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Aptitude / Cognitive / Communication skill testing for new employees
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Aptitude / Cognitive / Communication skill testing for new employees

leapswitchleapswitch Patron Provider, Veteran

Hello,

We are looking to hire 10+ techs in the next 1-2 months. We are looking for an online assessment tool to shortlist candidates. We are essentially looking for something like this - https://mettl.com/corporate/pre-built-tests/jobroles/customersupport?lang=1 .

However, Mettl doesn't list their pricing method or rates on the website and it just shows a $350 fee for picking any test from their library. No idea whether it is per candidate or for any number of candidates per test.

Looking for an alternative to this company or any alternate method that providers here use while hiring new techs.

Ishan

Comments

  • AlexBarakovAlexBarakov Patron Provider, Veteran

    Handpicking the candidates would be the only way to hire the best once. I would never trust an online tool to remove or recommend some of the candidates for a job position.

    Thanked by 1impossiblystupid
  • leapswitchleapswitch Patron Provider, Veteran

    @AlexBarakov said:
    Handpicking the candidates would be the only way to hire the best once. I would never trust an online tool to remove or recommend some of the candidates for a job position.

    You cannot possibly go through 500 candidates one by one and be able to judge their aptitude / communication / cognitive skills. A test helps you set a benchmark or compare candidates. For Level 1 support communication skills are important, for higher levels aptitude/logical reasoning are important.

  • JacobJacob Member

    @leapswitch take a look at Prove it if you're looking at online assessments, just bear in mind that some people will cheat.

    Thanked by 1leapswitch
  • Why not build your own set of tests?

    Thanked by 2Font ricardo
  • AlexanderMAlexanderM Member, Top Host, Host Rep

    At my old place we had a PDF, basically it was a flow chart about a network with failover stuff, you had to work out if X failed then how many users would be effected, you would be surprised how many people failed this

    Thanked by 1Caster
  • WebProjectWebProject Host Rep, Veteran
    edited April 2016

    Communication skills normally include the following: reading, listening, writing, logical thinking and be out of box, not just completing some kind of online test.

    I know that for some people in my town "handset" or "base unit" is too complicated jargon.

    Thanked by 1impossiblystupid
  • cfgguycfgguy Member, Host Rep

    The best approach is to create set of questions on your own and throw it at them. And all those who pass the minimum criteria then go ahead with 1 on 1 . Another approach is to call people throw a GD and see who all are champs.

  • @leapswitch said:
    You cannot possibly go through 500 candidates one by one and be able to judge their aptitude / communication / cognitive skills.

    If you couldn't work with your HR department to create a job description that better narrowed down your candidate pool in the first place, either you or they need to be fired. Don't be a jerk and compound your mistake by making 500 people do uncompensated "assessment" tasks for your company.

    Looking for an alternative to this company or any alternate method that providers here use while hiring new techs.

    Pick 10 people and talk to them for a bit. If you want to keep talking to them, hire them. Rinse and repeat (ideally using varying selection criteria). Hire/interview in excess in case some of them don't work out.

  • @leapswitch said:
    You cannot possibly go through 500 candidates one by one

    You only need to go through however many until you find the right people.

    @impossiblystupid
    If you couldn't work with your HR department to create a job description that better narrowed down your candidate pool in the first place, either you or they need to be fired.

    Let's face it, you can write job descriptions until you are blue in the face, that doesn't stop people from applying. Especially low-level positions where requirements are minimal.

    Thanked by 2leapswitch Dylan
  • leapswitchleapswitch Patron Provider, Veteran

    500 was just an example, but we do process a lot of resumes before we find the right candidate. Try posting a job on LinkedIn with L3 System Administrator Web Hosting in the title and you will still get people who have no idea what web hosting means.

    In India we get people who during the interview admit that they can't speak English and can we please interview them in Hindi. I have interviewed L2 admins with 2+ year experience in cPanel web hosting who don't know which Apache version they work on and haven't heard of EasyApache. These tests help weed out such candidates and we can focus our time on people who really deserve to be hired.

  • shovenoseshovenose Member, Host Rep

    @leapswitch said:
    500 was just an example, but we do process a lot of resumes before we find the right candidate. Try posting a job on LinkedIn with L3 System Administrator Web Hosting in the title and you will still get people who have no idea what web hosting means.

    In India we get people who during the interview admit that they can't speak English and can we please interview them in Hindi. I have interviewed L2 admins with 2+ year experience in cPanel web hosting who don't know which Apache version they work on and haven't heard of EasyApache. These tests help weed out such candidates and we can focus our time on people who really deserve to be hired.

    As frustrating as it might seem, I think it's your job to deal with it and if they are clueless or just don't fit your needs move on.

