How to assess candidates’ Gmail skills

Today, email is as ubiquitous as our phone numbers, and most people can write and send an email. But if you’re hiring for a role that involves a good deal of email management, you’ll need to test applicants’ email skills before hiring them. 

For example, if you’re hiring personal or executive assistants, receptionists, or customer service representatives, an email skills test can help you separate average users from power users.

If your business uses Gmail as its primary email client, read on to discover the top skills to look for in applicants and how to test their Gmail skills to find the best candidates for your open role.

The top 7 Gmail skills to look for in applicants

Forget about asking applicants to submit email-writing test examples. If you’re serious about hiring skilled Gmail users, use a pre-employment test to assess the following skills. 

1. Email formatting 

You’ll need to make sure your applicants can not only write but also format emails correctly. 

Whomever you hire should represent your organization in the most professional way possible – and nothing gives you a worse impression than receiving an email that’s full of mismatched fonts, gaudy colors, and poorly formatted text.

Here are a few Gmail formatting features that your applicants should be comfortable using:

• Changing fonts

• Using bold, italic, and underlined text

• Aligning text

• Indenting text

• Adding text quotes 

• Adding bullet points and numbered lists

• Highlighting text

• Strikethrough text

2. Email scheduling 

In business, situations arise in which emails need to be sent at a later date or at a specific time. Your applicants should know how to use the Gmail schedule email feature to send emails on specific dates at certain times. 

3. Email template creation 

On average, workers send 30 business emails per day. Writing the same emails over and over again is time-consuming – and with Gmail, totally unnecessary.

Your applicants should be able to create email templates that they can later use to send emails that already contain specific text or information.

4. Google Calendar and event management 

Although this isn’t strictly an email skill, since the Gmail client is used to send and manage event invitations, applicants need to know how to use the Google Calendar in conjunction with email, including how to do the following tasks:

• Schedule repeat events

• Attach notes to events

• Add guests to invitations

• Add meeting invitation links 

• Create reminders and tasks within the calendar 

5. Various email search operators

White-collar workers spend an average of 3.1 hours per day checking their work email. For busy inboxes, Gmail offers advanced search operators to help users save time by finding what they’re looking for.

Your applicants should be able to use various search operators, such as the following: 

• from: to search for messages from a specific recipient

• to: to search for messages sent to a specific recipient

• older: to search for messages older than a specific date

6. Confidential mode 

Applicants must be able to use confidential mode to protect emails containing sensitive information. 

This function adds a confidentiality passcode to emails and blocks the recipients from forwarding, copying, printing, or downloading your message for a set amount of time.

7. Labels, priority inbox, and stars

Organizational abilities are a key Gmail management skill. Applicants should be able to create labels and a priority inbox and use the “stars” to create a digital filing system.

How to test applicants’ Gmail skills: a 4-step guide 

Not sure how to get started with testing applicants’ Gmail skills? 

Here, we take you through the four-step process of evaluating applicants’ Gmail skills to get you on your way to hiring your next best candidate. 

1. Create a candidate profile for your open role

Whatever role you’re hiring for, you’ll need to create a candidate profile and a stellar job description to attract the right applicants. 

In addition to Gmail skills, you should evaluate the whole range of abilities you’re looking for, including soft skills. 

2. Create a skills assessment 

Based on the Gmail skills we went through above, create a comprehensive skills assessment to test applicants’ full range of competencies. 

With TestGorilla, you can combine up to five tests – including the Gmail skills test – in a single assessment to make sure you gain meaningful insights into each applicant’s complete profile. 

Here are some other types of tests you can add to the assessment:

• Role-specific tests (such as our Technical Support Help Desk Representative test) that measure candidates’ ability to apply their skills and experience to a specific role

• Cognitive ability tests (like our Attention to Detail test) that assess applicants’ cognitive abilities

• Personality and culture tests (such as our Culture Add test) that evaluate how candidates’ values and behaviors align with those of your company and whether they can add to your organization’s culture

3. Invite applicants to take your skills assessment

Send candidates the customized assessment before the interview stage to streamline the entire recruiting process.

With TestGorilla, you can invite candidates to complete the assessment via a single or bulk email, embed a public link in the job posting, or add the assessment to an applicant tracking system that TestGorilla integrates with. 

4. Analyze the results of the skills assessment 

Once all of your applicants have completed the assessment, no guesswork is needed to identify the best candidates. TestGorilla makes it easy to compare test results by automatically ranking candidates from high to low according to their average test scores. 

You’ll also have access to a PDF report that contains all of the scores from each test. This makes it simple to analyze the test results for interview purposes.

Evaluate candidates’ Gmail skills with a TestGorilla assessment 

At TestGorilla, we believe in skills-based hiring for several reasons: 

• CVs can’t predict future job performance 

• Making hiring decisions based on CVs promotes bias 

• CVs are “marketing documents” that don’t enable you to evaluate candidates’ skills in real-life scenarios 

We also believe that to make great hires, you must assess applicants’ broader profiles. That’s why we make it easy for organizations to create holistic assessments that evaluate applicants’ wider skill sets, including their soft skills and how well their values and behaviors align with your company. 

To hire candidates with the Gmail skills you need, start your skills-based hiring journey today with TestGorilla.