In China, Donít Verify Skills, Test Them

By Frank Mulligan - Recruit China

Picture it.

HR has just been asked to hire 25 Application Engineers or 10 Chemists to support a new plant in China. Everyone is excited about the project and it is a clear indication of the strength of the China market and the great future that can be had in the company.

But we have a problem here.

The problem is that it is very hard for HR to judge the quality of a candidateís technical knowledge. Recruiters generally do not have a technical background so they have to ëwing ití a little when it comes to the technical issues. Sometimes ëwing ití a lot.

Testing systems have developed to fill in this gap but these can come with their own challenges.

A Little Story
Two years ago a famous international company in China started the process of hiring 20-30 graduates from the top universities in China. They thought online testing would be a great idea, and it certainly looked like a good fit. Efficient, effective and objective.

So they sent candidates an email with a link to a special testing website and then waited for them to complete the test. Then the results started to come in.

Week 1 - Average score 60%...
Week 2 - Average score 90%...
Week 3 - Average score 100%...

You can see what was happening. All the students shared the questions and answers with each other, even though it was not in their interest to do so. The whole thing became a big game that they wanted to win. Very competitive but not very effective.

Limitations of Online Testing
So the first problem with online testing is knowing who has actually done the test. This is an easy fix. You ask the candidate to do the test in your office. Simple. This is what should have been done with the students.

For professional hires the situation is better. The candidates will not know each other and they cannot, and will not, pass on information to each other. So there is no problem with the scores.

Professional hires are not found in mass hiring campaigns. The number of tests issued is low and is limited to the final candidates. So the volume is manageable too.

We started out using English Skills tests a number of years along these lines detailed above. The results have been excellent and we have extended the base of tests to Six Sigma, ISO 9000, Travel Consultancy, Banking English, IT Skills etc. In fact, any issue that can be trained.

Our initial motivation was to create a solution for the issue of fake certificates in China, not necessarily to check final skills. The new testing module fixed this problem immediately but in addition it exposed the lack of skills in people that you would have assumed were technically competent.

Online testing done in this way works well because you do not tell the candidate that they will be tested. Candidates who cram for tests, and there are many in China, do not get an advance warning. So when they are tested they can only show the skills they have actually retained in the long-term.

So donít try to verify certificates and skills, test them!.

Email frank.mulligan@recruit-china.com
Frank Mulliganís blog - english.talent-software.com