The dos and don’ts of skills-based hiring

This week we’ve used data from The State of Skills-Based Hiring ?and best practices suggested by one of our very own account managers to bring you the dos and don’ts for doing skills-based hiring with a tool like TestGorilla.

? Do:

1??- Start small, but aim to scale

Don’t apply too much pressure on yourself by revamping your entire hiring process in a short period of time.?

Your priority should be to build confidence in using skills-based hiring – selecting the tests, inviting candidates to take an assessment, and understanding how to analyze the results.

Build confidence in skills-based hiring, commit to figuring out how to do it well, educate your hiring managers, and gather feedback before you scale it org-wide.

?? Read our guide to using skills-based hiring at scale here.

2??- Test for multiple measures

There’s a consensus amongst assessment scientists that testing for multiple job-relevant measures – cognitive ability, soft skills, and job-relevant technical skills, for example, rather than for job-relevant technical skills alone – is the best way to predict job success.?

Our research shows that only 40% of employers are using multi-measure testing in their hiring processes, and 92% of them are satisfied with their hires. A higher percentage of them also see improvements in retention and diversity and a reduction in mis-hires, cost-to-hire, and time-to-hire.

3??- Test your skills-based hiring process internally

If you’re an HR professional, you’re most commonly doing recruiting for departments that are not your own. Your first priority should then be instilling confidence in skills-based hiring by familiarizing your colleagues with how the process works.?

When it comes to testing internally, we recommend you either:?

1. Test for roles that already exist in your department to verify that the test content meets your requirements, or;?
2. Create an assessment with personality tests so that your colleagues feel comfortable taking it and aren’t nervous about the results so that they can focus on understanding the system they will be sending their candidates through.?

Don’t make the assessment too long when you’re testing. If you’re using TestGorilla, you can even tell your colleagues to just click random responses (don’t worry, TestGorilla won’t take their attempts into account when calculating result percentiles).

The goal is to get a feel for what the process will be like for their candidates, so they can keep that in mind when considering the timing, the content, and the results.

? Don’t:

1??- Skip the job analysis

Ask any organizational psychologist what the number one rule of hiring is and they’ll tell you: “job analysis, job analysis, job analysis”. Conducting a job analysis of the role you’re hiring for is key to ensuring your skills-based assessment is actually going to predict job success.?

If you don’t have a detailed understanding of the job’s tasks, responsibilities, work environment, and performance standards, as well as its required skills, knowledge, and training, then you’re chances of attracting and identifying the right candidate weaken.?

2??- Create a single point of failure

We know from experience that our customers who are most enthusiastic about skills-based hiring are the ones who are the experts on it and hold a lot of knowledge. The downside is that when they go on vacation, sick leave, or move positions or companies, skills-based hiring usage dies down and all their progress gets reversed.?

By positioning one person as the only authority on a skills-based hiring tool, you are creating a single point of failure.

This can be mitigated by involving at least 2 or 3 people in an equivalent capacity and ensuring that all of them have the same level of knowledge and responsibility.

If you’re onboarding a skills-based hiring tool like TestGorilla, agree on a smaller “committee” to go through the onboarding process together. Keep involving the team equally in decisions regarding usage, ideas for scaling, and improving candidate experience .

3??- Analyze assessment results like a school test

Academic scoring, much like CVs , has a comfortable place in society. However, that place should be in schools rather than the modern workplace. ??

Breaking away from only seeing close-to-perfect scores as acceptable will bring you closer to finding your next best hire.

TestGorilla presents scores in raw percentages and percentiles, with percentiles being a much better measure, scientifically. A raw percentage score is hard to interpret out of context, but if you know that a candidate ranks in the 50th percentile, then you know their score is average.?

Average doesn’t mean bad, it means performing in line with most people’s abilities, a perfectly good level of knowledge, and most likely exactly what you need.

There could be many reasons why someone could have a lower score than anticipated (even if they have a lot of experience), so you shouldn’t discard scores below a threshold like you might in a school test. Instead, decide how many candidates you are willing and able to move to the interview round and either:?

1. Hand-pick them out of all applicants (suggested for assessments with under 100 candidates), or;?
2. Decide on a top percentage (suggested for assessments with over 100 candidates), for example, the top 20% of the total completed assessments.

?? Do: Read The State of Skills-Based Hiring

We have one extra ‘do’ for you this week – go and read The State of Skills-Based Hiring!

We’re working hard to change the skills-based hiring conversation and get people talking about how to do it best.

Read the report here , or comment below if there’s anything you’d add to the list of dos and don’ts for skills-based hiring.