A few weeks ago I got a call from a CEO friend who was thinking of adding a testing instrument to her company’s hiring process. She wanted me to look at the potential vendor’s website, demo materials, electronic tests, etc. I volunteered to do one better. I told her I’d take one of their tests!

You see, we had worked together years before and she knew my performance both as a salesperson and then as a sales manager. What better way to judge their “performance instrument” than with someone she already knew? I took the test and waited for the results. And when they came back, we were stumped. The recommendation of the testing company was that they not hire me as a salesperson and certainly NEVER EVER be hired as a sales manager! We just scratched our heads. How can this be?

The answer is: I don’t know! In my ten plus years of recruiting I have encountered possibly every scenario of testing success and failure when making a decision to hire a candidate. Consider this:

• Company A does three interviews with a sales candidate. Every interview goes beautifully. They send the candidate out in the field for a day with their top sales rep. Candidate loves job – company loves candidate. References are stellar. Candidate takes math test (their product has a strong financial element) and aces it. Candidate takes sales profile test and the results are “moderately unsuitable” for sales position. The company decides not to make the offer.
  
  
• Company B does two extensive interviews with sales candidate and administers a sales profile test at the end of the second interview. References check out great and they’re ready to move to offer. But wait, sales performance test was not aced! So, hiring manager picks up the phone, spends 45 minutes drilling down on areas of concern identified by the test, and then confirms that they’ll make the hire.
  
  
• Company C does three interviews with a candidate. Each interview goes very well, references get checked (stellar) and test is administered. Testing company calls with results and tells CEO that if he doesn’t hire the salesperson, they will! He’s a star! Salesperson was let go after one year because, as the CEO put it, “he was too high on affiliation – the prospects loved him but he couldn’t ask for the order.”

Yes, it’s all very confusing. But one thing is very clear -- the test should not be the make-or-break factor when making a hiring decision. The test should be taken into account, certainly, but should be only one factor in helping you decide whether to make that offer. The other factors are:

• How well the candidate interviews
  
  
• Their performance or job history
  
  
• Their level of expertise in your industry
  
  
• Their references

What you need to do is WEIGH all of the factors above. Depending on the complexity of your industry, you might weight “level of industry expertise” at 40% with the remaining 60% divided evenly. You get the picture. As one VP of HR told me, she only counts the test for about 20% of the hiring decision. And, in line with the other factors, that’s about right.

Here’s a tip. If you’re using a testing instrument – give your test early in the process. That way, if there are issues that are identified on the test, you can address those during your interview process.

So, if you are testing, by all means continue. And, if you don’t test, you might want to check some testing instruments out – there are lots of excellent ones to choose from. But, as you may have surmised by now, in my opinion testing has been given too much emphasis and managers are letting the test get in the way of their common sense. Do you agree? Click here to tell us!

P. S. – Do I have to tell you – I think Company A did the wrong thing. I think Company B handled it beautifully and Company C handled it the only way they could. Hey, nothing’s perfect!