In this Digital era, every prospering company needs employees with good technical skills because these days neither do we spend long hours recording simple transactions, nor do we visit libraries for every single piece of information right? That’s why, while reviewing resumes, recruiters will surely find most candidates with few relevant technical skills. But the question remains how many candidates can put their skills to practical use?
So after sorting out all the submitted resumes, recruiters should make the potential candidates go through a technical skills assessment test before interviewing them. Now read below to get familiar with all the aspects of a technical skills test.
What are technical skills?
Technical skills are hard skills that are generally associated with a computer. Most technically skilled persons use some sort of software to work with. They call them tools. All technical skills are acquired through years of study and practice. Nowadays online learning sites such as Coursera and udemy offer courses on all types of trending technical skills.
According to Coursera a few of the technical skills are as follows:
- UI/UX design
- Financial management
- Bookkeeping
- Computer programming languages
- Writing
Why are technical skills important?
Let’s face it, having an employee with only basic technical skills is similar to having an inexperienced employee in today’s market. Almost every employee working at a corporate or non-corporate job needs to be good with technical skills because of the following 3 reasons.
Time management :
Employee’s having technical skills will reduce the time taken to complete a certain task. Which will result in shorter work hours and keep the employees healthy and happy.
Overall growth:
Completing more tasks within a short amount of time will make the company boost its efficiency points and stand out as a prominent figure among its other competitors.
Customer satisfaction:
With the help of technical skills, it is easier than ever to connect with customers and resolve their queries. Keeping in touch with the customer delivers a positive attitude which establishes the trust between the company and the customer.
What does a technically skilled employee do?
A technically skilled person can be from many backgrounds such as accounts, designing, marketing, software development, data analysis, and others. They work in different sectors depending on their working experience.
Frontend developers and full stack developers tend to show on their resumes that they are proficient in at least one of the popular programming languages and to test their abilities they can be given coding challenges or asked how they would tackle a certain software problem. These developers normally use technical skills to operate and modify website designs and functions and other features.
Data analysts or data entry clerks work in excel and keep records of people and their work with the help of their pre-existing technical knowledge. Later accountants or other financial consultants may take a look at these carefully prepared records to audit the books company.
Marketing executives are also technically skilled. They prepare marketing campaigns and promote their brand image through different tactics using email marketing, Facebook ads, Instagram marketing, or Pinterest marketing. According to Hubspot, 82% of marketers repurpose content across social media channels.
Even designers need to have technical skills to make creative and witty product designs, company logos, animations, and other projects. Most of them at least need to be experienced with photo editing and manipulating software. Although, if someone is unable to represent their technical skills through the use of practical experience then recruiters are advised to move forward without that candidate.
What is the process of hiring a technically skilled person?
Up until now, we have known everything about technical skills and who should have this. Now we will see how a technically skilled person should get hired.
Follow demand and ask for supply:
Recruiters need to communicate with different Sectors to understand where a new employee is needed. This is the part where demand arises within the workplace and to supply this demand recruiters need to advertise for an open job position, which will attract candidates to apply.
Sort out candidates:
Now after collecting enough resumes for an open job title, recruiters need to sort out only the best ones (depending on their previous work experience, relevant technical skills, education qualifications, and others). This whole process should be done with an unbiased mindset.
Technical skills assessment test:
This is the part where candidates need to take a mandatory technical skills assessment test to prove their pre-existing knowledge of it. These tests could be of many types such as the “whiteboard problem-solving test” where the applicant will have to instantly come up with a solution and write it on a whiteboard and present it to the recruiter. Candidates can also be grouped and given a problem to solve together. This shows their communication skills as well their skills to work as a group.
Interview
Finally, we’ve come to the last step of recruiting. Now the recruiter has to call for those who made it past the assessment test and schedule an interview. And voila after the interview, do a final sort out to get the most efficient employee.
Conclusion
In conclusion, setting up assessment tests for candidates claiming to have technical skills is always a good idea. As you’ll get a glimpse of what they are capable of beforehand. So that later these employees don’t need schooling on basic operations.