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Put Your Testing Strategy to the Test
Does It Make the Grade?
by Evan Sinar, Ph.D., DDI
Today testing has entered the hiring mainstream and is valued as an indispensable component of a successful selection process—and rightfully so. DDI’s new 2008 Driving Business Results: Delivering Top Talent Through Employment Testing study offers solid evidence of how a well planned and executed testing strategy can benefit your organization’s bottom line. Among the findings: 69 percent higher close rates for sales reps in a telecommunication company; 105 percent more operations team members for a Fortune 500 Food Manufacturer were likely to meet productivity goals; and 130 more registered nurses were likely to excel at patient focus in their health care organization.
But what about your selection processes? Are they primed to produce these types of results? Do you use testing to its fullest? Is your testing strategy tied to your need to identify and hire the best possible talent?
Put your testing strategy to the test by answering the following 10 true/false questions. The next section reveals the answers…and how your testing strategy stacks up to current best practices.
1. My organization’s testing strategy is connected to our business
priorities and dictated by our specific business drivers. |
True/False
|
2. We adapt and adjust our tests when our business
strategy changes. |
True/False
|
| 3. We use testing data only to support hiring or placement decisions. |
True/False
|
| 4. Most, if not all, of our testing is technology-based. |
True/False
|
| 5. We don’t test because it limits the size of our applicant pools. |
True/False
|
6. We use tests primarily for measuring skills, because that’s
how they are best used. |
True/False
|
7. We are able to test for multiple factors (personal attributes,
competencies, etc.) with a single test. |
True/False
|
8. We continue to use our “old standby” tests because they are the
most valid. |
True/False
|
9. We administer tests that, above all else, will stand up to
legal challenges. |
True/False
|
| 10. We use tests to expand our employment brand. |
True/False
|
Do You Make the Grade?
1. My organization’s testing strategy is connected to our business priorities and dictated by our specific business drivers.
BEST ANSWER: TRUE
Maybe it’s because “rigor” and “validation” are typically required for the creation of a well-designed and legally defensible test. Whatever the reason, there has been a tendency among staffing managers to take and use tests at face value, viewing them as interchangeable, commoditized components that can be dropped into any given selection process often with little thought as to whether or not they should be part of that process.
But the view on testing today has evolved as organizations are growing increasingly aware of the need to build hiring processes around specific priorities and business drivers, whether they are going global, sparking innovation, containing costs, or any number of others. For instance, if maintaining market share is a major business driver for your organization, hiring people who can deliver exceptional customer service must be a priority. Your hiring strategy and, by extension, your testing strategy, should be linked to the need to keep customers in the fold.
2. We adapt and adjust our tests when our business strategy changes.
BEST ANSWER: TRUE
Just as your testing strategy needs to be dictated by your business priorities and drivers, when your business strategy changes—and you need to hire people with different skills and abilities—your testing strategy needs to change, too.
Consider a bank that has changed its strategy and plans to aggressively sell financial services products to its existing customers. While in the past, the bank might have hired tellers who could efficiently and accurately handle customer transactions, the new strategy will require that tellers ask customers questions that uncover additional sales opportunities. This change in strategy makes obsolete the past teller job description as well as the hiring process for identifying and selecting tellers. How candidates for this position are tested will likely need to change, as well. While the skills required previously for success will still be important, additional skills now also will be needed for success in the job. In this instance, different or additional tests might be in order to properly screen or assess candidates.
3. We use testing data only to support hiring or placement decisions.
BEST ANSWER: FALSE
Just as tests can reveal an individual’s personality traits, competencies, skills, or knowledge, they also can reveal his or her development needs. This means that, at the point an individual is hired, the tests administered as part of the hiring process will have provided useful baseline data that can be applied to build an on-boarding plan or even a year-one development plan. In addition, these same tests can be used to assess the readiness and development needs of individual contributors as they are groomed for future leadership positions.
4. Most, if not all, of our testing is technology-based.
BEST ANSWER: TRUE
Technology has so revolutionized testing on so many fronts—ease of delivery, improved efficiency and costs, ability to quickly tabulate results, ability to manage candidate flow through the selection funnel—that doing paper-pencil testing on a major scale has become harder to justify.
One of the most compelling reasons for taking your testing high-tech is that you can easily and seamlessly weave a test into the application process. We have worked with several organizations that incorporated testing into their online application process to collect more data about the individual earlier in the selection process and screen out (or screen in) potential candidates. A large retail client we worked with adapted this approach by having applicants apply and answer screening questions at in-store kiosks. Whether online or using kiosks, the benefit is the same: the testing and application processes are combined into a single streamlined step. This streamlining would prove much harder, if not outright impossible, if testing was a distinct, low-tech event, as it was in the past.
