Why you need analytical skills testing in your hiring process

Every company wants the best talent out there and analytical skills testing is one step that will help you get it.

Today, people can apply more quickly than ever before and hiring managers receive way more applicants. Going through all of them and finding the right candidate for your company is now a much more difficult task. 

But pre-employment tests, such as analytical skills testing, can save time for both the hiring manager and the candidates.

Let’s see what analytical skills testing is and how you can use it in your company.

What is analytical skills testing?

Analytical skills testing measures the applicant’s ability to identify patterns, rules, and trends in data.

The test will help you find a candidate who can take raw data and use analytical thinking to form insights and then apply those insights as solutions for the company’s projects. 

Candidates who score high on the analytical skills test have the ability to understand your business needs better and create effective solutions. First-rate candidates will:

• Learn more quickly 

• Have higher intelligence

• Improve on the job

• Improve the job itself (upgrade business processes)

These are just some of the traits of high-scoring candidates on the analytical skills test. 

These tests mainly used to be used for the jobs that required numerical intelligence such as accounting, but that’s no longer the case. Today, analytical skills testing is a requirement for most jobs, especially on the jobs where an employee needs: 

• To analyze data, charts, and graphs

• To recognize patterns

• Problem-solving skills 

• Logical thinking

Why are analytical reasoning tests essential for the hiring process?

Today’s business environment is high-paced and changes to the business processes occur almost on a daily basis.

You need employees who can make fast decisions under pressure, who can adapt quickly, and who can make data-based decisions. For this reason, having people who score highly on analytical skills is a must in today’s business place. 

Not only do you need these high-scoring candidates, but you can use the analytical skills test as a way to segment your applicants into three categories: 

1. Those who scored low on the test and the hiring process stops for them at this point. They’ll receive feedback on their scores and will have to improve on their analytical skills. As an example, they could take on some leadership roles in which they can improve on their critical analytical skills. 

2. Those who scored average and need to fix just a couple of areas to be great employees. For example, they could seek advice from mentors or coaches in the industry, conduct research, or improve on their subject-matter expertise.

3. Those who scored high on the test and appear to be perfect candidates for the job. 

You can also use analytical skills testing as a pre-employment test, before interviews, to assess which candidates can go to the next stage. This way, you’re saving time for your HR team as well as for the candidate. You can find a plethora of analytical tests in TestGorilla’s Test Library.

What are the benefits of analytical skills?

There are multiple benefits to analytical skills in the office, but five advantages bring in the biggest return on investment.

1. Critical thinking

You’re getting a candidate who knows how to critically think which is essential today.

Ritz-Carlton Hotels have a policy for every employee; they get to spend up to $2,000 per customer to solve a problem for them. That’s not per year — it’s per customer. But with this policy in place, you need employees who can think critically and solve the problems for your customers.

2. Data analysis

Data is necessary to make the right decision on the job, so the candidate needs to be able to analyze information presented to them and figure out the best course of action to take. 

3. Research

When data isn’t presented to the employee, they can’t just sit down and wait for it. They need to start researching the problem, finding data, gathering insights from the data, and making decisions based on what they find. 

4. Communication

You want employees who not only think logically and make sound decisions, but those who can describe, explain, and tell others why they did exactly what they did and why it makes sense.

A good employee needs to be able to communicate his or her ideas to everyone around: peers, managers, subordinates, shareholders, and customers. 

5. Problem-solving/decision-making

Decision-making is a layered process.

The first level is a reflex, where a person responds without thinking.

The second level is emotional decision-making, when a person responds to a situation using their prevailing emotions. This can be problematic in many situations and you don’t want employees reacting like this.

Finally, you have the third level which is logical-decision making. This is where your employees use logic and data to respond to the situation/problem in the best way they can.

The employees who score high on analytical skills tests use the third level of decision-making most of the time.

Different types and formats of analytical tests

There are four different types of analytical skills tests, which are used according to the position, job, or role the candidate is applying to. 

1. Verbal

A verbal reasoning test is used to assess the candidate’s verbal agility during the recruitment process. With verbal agility, we have the ability to reason and comprehend, think critically, and express ourselves either in written or oral form. 

Verbal reasoning tests measure things such as: 

• Communication expertise: how a person communicates with their managers, customers, and colleagues.

• The ability to read and gain insights from charts, graphs, and reports

• Professional writing

2. Nonverbal

Nonverbal reasoning tests can be divided into two main categories: numerical and spatial tests. 

Numerical tests aren’t math tests — a numerical test measures the candidate’s ability to identify and interpret the numerical information correctly. These skills are used to solve problems that they’ll probably face at work on a daily basis. 

Numerical tests measure things such as: 

• The capability to effectively extract data from graphs, charts, and tables

• The ability to present data clearly

• Numerical reasoning, computation, and estimation — or how a candidate uses arithmetics, how quickly can they use them, and the ability to extract insights from raw data and reach logical conclusions

Spatial tests assess the candidate’s ability to analyze objects in 2D and 3D. This test helps hiring managers to identify candidates with good spatial perception and mental rotation. 

Spatial tests measure things such as: 

• How candidates comprehend the ways in which different patterns connect and relate to each other in space

• How candidates perform visual simulations

• How candidates manipulate visual elements and comprehend images and maps

3. Deductive & inductive reasoning

Deductive reasoning is about seeing the stats and data in front of the candidate and then having them conclude a new statement or fact from the data presented. 

An example would be:

• The bus is three times bigger than the car

• The bicycle is half the size of the car

From this statement, we know that the bicycle is six times smaller than the bus. 

Inductive reasoning is the process of trying to make a pattern out of existing data so you can predict what’s going to happen next. 

An example would be: 

• Year 2019: $55,000 revenue

• Year 2020: $60,500 revenue

• Year 2021: $66,550 revenue

• Year 2022: $_____ revenue

From this data, we can assume that the revenue number in the year 2022 will be $73,205 because the pattern is a 10% increase in revenue for every year. 

How to implement analytical reasoning tests in your company

When it comes to implementing analytical reasoning tests in your company, you should try to do three things: 

1. Measure and evaluate.

Use pre-employment tests to assess your candidate’s analytical skills. With this, you will get an objective, numerical measure that is bias-free and then you can grade all of your applicants on the same scale.

2. Ensure interview questions assess candidates’ analytical skills.

Use analytical reasoning questions during interviews as well.

3. Use TestGorilla’s analytical reasoning tests.

TestGorilla creates its tests with subject-matter experts and they go through rounds of revisions, feedback, and testing until they’re the best possible version.

Another subject-matter expert then evaluates the test to see if it’s properly handling all the nuances the test needs to assess candidates. The tests are fast to do, are cost-effective, and save time for everyone involved. 

Recruit the best employees with analytical skills testing 

Analytical reasoning is one of the most desirable skills in today’s business world.

Plenty of roles require analytical skills such as critical thinking, decision-making, and dealing with data and information. So finding candidates who are well-versed in analytical skills is a must for companies today. 

Most managers receive hundreds of CVs and it becomes almost impossible to go over them in detail.

For this reason, HR managers should use pre-employment tests such as TestGorilla’s to save time and find the best candidates. If you find the best candidates and take care of them, they will take care of the company in return. 

Try TestGorilla for free.