Читать книгу How to Win at Aptitude Tests Vol II - Iain Maitland, Iain Maitland - Страница 7

Tests offer several benefits both to the firm incorporating them within their procedures, and to the candidates who sit them. Primarily, they act as an aid when making the selection decision. The recruitment process in most companies normally comprises a similar sequence of steps – application forms are sent out, completed, returned and appraised; interviews are conducted between candidates and a personnel manager (or whoever is responsible for filling the particular job); and referees’ names and details are given, and references taken up before the final decision is made. Tests simply produce additional, and perhaps different, information to be taken into account – and the more information that is available, the better the final decision is likely to be.

Aptitude tests are also objective. The results are compared with ‘averages’ based on the performances of hundreds, or even thousands, of other people who have completed them in the past. Too often, application forms are screened, interviews are conducted and references are read subjectively, with information being interpreted according to personal opinion, and even likes and dislikes. Clearly, a reasoned, scientific approach to selecting people for jobs should generate more accurate and reliable results.

Tests can also provide a fuller, more comprehensive picture of candidates. General intelligence and certain specific abilities, such as being able to see three-dimensional objects from scale drawings, are hard to evaluate by application form, interview or reference alone. Similarly, tests can sometimes confirm the presence (or absence) of other abilities, such as spelling. After all, application forms may have been written with assistance, ‘best’ rather than realistic behaviour is seen at interviews and references might have been couched in vague rather than clear and concise language. With tests, hard, factual evidence is produced.

For businesses, testing helps to reduce the likelihood of the wrong person being chosen for a job, and all of the problems which that entails – inadequate workrate and performance, ill feeling amongst employees and, ultimately, dismissal, followed by re-recruitment. The costs of these – in terms of time, effort and money – are potentially enormous. For candidates, testing indicates that the firm takes recruitment very seriously indeed, and offers everyone an equal chance to succeed, with the possibility of someone being picked simply because they are a smooth-talking interviewee, for example, being much reduced, or even eliminated.