Posted by EmployTest - on Tue, Jun 01, 2010 @ 08:33 AM
Some of our comrades in the employment testing industry have decided to have their cake and eat it too. They decided that it makes good business sense to allow individuals to purchase their tests, on their own, to prepare (or practice) before they go on a job interview.
Well, allow us to politely disagree. We do not, will not, allow individuals that are seeking jobs to purchase tests from us. And believe me, we get plenty of requests to do just that. Past research has shown that many of our website visitors are in fact not hiring managers. Instead they are job seekers looking to learn more about how our testing works in order to "ace" the pre-employment tests.
And we certainly wish those folks well. We too want them to succeed on the tests but we do not provide them with test samples nor do we offer to sell them "practice" tests. And these tests are often not really practice tests--they can be the same exact pre-employment tests that are being used by hiring managers to measure job skills and knowledge.
For example, if you're selling them the practice Excel test in the morning, and then that afternoon they take an Excel test administered by the interviewer, it's highly likely that they will perform better because of these practice tests.
We value the money our clients have invested in our testing system and don't want to minimize that by selling practice tests to individuals. Is it unethical? Well, we wouldn't go that far but definitely questionable. When you use our employment tests, you'll have the confidence that your applicant wasn't practicing on the same test 30 minutes ago.
Posted by EmployTest - on Tue, Sep 22, 2009 @ 10:02 AM
According to HR Recruiting Alert, job candidates are strategically "crafting" their resumes to cover up any weak areas in their job history and references (related article). Is that a surprise? Certainly not. Since the dawn of our careers, we've all "spun" our resumes and job experiences to put us in best possible light.
What's unnerving about this information is the deliberate lack of honesty that seems to be driving these people. The top 3 areas that are lied about are...
-Employment Gaps
-Fake references
-Phony responsibilities
There's even a website selling information on how to lie on your resume (fakeresume.com). Disgusting, yes (although admirably entreprenurial).
None of us are naive enough to think that all information on a resume is 100% accurate. But we also want to believe that our candidates are not blatantly lying about their history.
The solution to this problem requires a dedicated investigative approach to your selection process. And pre-employment testing would likely assist you in these efforts. If a job requires Excel skills, then give the applicants an Excel test. If a job requires excellent customer service skills, then administer a customer service skills test. Taking a resume (and an interview) at face value will not do justice you or your company.
Posted by EmployTest - on Wed, Aug 05, 2009 @ 02:05 PM
As mentioned before on this blog, our interactive Excel test is one of the main reasons that companies use our test system. Perhaps you're using them yourself. If not, we hope that you are using some other company's testing tools to better screen your applicants.
Our Excel test will help screen applicants with little or no knowledge of Excel. Yet Excel is a complex program and even if your new hire performs well on an Excel test, there still might be times when he/she (or you) are faced with an Excel issue that it not easily answered. Not a technical issue with Excel but instead a problem that they are trying to solve with Excel but just can't get it work right.
The website Mr.Excel.com can help. Beyond Excel related tips and training products, they have a forum where you can post your Excel question or challenge and forum experts will post responses. This can be much more effective than slugging your way through the Excel Help utility in the program.
Posted by EmployTest - on Tue, May 12, 2009 @ 09:45 AM
Need an Excel test? You are not alone....The most frequent reason people find our website is because they are searching for our Microsoft Excel skills testing. Usually it's to be used pre-employment testing but it can also be used for pre-training assessments.
Visitors want to know what topics are covered in this Excel test (of course, they can always sample it here). The 35 questions in the Standard Excel test cover these skill levels in roughly equal proportion: Beginner, Intermediate, & Advanced. Here are a few topics that are included:
-Formatting (Borders, Alignment, AutoFit)
-Editing (Undo, Copy, Cut, Paste)
-File Management (Save, New Template)
-Tools & Automation (Zoom, Range Name, Protect)
-Analysis (Charts, Functions, AutoFilter, Sort)
Some of these questions might be easy to anyone familiar with a Microsoft Office program. Yet as the questions progress into Intermediate and Advanced skill levels, you understand why this Excel test is our most frequently used employment test. Do those questions sound too easy for your situation We also have an Advanced version, which is finely tuned for just those Power Users. Want to see it in action or learn more? We're proud to show it off as it is the most realistic Excel skills test on the market.
Posted by EmployTest - on Wed, Apr 22, 2009 @ 01:53 PM
Microsoft Excel, the most collectively frustrating software program in the world. Millions are challenged by it daily. Not to say that there aren't more difficult programs to learn. Because there certainly are. But Microsoft Excel is the program, across the globe, that confounds the greatest majority. And because it's so critical to office staff, it's the one program about which applicants will most often misrepresent their skills.
Why is that? Maybe because job applicants think they can get away with such deception. They often can because the Hiring Manager often does not have the proper Excel skills on their own to distinguish Excel mastery from overstated skills. And they shouldn't have necessarily have those skills, unless it's part of their job. Not when there are Microsoft Excel tests that help determine precisely what the applicant knows.
Searching for Excel tests is the number one reason (by far) people find our website and sign up for our employment testing program. Just shows how hard it is to determine those skills by simply asking questions. You are not alone, my friend. Others that are hiring are in the same boat as you. It's virtually impossible for an interviewer to determine, just by verbally questioning them, what an applicant knows about Excel. It can't consistently be done.
Which leads us to the question: How would you, as the Human Resource Professional/Vice President/Business Owner, score on an Excel test?
The answer is....it doesn't really matter. Your job may or may not require those skills. So you may not need to know it at all. And you will be smart enough to use a Microsoft Excel test that will independently assess each applicant's skills, without you having to "dance" with the applicant to figure out what they know.