Unsurprisingly, government agencies at the federal, state, and local levels engage in carefully regulated hiring practices. While there are many components to the hiring process of each entity, most of them have one thing in common: They use skills tests to screen prospective employees before offering them employment.
While skills testing is primarily used for pre-employment assessment, many government organizations also use these tools for training. Departments can administer skills assessments to gauge the current abilities of regular staff. They can also be deployed post-training to measure training effectiveness and track the progress of individual team members.
There are hundreds of skills tests available. You can use these assessments to measure job-specific abilities, soft skills, and much more.
But which of these assessments are most trusted by federal, state, and local government entities when they need to fill vacancies? We are glad you asked. In the article below, we take a closer look at some of the most commonly used skills assessments that are extremely effective when filling vacancies at government agencies.
Typing Skills Test
Typing skills tests are one of the most basic forms of assessments used by government organizations. This widespread use comes as no surprise since most data entry tasks are completed using a standard QWERTY keyboard.
Government agencies administer this test to applicants applying for any position that may involve data entry or other clerical work. In addition, they may use this test when screening police officers, maintenance technicians, and other staff members who might be asked to type regularly.
Typing skills tests are extremely straightforward. The testing software will provide candidates with information that they must type. The timed test measures how fast the individual can type and how accurately they input the information. Typing skills tests may require applicants to copy written text, audio files, or financial information. The specifics of the test will depend on the position for which they are applying.
The average person with some general typing experience can input information at a rate of about 41 words a minute. These individuals can often input information with 92% accuracy. For most government roles that require typing, candidates should meet or exceed these performance thresholds.
Excel Skills Test
There was a time when over half of all businesses used Microsoft Excel as their primary accounting and budgeting tool. While this figure has declined in recent years, Excel remains hugely popular among private businesses and government organizations. That is why the Excel Skills Test is one of the most trusted assessment tools for screening candidates for federal, state, and local government jobs.
With that being said, there are multiple Excel skills tests available. These assessments range from basic Excel to more advanced types. Some Excel assessments even include real-world simulations that gauge a candidate’s ability to create custom spreadsheets or manage charts, for example.
Local Government Skills Test
The Local Government skills test is geared towards municipal employees, particularly those interacting with the public. It covers a broad range of topics such as Citizen Engagement, Core Services, Performance, Accountability, and Ethics. This assessment is most practical for state and local governments and can be administered to potential or current staff.
Community and Economic Development
Community development has become a hot-button topic, especially in larger cities over the last several years. Some state and local governments have created specialized departments to foster economic development within specific regions. Professionals who step into these roles must have dynamic skill sets and a comprehensive understanding of several key topics.
The Community and Economic Development skills assessment includes approximately forty questions of varying formats. It covers Food Security, Healthy Neighborhoods, Affordable Housing, and Environmental Safety. All of these subjects are integral to community and economic development programs.
Behavioral Assessments
While they are not skills tests, behavioral assessments are invaluable for federal, state, and local government agencies. These assessments reveal insights into a candidate’s motivations, personality, and work ethic. By administering a behavioral assessment, government organizations can better predict a candidate’s job performance before making them an offer of employment.
Behavioral assessments are also useful for determining if a candidate is a good cultural fit for a government agency.
Applicants with significant personality concerns may cause workplace friction, negatively impacting existing staff and the community they serve. Conversely, candidates who are a good cultural fit can increase the productivity of existing staff and become an asset to the organization.
Skills Tests from the Leading Online Assessment Provider
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Test your typing skills with our speed typing online and learn the best touch typing method.BSBL Typingallow you to learn to touch type quickly and easily until typing becomes a truly enjoyable experience.
An excellent typing and data base software knowledge is required for this online data entry jobs.
There are many jobs vacancy are available like work from home data entry jobs, part time data entry jobs, freelance data entry jobs and typing jobs online from home.What is online data entry jobs?The data entry operator works are to input the numeric or symbolic data into company’s system or data base record.
The data are comes in to the paper format or any other format, just you need to convert into the digital format like soft copy.
The online data entry jobs are trending jobs now a days to work in this jobs.What are the skills required for online data entry jobs?A good typing skillsType in different languageWritten and verbal skillsComputer software knowledgeData base knowledgeNeed accuracy to enter dataWork in different projectsMulti-taskingWhat is online data entry jobs?The online data entry jobs are different than traditional data entry jobs.
In Normal data entry jobs you have a physical location or office where you can work in the working hours.
But in the online data entry jobs you don’t need any office location you can work from your home or at any place by taking the work from the client.
Leverage skills assessment test by MeritTrac to assess the job skills of the candidates.
Jobs skills assessment test can help organizations to shortlist the best candidates from a pool of applicants.
