TESTS IN DETERMINING APPLICANTS’ CAPABILITIES

As companies are living in a competitive world of industry, having the best employees
working for them is a must; these employees that will help their company to strive harder, to
increase its productivity, to improve business ideas, and to build strong relationships and
communication among others. By having such, best impacts in the company will be generated.

On the other hand, trying and maintaining to have best employees are difficult tasks for the
companies or institutions. Some applicants lack skills in accordance to their desired jobs, having
not enough knowledge, and professionalism in dealing with their works. For a big help, various
tests were released and used by different companies to determine their applicants’ capabilities.

One of these is the Pre – Employment

Tests. As stated, these tests are conducted
before hiring the suitable employees for the
company. It is a centralized method of
acquiring information about the applicants
during the hiring process. Through these tests,
employers will have background information
that are relevant in determining the abilities of
applicants. Also, pre – employment testing gives details if you can perform tasks efficiently and
effectively in the designated workplace.

The different tests under pre – employment are Aptitude, Personality, Skills Assessment,
Physical Ability, Job Knowledge, Emotional Intelligence, and Integrity Tests. These kinds of
tests are being used by the different companies for them to accelerate the hiring process. These
will be a big help for them to lessen the number of applicants and to easily choose those who are
suitable for the job applied. Pre – employment tests help to improve the interviews that will be
conducted. With the use of the tests results, the questions will be more focused on applicants’
background information and personal traits. Since the employers will know the skills and
capabilities of them, pre – employment will also become a big help for the company to reduce the
instances of bad hires. Those applicants that are not suitable for the job will be removed from the
list and focus on those appropriate ones.

The first one is APTITUDE TEST. This test

measures the applicants’ critical thinking, problem –
solving skills, logical reasoning, decision - making and
their ability to know, learn, and apply new information
in dealing with their works and tasks. In other words,
aptitude test focus on assessing one’s general
intelligence that will be used on dealing with problems
and developing solutions.

Through aptitude test, employers will determine

how quickly the applicants can acquire knowledge on
the job and the ability to solve problems in difficult situations. The main purpose of this test is to
predict how applicants will think as employees of the company when different circumstances and
hindrances come.

Employers use a
PERSONALITY TEST
in hiring applicants to
find and choose the
candidates that has
personal or behavioral
traits suited for the job.
Also, this test seeks to
answer the questions “Will the applicant be comfortable in the job?” and “Does the applicant have
the personal traits that can help him/her to achieve success in the job?” Through this personality
test, the employers will know what type of person is the applicants.

Aside from finding out the applicant’s personalities, the test also determines job fit. It is
very important for the companies to have suitable employees with right personality traits. Because
employees have suitable personalities, they tend to be productive as they can adapt and be
comfortable to the environment of the workplace which results to a goo performance. If the
opposite happens, having employees with unsuitable traits, the success in the job and satisfaction
will not be met.

There are some commonly used personality tests. These are Myers – Briggs Type Indicator
(MBTI), Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and
Conscientiousness (DiSC), and Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) which are all
useful for the hiring process.

SKILL ASSESSMENT
TEST determines your hard and soft
skills. This test is designed to assess
whether individuals have the skills
needed to perform different and
essential aspects of a job. It is very
important for the company to have an
applicant whose skills are aligned
with the applied position. In dealing
with this, skills play an essential role
in performing the tasks that will be given to employees. If the employee has suitable skills, he/she
will probably finish the work which impacts the company in terms of productivity and high
performance.

Skills Assessment helps employers to eliminate applicants who are underqualified for a
position, even though they have good resumes. This test also helps to verify applicants’ claims and
identify applicants who may be better suited for a different
position.

PHYSICAL ABILITY TEST determines

applicant’s strengths and stamina. This test also helps
employers to know if the applicants are capable of doing
tasks that require physical work or manual work. By doing
such, the company will lessen the accidents that might happen in the workplace when they find
the qualified one.

This will also help in determining those incapable ones to be removed from the list and
prioritize those physically capable of doing the tasks.

A JOB
KNOWLEDGE TEST,
sometimes referred as the
Mastery or Achievement
Test, is an assessment
used to determine an
applicant’s knowledge
regarding the different
aspects of the specific job he/she is applying for. Job Knowledge Test evaluates what a person
knows at the specific time of taking the such test. This kind of test will assess the person's factual
knowledge about the role. Applicants must have the expertise and specialties from the different
experiences for them to acquire knowledge that will be useful for their next jobs.

Job Knowledge Test may be used by the companies to confirm an applicant’s fitness for a
particular job. This means that if the
applicants have the knowledge about
the job, they will be probably hired as
having knowledge makes them finish a
task and understand the work processes.

Emotional Intelligence is a type

of social competence involving the
ability to monitor one's own and others'
emotions, to discriminate among them,
and to use the information to guide one's
thinking and actions.
 EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE TEST focuses on the self – management and self –
development of the applicants. This test will help the employers to determine the important
information about the level of emotional intelligence of the applicants. Through this, the company
or employer will have the chance to monitor different emotions being demonstrated by their
applicants and choose among those the most suitable and helpful for the company. Having this
kind of test also helps the employers to determine how the applicants will use their emotions to
communicate with others and build strong relationships with co – workers.

INTEGRITY TEST is one

of the most objective tests under
the Pre – Employment Testing.
An Integrity Test is designed to
assess an applicant's tendency to be
honest, trustworthy, and
dependable. This kind of test helps
the employers to measure the
reliability of the applicants. Also,
this test will reveal the applicants’
degree of integrity and ethical
guidance when they tend to encounter different situations in the workplace. By doing such, it will
help the employers to determine if the applicants are suitable with company’s cultures which
results to performing well.

Some of the questions included in the Integrity test are:

• How would you act if a manager or a coworker gave you a task that violates company
policy?
• Is it ethical to publish work samples onto your website?
• Have you lied to your manager in a previous role?
• If a client asks you to do something illegal, do you do it?

A lack of integrity is associated with such counterproductive behaviors as theft, violence,

sabotage, disciplinary problems, and absenteeism. Having no integrity, the employers will not let
the applicants let in their company as they are not trustworthy which may result to conflicts in the
company.
 References

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/types-of-pre-employment-
testing#:~:text=Pre%2Demployment%20testing%20is%20a,before%20they%20can%20intervie
w%20you.

https://www.criteriacorp.com/resources/definitive-guide-validity-of-preemployment-tests/what-
are-pre-employment-tests

https://www.berkeassessment.com/solutions/aptitudetesting#:~:text=Aptitude%20tests%20are%
20a%20type,to%20every%20type%20of%20job.

https://www.topresume.com/career-advice/how-to-pass-the-pre-employment-personality-test

https://www.bryq.com/blog/personality-test-for-employment/

https://www.betterteam.com/skills-assessment-tests

https://www.workplacetesting.com/definition/4407/job-knowledge-
test#:~:text=A%20job%20knowledge%20test%20is,his%20or%20her%20procedural%20knowle
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