I’ve been in human resources (HR) for more than 25 years but am now working as an executive handling operations in a major organization. I asked our HR department head about our hiring practices. What’s the trend? Do organizations still conduct ability or aptitude tests for applicants? If not, why not? — Old Dog.
Every day, many organizations bombard print and social media with hundreds or thousands of job vacancies. In the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, they boast of their one-day hiring system that eclipses the traditional way of hiring. As long as applicants can confidently express themselves in English, they are hired right away.
BPO employers don’t bother if applicants have experience, the right education, or issues with their previous employers as long as they can do the job. One-day hiring has become almost a fad for them, but it is necessary to retain major clients. The truth is, the BPO industry is an exception rather than the rule.
What’s the trend of best practices outside BPOs? I talked to some active practitioners in HR who told me that the one-day hiring is unwise. It does not apply to other industries that are thinking of the conventional approach as the right step to hire, motivate, and maintain the right people in the long term.
Employers who rely on testing prefer ability tests, aptitude tests, and personality tests, among others. However, employers must be cautious in conducting these tests. They are just one of the tools in the selection process. Therefore, test results should not be the sole basis for choosing the top candidates.
TYPES OF TEST
If you’re bent on conducting tests, you must limit it only to the top three candidates on the shortlist as the results need the interpretation by qualified psychometricians and psychologists. This would also help you determine the ranking of the three. In other words, don’t require testing from all job applicants as it would be expensive and time-consuming, either way for both in-house and external psychometricians.
Don’t copy test questionnaires. There is a risk of infringing on the copyrights of institutions like the Philippine Psychological Corp. and the Philippine Psychological Association. Even if you copy the questionnaires, you’ll still need the services of experts to interpret the results.
Also, avoid conducting online tests, even if they’re free, as they are overly generic and may not be culturally specific to the Philippines or other cultures.
Having provided you with these cautions, let’s move on to the types of test appropriate for job applicants.
Generally, there are four types to determine the candidates’ ability to do the job. They focus on ability, aptitude, performance, personality, and honesty or integrity:
Ability test. This assessment tool measures a variety of areas ranging from verbal reasoning, numerical ability, problem-solving, motor or spatial agility, mechanical ability, or finger dexterity such as typing in a computer or assembling a product. Some examples include IQ, Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning, and Abstract Reasoning tests.
Aptitude test. This defines the applicants’ aptitude or their inclination to hard work, among other desirable traits, capacity for learning, such as a new language, and their general suitability for the job. It is a standardized test to determine if a person is likely able to develop the skills required for a specific kind of work.
Performance test. This covers a broad range of engineering or functional evaluations. For example, when you test an applicant for the job of clerk, you validate their typing and letter-composing skills.
Personality test. This type of test aims to describe the aspects of an applicant’s character that remain stable throughout that person’s lifetime, patterns of behavior, inner thoughts, and feelings, similar to what a Rorschach test could reveal. This test answers the following questions: How does this person compare to others? How was this person’s personality developed? What is his relationship style?
Honesty or Integrity test. This test is job-specific, tailored for those handling fiduciary tasks like bank tellers or supermarket cashiers. However, this poses a legal and ethical issue as it could be considered an invasion of privacy or may violate the constitutional right against self-incrimination.
INTERVIEW
By and large, the job interview should be the cornerstone of the hiring process, regardless of the job you’re trying to fill. This requires, however, the expertise of hiring managers and the requisitioning department head to ask questions about actual and recurring situations that are happening in the workplace.
There should be no more trite “strengths and weaknesses” questions, with answers that can be found on the internet. This and other stale questions have been memorized by job applicants. In short, don’t rely on those questions. HR must develop a training program that should help interviewers objectively choose the best person for the job.
Without the proper training, no amount of work experience can help you. Experience is good but if you’re doing it badly, you’re only perpetuating a bad practice. Preparation is key to a successful job interview.
Bring Rey Elbo’s Superior Subordinate Supervision program to your management team. Contact him on Facebook, LinkedIn, X, or e-mail elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.com
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