significantly easier. Nothing grinds down recruiters and HR more than going through a huge stack of resumes and trying to determine what’s a lie and what’s the truth.

Pre-employment testing allows you to quickly narrow the number of applicants down to a manageable figure. From there, you can determine which ones you want to bring in for additional interviews.

It’s important to remember that every different industry and business has different hiring needs.

It’s important to avoid any software that doesn’t allow you to tailor the test toward your specific hiring requirements.

It’s also important to keep it user-friendly. This is true both for your user dashboard and the candidates’ experience as well. The experience should be as quick and frustration-free for the applicant as possible. It’s a fine line between getting as much information as you can with the least amount of recruiter/HR times and overtaxing the candidate, especially in today’s market where candidates have lots of choices. Make sure the testing and assessments you use focus on only the critical skills, traits, and attitudes you need.

Finally, make sure that support is included, both for the technology and interpretation of the results when required. That way, if you have any problems you can help get them solved quickly.

If you need a recommendation for the best pre-employment testing, then look no further than our very own Elite Pre-Employment Test System. We provide smart recruitment features and more, which you can read about here.

Pre-employment testing is sure to help root out a lot of bad apples, allowing you time to focus on the good ones. But, just because an employee seems like that perfect fit doesn’t mean it is a sure thing in terms of retaining employees.

Candidates are human beings. So are the team members and managers. Humans are complicated. The reality is that as good as pre-employment testing is, there are a lot of factors that determine how long an employee stays. Sometimes it’s just a personality conflict. Other times it’s more money or an opportunity to move up the career faster. Maybe it’s family or some other life change. Sadly, most resignations are just bad management.

The reality of the matter 52% of employees exiting a company said that there was something their manager could do to prevent them from leaving their job.

So, if you’re still experiencing retention problems after testing, try an employee engagement or employee experience survey. This can reveal more insight into why people are leaving.

We hope this article helped show you how pre-employment testing can improve employee retention. The most important thing is to find a pre-employment test system that’s tailored to your business.

There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to employment testing. That’s why Sucess Performance Solutions customizes each delivery and implementation for our clients.