Situational Judgement Tests help the Recruitment Process

Employing staff can be tricky. This is why many companies are now looking at recruitment with situational judgement tests to help the entire process.

Some would say you can never tell whether you will like a job until you are doing it. Yet by then, it is too late for the candidate and the employer if things do not work out as expected. The candidate may be disappointed the job hasn’t turned out to be all they thought it would. The employer, meanwhile, has spent time and money investing in a person who may leave within months, if not sooner.

Clearly, being able to manage candidate expectations ahead of recruitment is vital. If done correctly, it will reduce the chances of the wrong person being selected. It would also reduce the odds of someone seemingly ideal being picked for a role they will never be happy in.

Situational judgement tests help the recruitment process by presenting a realistic outlook of the role

Some applicants will do their homework and learn more about a company before the recruitment process begins. However, there is a limit to what even the most tenacious applicant can learn without being on the inside.

An employer who includes situational judgement testing in the recruitment process gives an applicant a chance to find out more about the company:
What is the company culture like? (i.e. how would the person fit in?)
What are the company values? (i.e. do they align with the applicant’s values?)
What are the company ethics? (i.e. does the applicant agree with those ethics?)

In some instances, an applicant may sit the test and realise the company does not align with their own beliefs and outlook on life. This may lead them to withdraw from the recruitment process to look elsewhere… even though on the outside they may have seemed the ideal person to employ. This would save time and disappointment for both parties.

Many people assume pre-employment tests are there to benefit the employer. They do indeed, as we will discover shortly. Yet we can also see how these tests provide the applicants with a good indication of what their day-to-day experience would be like in that role.

How do situational judgement tests help benefit the employer?
It’s obvious the employer is far more likely to choose the right person for the role if candidates’ expectations are effectively managed with such tests during the recruitment process. However, there are other advantages for anyone looking to employ the right staff.

The cost of finding and hiring an employee can vary depending on the business and the specific role being filled. However, hiring the wrong person is going to result in wasted time and money for the employer. Since a situational judgement test provides far more useful information than can be gained from an interview or application form, it is very cost-effective.

Application forms tend to focus on an applicant’s education, qualifications, and track record in similar roles. However, they cannot touch on other vital areas that are just as (if not more) important than these. Soft skills, intelligence in practical situations, and non-academic behaviours are essential. However, they can be very difficult to highlight without a targeted test to identify them.

It may be possible to whittle 100 applicants down to a dozen who seem to tick all the required boxes. A situational judgement test will make it far easier to identify those who also have the above features and skills that would round out the ideal employee for any role.

Further information can be found at:https://skillsarena.com/situational-judgement-tests/