While everyone claims to have some knowledge of Excel on their resume, you’ll find a completely different situation when it comes to day to day work. All of a sudden, you’ll have just a few experts scattered throughout your departments with far fewer people knowing it than you thought. If you consider adding Excel skills tests to your hiring process, you will be able to identify those candidates who have embellished their level of proficiency.
Here are three reasons you should think about adding an Excel skills test for your hiring process.
1. Resumes Avoid Weaknesses
When you’re looking at the resume that a candidate sends you, it’s going to avoid all the weaknesses that go unmentioned. You’ll be looking at someone who seems perfect because they’ve laid everything out on paper. However, as someone who has surely applied for a job before, you know that a resume is a selling document designed to obtain an interview.
While the majority of candidates tend to state that they “know” Microsoft Excel, that knowledge can vary wildly. You could list off a bunch of things during the interview that the candidate could answer in theory or have a basic understanding of, but lacks knowledge of how that work is done in detail.
Your candidate might say they’re familiar with software that their day to day job is hinged on, but that doesn’t mean they’re an expert or necessarily competent. Many of us have had familiarity with things that other people have devoted months or years mastering and understanding fully. It’s important to know how deep your candidate’s knowledge of the software is, which is where a skills test comes in.
2. Enhance Training
The cost of labour is more than just the price of paying someone to work week after week. It costs thousands of dollars to recruit, hire, and then to onboard a new employee. Training that is productive and targeted is more useful than a one size fits all approach.
RightPeople’s Excel skills tests look at what your employee is bringing to you from day one. They’ll show you how much they know and what they still have to learn. You’ll get a lot out of your skills test at the end of the day. this includes a breakdown of their knowledge across subjects, topics and also by specific questions. Training can be targeted around gaps in their knowledge.
Understanding a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses helps match candidates more appropriately into teams with various skill levels.
3. Excel Skills Tests Save Time and Money
When you add Microsoft Excel skills tests to your hiring process, you’ll get a lot of information up front, during the hiring process. You’ll identify candidates who can hit the ground running and avoid those candidates who are likely to distract current job incumbents with unnecessary questions about using Microsoft Excel.
If you want to test the most critical skills your clients have, check out our guide to the most important skills to seek before you hire.
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