Pre-employment Screening: The Advantages and Limitations
Assessing the background of applicants for a post has become mandatory before hiring that applicant. This screening process is conducted to check whether the candidate, applied for the post possesses the required qualities or not. Hence lots of companies in recent days are opting for pre-employment Screening before hiring an employee.
Normally two
types of testing processes are conducted before hiring an employee. The first
one is a personality test, and the second one is a skill test. In the
personality tests, the strong interpersonal skills of the applicant are
checked. Hence this test is also known as strength finders. This test will
evaluate whether the candidate is appropriate for the post or not and can
accommodate with the company culture or not. Again, in certain areas, the
interpersonal skill of the candidate is given more importance than technical
skills. The skill test is mainly conducted to check whether the candidate is
appropriate for sales or service-oriented jobs. One important section of
screening is criminal background checking too. Professional skills and
experience are not just enough these days, and the background of a candidate
matters also. So many employers prefer to include a criminal check with pre-employment Screening.
Advantages of pre-employment testing
Pre-employment Screening is mainly conducted by the hiring manager of a company to check whether the person is fit for the company or not. Rather than job-oriented testing, the company judges the candidate based on subjective aspects. This testing is more standardized than that of other job oriented interviews. This test varies between the candidates depending on the interpersonal reactions.
So, here the hiring manager will feel free to appoint only eligible candidates. With the help of this testing process, it is possible to identify suitable candidates for the post.
Limitations
We all will agree that this pre-employment testing is ideal for every company. But this testing hardly can depict the knowledge, motivation, and abilities of the candidates. Nowhere it is possible to understand the learning ability of the candidate. This testing is not capable or ideal to check how much interested the candidates are to learn new things.
There is another limitation to this test. It has the potential to break the law of anti-discrimination. This test can cause discrimination. It has been noticed that Pre-employment Screening mainly focuses on cognitive ability and personality. Hence there is a chance that the law of anti-discrimination will get neglected.
What if candidates feel that the company is looking for a specific type of personality as an employee? Well, there is a massive chance that they will answer fake. If the hiring authority cannot judge those fake answers, then the problem can arise in the company in the future.
So, here it is suggested that such testing should never be the deciding factor to hire an employee. You need to add or mix and match other tests to identify the right candidate for your organization. Seeking the assistance of the reputed firms in India having expertise in Pre-employment screening will be of great help to you.
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