Pre-employment testing can have a big positive impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of your hiring process. But like any aspect of the screening and hiring process, there are right and wrong ways to use testing. One of the most important characteristics of a good testing process is standardization, or in other words, that you administer assessments to your applicants in a standardized way. For any given job, this usually involves giving your applicants the same types of tests and also administering them at the same part of the process. There are several reasons why it’s crucial that your testing strategy be consistent.
Lower Risk
For one thing, an important part of a legally compliant hiring process involves ensuring that each candidate is held to the same standard for a given position. In this way, a standardized testing process can help protect your business from potential litigation. For instance, if you give different candidates different assessments at different times, you aren’t treating your applicants fairly, and certain applicants could be put at a disadvantage. You can reduce the risk of a biased hiring process by building a consistent, repeatable testing strategy where every applicant for a particular job is given the same chance to succeed.
Better Candidates
Reducing bias in your testing process also means you’re more likely to hire the best person for the job. It’s obviously not ideal for your applicants if the hiring criteria varies between them. However, it’s also not fair to you. One of the greatest benefits of pre-employment testing is that it provides you with objective information on your candidates. But that data loses objectivity if it isn’t applied to every candidate equally. It’s much easier to make an accurate judgement of a candidate when you compare apples to apples. Standardization helps you assess your applicants more fairly if you can ensure that they have all undergone the same process and tests, which ultimately helps you make a more informed decision that is more predictive of job performance in the long run.
Clearer Organization
A uniform testing strategy also keeps your entire hiring process more organized. A smooth and systematized procedure is more efficient and comfortable from both an employer and candidate standpoint. It’s hard to efficiently compare results or know how far along candidates are in the screening process if every candidate isn’t taking the same tests at the same part of the process. If you have a structured testing procedure, it contributes to an overall more organized (and more efficient) process.
Stronger Talent Pipeline
Standardizing your testing process for each position also makes it much easier to build a talent pipeline. If you lay down a standard for how and when testing should be done within your already established process, you aren’t scrambling to build out a testing strategy every time you have an empty seat. This can be particularly useful when hiring for those evergreen, “always open” positions. You can move candidates through the process, take note of their results, and build a talent pipeline over time as you hire if your process is standardized.
