Pre-Employment Tests
For Retail

One of the biggest challenges facing the retail industry is high employee turnover. Pre-employment testing helps retailers identify and hire applicants who have the aptitude to excel in the role as well as the personality fit to remain in the role long term.

The Statistics

  • The retail industry has an average employee turnover rate of 59%
  • Over 15.8 million people are employed in the retail industry in the United States

Why Use Pre-Employment Testing

Retailers use Criteria's employment tests to help reduce turnover and increase their hiring success rates. By highlighting candidates who have the learning ability to take to the training and the personality to be comfortable in the role, testing can help reduce turnover and increase productivity. Whether hiring store managers, clerks, or sales associates, your retail business can benefit from using our tests.

What Tests to Use

Many retailers use the Criteria Basic Skills Test (CBST) to measure attention-to-detail, basic literacy and numeracy, and trainability. Those who score well on the CBST are more likely to make it through training, and less likely to leave once they do.

Retailers also often use our personality tests — specifically the Customer Service Aptitude Profile (CSAP) or the Sales Achievement Predictor (SalesAP) — to screen sales associates to determine who has the right mix of customer service and sales-oriented traits.

To help control shrinkage and employee theft, some retailers also use the Workplace Productivity Profile (WPP), an integrity test designed to identify reliable, trustworthy employees who are less likely to engage in counterproductive work behaviors, including theft.

For management and supervisory positions, the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT) is recommended. The CCAT is an aptitude test that is often used for upper level positions to assess problem solving and critical thinking abilities. The Employee Personality Profile (EPP) is a general personality inventory that many retailers also administer for managerial roles. The EPP measures a candidate's personality and compares it with traits that have been correlated with success in managerial roles.

Why Criteria

  • State-of-the-art, cloud-based assessment platform
  • Access to all of our assessments 
  • Tests backed by science and validated for employment
  • Flat-fee pricing model

If you're an employer interested in previewing these tests, start a 14-day free trial or book a consultation to learn more.

Case Study

How Criteria Helps Retailers:

  • Increase sales: Sales associates who passed the CBST averaged 20% more in hourly sales than those sales associates who failed the test. Read the full case study.
  • Reduce disciplinary problems: Another retailer used the WPP integrity test to hire more trustworthy and reliable employees. Read the full case study.