  • leapswitchleapswitch Patron Provider, Veteran

    @shovenose said:

    @leapswitch said:
    500 was just an example, but we do process a lot of resumes before we find the right candidate. Try posting a job on LinkedIn with L3 System Administrator Web Hosting in the title and you will still get people who have no idea what web hosting means.

    In India we get people who during the interview admit that they can't speak English and can we please interview them in Hindi. I have interviewed L2 admins with 2+ year experience in cPanel web hosting who don't know which Apache version they work on and haven't heard of EasyApache. These tests help weed out such candidates and we can focus our time on people who really deserve to be hired.

    As frustrating as it might seem, I think it's your job to deal with it and if they are clueless or just don't fit your needs move on.

    Not complaining :) . Using automation to reduce work :)

  • @Microlinux said:
    Let's face it, you can write job descriptions until you are blue in the face, that doesn't stop people from applying.

    It does if you write them correctly. At the very least it'll help you to better screen the people who do apply that are woefully unqualified. Any HR drone that can't get this right isn't doing their job and should be fired.

    Especially low-level positions where requirements are minimal.

    If you have a job that just about anybody can do, it's even easier to run through the candidate list without forcing them all to needlessly jump through hoops.

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    leapswitch said: Try posting a job on LinkedIn

    I think I've found your problem.

    If you go through Dice, Monster, LinkedIn, etc. then yes, you get the general public spamming resumes on every posting. Maybe you should look elsewhere, or pay recruiters to do it for you.

  • @leapswitch said:
    500 was just an example, but we do process a lot of resumes before we find the right candidate.

    Replace your HR staff. When the hiring process in run by incompetent people, your entire company is in jeopardy.

    Try posting a job on LinkedIn with L3 System Administrator Web Hosting in the title and you will still get people who have no idea what web hosting means.

    Stop using LinkedIn if it is generating too many low-quality leads.

    In India we get people who during the interview admit that they can't speak English and can we please interview them in Hindi.

    I'm not sure I understand the problem there, unless speaking English is somehow a requirement for the job. If it is, they should have been screened for such a basic requirement long before they get to the interview stage.

    I have interviewed L2 admins with 2+ year experience in cPanel web hosting who don't know which Apache version they work on and haven't heard of EasyApache.

    And? I can't tell you the specific version of Apache I'm using right now either (although I can easily find out, of course) because it really isn't a significant matter for day-to-day operations. I just keep it current and try to be aware of any new bugs or features that are important parts of updates.

    Same goes for all sorts of other technologies. Since cPanel doesn't require the use of EasyApache, it's quite possible that someone worked in an environment where they didn't have that exposure. Only poorly run companies assume that everyone uses all the identical technologies that they do.

    These tests help weed out such candidates and we can focus our time on people who really deserve to be hired.

    People who "deserve" jobs are smart people who can learn the way you do business and improve on it. Testing for rote learning does not highlight those candidates. I'll take the person who can learn EasyApache over the candidate who knows it already but won't learn anything else.

  • FontFont Member

    Why would you go through an automated process to select your employees? Even WalMart does not do that... Gl though!

  • @impossiblystupid said:
    It does if you write them correctly. At the very least it'll help you to better screen the people who do apply that are woefully unqualified.

    Unless you are able to hypnotize people through copy (do share), you'll always get some measure of people who apply anyway. You can put shit in red, bold, 56pt Comic Sans . . . you'll still get bad applicants.

    Copy is important, but putting that copy in the right place to attract the right people is frequently more so.

  • Currently unemployed. Do you have any Work from home posts available?

  • @Microlinux said:
    Unless you are able to hypnotize people through copy (do share)

    I have no interest in sharing all the really valuable information gleaned over my years of effort. :-) The approach is not hypnosis, but simply setting up expectations so that mainly the right people respond. Put generally, the trend for most companies seems to be creating "copy" that attracts the worst applicants, and then the company pats themselves on the back when they manage to select the best one. I instead aim for the best applicants, and then it becomes trivially easy to select one of them. Even the worst of the best is a better result than the best of the worst.

    You can put shit in red, bold, 56pt Comic Sans . . . you'll still get bad applicants.

    No, that sort of approach guarantees you'll get nothing but bad applicants.

    Copy is important, but putting that copy in the right place to attract the right people is frequently more so.

    Well, yeah, even the best ad in the world isn't going to work if nobody sees it. But an ad that makes a company look bad should not be placed in front of "the right people". That's a net negative, and another practice that should get the HR drone who does it fired.

  • impossiblystupid said: No, that sort of approach guarantees you'll get nothing but bad applicants.

    At least it's better than comic serif.

  • nepsneps Member

    The only tests of this type that are worth anything are horrendously expensive. There is no easy way to find good people. That's why when good companies find good people, they usually try to hang on to each other for as long as possible.

  • Let us know what you end up doing. Interesting subject.

  • I just . . . give up.

  • cociucociu Member

    a good employer you need to form it , teach , etc etc

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