Hiring employees – especially for management and executive positions – is one of the toughest decisions companies make. Employers invest a lot of time, money, and resources into filling new and existing positions and want to hire the best candidates to fill those roles.
You can significantly decrease your hiring timeline and the chances of making a bad hire when you implement a cognitive ability test as part of the hiring process. Cognitive tests are a type of pre-employment background screening that provides insights into a candidate’s ability. These test results can help you ensure you hire the best person for every unique position in your company.
Barada Associates has been in business for more than 40 years and is one of the nation’s oldest and most trusted providers of reliable background checks and cognitive testing. Don’t leave your company’s hiring practices to chance – contact Barada Associates today or read on to learn more about cognitive ability testing for your industry.
What is a Cognitive Ability Test?
Cognitive ability tests assess cognitive ability and mental agility. Also called a cognitive aptitude test or cognitive assessment, this specialized background screening method is a measure of your mental processes and skills.
A cognitive ability score reflects of combination of different aspects of a person’s cognition. In the realm of employment, cognitive ability tests are a good tool for predicting job performance. But in other industries, these test scores can be used as a professional learning indicator or medical tool.
Some industries that can benefit the most from using cognitive ability tests in hiring include:
- Architecture and engineering
- Athletics and coaching
- Construction
- Financial
- Food-service related
- Healthcare practice
- Healthcare support
- Information technology
- Legal
- Maintenance and repair
- Management
- Office and administrative support
- Production and manufacturing
- Protective service
- Sales and customer service
How Do Cognitive Skills and Behavioral Tests Work?
Together, cognitive and behavioral skills tests help employees identify whether the candidate has the abilities needed for the position and whether they’re a good fit for the company and its culture. If office culture is important to your business, you may want to consider implementing behavior tests and assessments, as well as a cognitive test.
It’s not uncommon for employers to receive dozens, if not hundreds, of applications for job postings. Although many of these applications do not align with what the company is looking for and can easily be dismissed, many applicants’ education, interview skills, and work experience closely align with one another. So how does an employer choose who to hire?
Cognitive ability assessment tests evaluate a job seeker’s ability to think and solve problems, which can give you one way to differentiate one candidate from another is through. They also assess how the applicant will perform if they’re hired for the position.
The process involves an individual answering cognitive ability test questions in a range of different assessment methods, including paper tests, observational tests, interviews, and neuropsychological exams.
Candidates who have all the right skills and pass the cognitive assessment with flying colors are more likely to adapt quickly to their new role and succeed, which is what your company is ultimately looking for.
What Do Cognitive Ability Tests Measure?
Having the ability to help predict job performance is invaluable. But what exactly does a cognitive assessment test? When you use cognitive assessment tests, you will receive valuable insight into a candidate’s abilities, including:
- General cognitive ability
- Critical thinking skills
- Management process and potential
- Problem-solving abilities
- Logical reasoning
- Numerical reasoning
- Verbal reasoning
- Mathematical ability
- Deductive reasoning
- Learning new job knowledge abilities
- Language comprehension and sentence completion
- Digesting and applying information
- Adapting to new situations around them
- Finding solutions
- Comprehending difficult concepts
We tailor each cognitive assessment based on the specific position and the types of cognitive and behavioral abilities needed to succeed in the role. For example, a software engineer needs abilities related to information processing, problem-solving, and knowledge of programming languages. On the other hand, a personal financial advisor needs to possess the ability to recognize trends, accurately analyze data, and work with monetary assets.
These screening tests are not a comprehensive picture of the brain’s ability, but they can be invaluable to help determine a person’s ability to perform in a specific role.
What are the Benefits of Cognitive Ability and Behavioral Tests in Hiring?
Hiring employees you believed had the right temperament and problem-solving skills but ended up lacking in those areas can lead to lost work productivity. Additionally, it might lead to issues such as poor decision-making and even potential termination.
Barada Associates has access to dozens of personality and cognitive ability assessments and can test an applicant’s technical and soft skills, as well as their general mental ability and general intelligence. The benefits of working with an experienced testing team such as ours for cognitive assessments include:
- Experience & Expertise: A seasoned team understands the complexities of these assessment methods and can help you navigate the process with confidence.
- Skills Coverage: With a professional provider, your hiring process will benefit from a more diverse range of testing types. We can test for technical and soft skills to provide the clearest picture of a candidate’s mental ability and intelligence. Access to a vast test library is critical to yield the most accurate and reliable results.
- Valuable Insights: Conducting a cognitive test can help you uncover red flags with speed before you’ve narrowed down your candidates or are ready to make an offer. This saves you valuable time in the hiring process, as you won’t invest unnecessary effort into an inadequate applicant.
- Team Building: When you work with our team to develop a clear list of requirements, expectations, and guidelines for all your new hires, we can ensure you only hire candidates whose scores align with your standards. As a result, you’ll have a workplace full of like-minded individuals who meet your cultural goals and work as a strong unit.
We offer several skills and cognitive ability tests that can be administered from the privacy of your office, the applicant’s location, or online.
Contact Barada Associates for More Information about Cognitive Skills Assessments
Barada Associates understands how timely and costly the hiring process is. When your company is going through the pre-employment process with your job candidates, we know you want to ensure you’ll be hiring the candidate who will provide the greatest job performance.
When you partner with us for background screening services, including behavioral and cognitive assessments, we make your job much more manageable. Our skill assessment service accurately tests cognitive ability in all your employees and job candidates, taking that job out of your hands.
Whether you want to test a candidate’s cognitive abilities and mental abilities before hiring a new job candidate, or you want to use cognitive ability testing to recognize the strengths of an existing employee, contact Barada for more information or to request a quote.