How Can You Use Excel Skills Tests During an Interview?

Microsoft Excel® is the most popular computer application for business, personal, and educational use. Individuals preparing to enter the workforce are told MS Excel^® skills will qualify them for more jobs and careers, even if they do not have a college degree. They are told they can increase their earning potential by approximately 12% if they cultivate their Excel abilities.

In almost every job role, employees are required to compile and manage information. Spreadsheets help them do both and also enable them to organize and present data so team members and stakeholders can easily understand it. Managers use Excel to create financial, sales, and inventory reports to make strategic decisions and set growth goals.

 

Thus, organizations in virtually every industry use basic Excel skills tests for interviews. By reviewing candidates’ assessment results, they can ensure candidates have strong computer and essential data management skills.

 

How Do Organizations Use Excel Skills Tests?

HR leaders use Excel skills tests to measure candidates’ ability to create and manage spreadsheets. An assessment that tests basic Excel abilities typically assesses applicants’ ability to create spreadsheets, format cells, use formulas, perform math calculations, and create reports.

 

An advanced Excel skills test assesses applicants’ ability to set up macros, use pivot tables to find and extract data, use VLOOKUP to locate values and retrieve data from specific rows and columns, create histograms, and apply statistical modeling functions to perform regression analyses.

 

Why Organizations Use Excel Skills Tests

In the past, businesses relied on traditional recruiting tools such as resumes and interviews to hire new employees. They no longer do so because these information sources are likely to be inaccurate. In fact, research shows that 78% of applicants lie on their resumes and during interviews. So, hiring teams use industry-leading assessment solutions like the eSkill Talent Assessment Platform^TM to ensure candidates have the needed Excel experience.

 

These are some ways companies use Excel skills tests during candidate screening and hiring and while onboarding new employees.

 

• Expedite Initial Screening:Organizations receive thousands of responses when they post jobs. Reviewing them manually is inefficient and is not cost-effective. If HR professionals require applicants to complete Excel skills tests, they can instantly see which candidates have the necessary skills and experience and weed out those who are unqualified.

 

• Customize Assessments: Companies have specific needs, and job requirements differ across enterprises. One-size-fits-all Excel skills testsare rarely a good option, so HR leaders use an assessment solution to create custom skills tests, like the eSkill Talent Assessment Platform^TM.  They can use a pre-prepared Excel skills test for an interview as-is or make minor edits, such as adding and deleting questions and designating difficulty levels. They can also build an assessment from scratch by selecting questions from multiple skills tests. For example, if an HR team is hiring data entry operators for a hospital, recruiters could build an assessment using questions from the eSkill Data Entry Operator, Excel Skills, Medical Typing, Medical Terminology, and Typing 10-Key Data Entry assessments.

 

• Simulate Job Environments: A surefire way to verify applicants can do a job is to give them tasks they will be expected to do and see how well they perform. The eSkill Talent Assessment Platform^TMoffers MS Office®, Chat, Multitasking, and Digital Literacy Simulations. So, if you needed to hire a customer service representative with excellent Excel skills and good time management abilities, you could build a test with questions from Customer Service and Excel Skills Tests, add Excel questions from the MS Office simulation, and add a Multitasking simulation.

 

• Expedite Onboarding:Training new employees on the material they have already mastered is counterproductive. It also eats up time the new employees could be spending learning their new jobs. HR teams and hiring managers can expedite the onboarding process by reviewing the results of the basic Excel skills test for interview, completed by new hires during the interview process. Then they can deemphasize training on topics employees already understand and focus on areas where they need help.

 

• Minimize Hiring Mistakes:Hiring mistakes are costly and harm productivity and staff morale. Research shows a bad hire can cost as high as $240,000 when you factor in recruiting expenses, staff disruption, loss of customer confidence, incomplete projects, and potential litigation. An Excel skills test for interviews helps HR teams minimize hiring mistakes because skills test results help them identify qualified candidates and weed out those who do not have the required experience.

 

• Minimize Unconscious Bias:Assessments help organizations minimize unconscious bias. Unconscious or subjective bias occurs when attitudes and stereotypes influence hiring decisions. Using assessments such as basic Excel skills tests during interviews reduces the chance that bias will compromise your hiring process as hiring teams place a lot of weight on candidates’ skills and abilities and deemphasize subjective factors where bias is likely to occur.

 

Get Started with Excel Skills Tests for Interviews

Suppose your organization wants to improve hiring and training outcomes. In that case, assessments like basic Excel skills tests during interviews will provide the measurable data you need to evaluate candidates accurately, efficiently, and fairly.

Do you want to learn how Excel skills test for interviews can help you improve hiring across your enterprise? Contact us to request a demo.