5. We don’t test because it limits the size of our applicant pools.
BEST ANSWER: FALSE
One of the functions of testing is that it screens out those who are not a good fit with the job. This is a positive outcome, but some fear that testing can also eliminate candidates who deserve a closer look, even if they don’t “test well.” If this is a concern in your organization, it probably suggests not that you shouldn’t test but that you may not be administering the right tests. After all, administering tests that produce results you don’t trust is a waste of time and money.
On the other hand, a number of organizations have found that testing actually can help them grow candidate pools. For example, Marriott looks at applicant test results and identifies those candidates who may not be a good fit with the job for which they applied but who might be a worthy candidate for another position—thereby expanding the candidate pool for the other job with which the applicant is a better fit.
6. We use tests primarily for measuring skills, because that’s how they are best used.
BEST ANSWER: FALSE
The basis of any selection process will be the Success ProfileSM for the target job: the competencies, knowledge, experiences, and personal attributes that the ideal candidate will posses to allow him or her to succeed on the job. Properly designed and administered tests can efficiently capture data about an individual relative to any of these four areas. Of course, tests can’t take the place of important steps such as interviews, but they can provide supporting data that helps create a more complete picture of the candidate.
7. We are able to test for multiple factors (personal attributes, competencies, etc.) with a single test.
BEST ANSWER: TRUE
Just as there are tests that can provide information relative to any area of the Success Profile, certain tests can even provide information relative to multiple areas. This is especially true as the line that separates tests from simulations continues to blur.
Think about hiring customer service representatives for a call center. A simulated call could reveal a great deal about the individual’s customer service skills. But it also could reveal the candidate’s personal attributes—rude vs. empathetic, for instance—and help predict how he or she would perform if hired for the position. This ability to gather more information using fewer tests improves selection process efficiency and potentially shortens the time required to fill positions.
8. We continue to use our “old standby” tests because they are the most valid.
BEST ANSWER: FALSE
You might have a long track record of success using a particular test, but that doesn’t mean that the test is still valid. Jobs change rapidly, which is why it makes sense to regularly review your entire selection process—from your Success Profile, to your interview questions, to the tests you use—to make sure that you are seeking the information you really need to make the best possible hiring or promotion decisions.
9. We administer tests that, above all else, will stand up to legal challenges.
BEST ANSWER: FALSE
It’s a necessity to design and administer tests that will stand up to legal challenges. But remember that while legal defensibility is an important prerequisite, it’s not the lawyers who will ultimately take the tests—candidates will. You need to make sure that the tests are easy to understand, easy to take, and serve to elicit the candidate information you need to make the best possible hiring decisions.
10. We use tests to expand our employment brand.
BEST ANSWER: TRUE
DDI's Selection Forecast 2006-2007 study shows that 73 percent of staffing directors feel that the war for talent has gotten worse since 2005. As job seekers have more options, selling the job and your organization has become more critical.
Within a selection process, a test is another point of contact with a candidate, which means that a test marks an additional opportunity to make a positive impression. Tests, especially those that combine simulations that mirror actual on-the-job activities, can provide candidates with a realistic job preview, which is information that has proved to be appreciated by candidates.
Also, the tests you use and how you administer them can send important signals to candidates about your organization as a place to work. A sophisticated online test, for example, may communicate to candidates that the organization is technologically savvy. An appropriately challenging test may also send the message that the organization seeks to hire only the best, and those who perform acceptably on the test—and are eventually offered the job—may feel that they are being invited to join a prestigious employer that “won’t just hire anyone.”
What Your Test Results Reveal
How did you do on this quiz? A perfect score confirms that your organization understands the importance of testing and is likely using it effectively to help identify the right people for your jobs. On the other hand, even a couple incorrect answers suggest that there are some areas you need to look at more closely and evaluate.
Next Steps
For more information about how excellent testing strategies pay off for a variety of organizations, click here to download a copy of our new report, 2008 Driving Business Results: Delivering Top Talent Through Employment Testing.
About the Author
Evan Sinar, Ph.D., is team leader for Assessment & Selection Analytics at DDI. He develops content and provides implementation guidance for DDI’s employment testing and assessment solutions. Contact him at evan.sinar@ddiworld.com
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