Pre-Employment Skill Set and Aptitude Tests?

stumbler asks: "I just had a lengthy conversation with my boss and co-workers about the value of giving skill set tests (programming ability) and aptitude tests (like reasoning or logical ability) to technical employees before they are hired. (We currently have no such tests.) For those that work in companies that require pre-employment tests, have you seen an impact in the quality of technical employees hired?"

Comments

Skill testing makes adifference.short-term.

[CaptainCheese]

I work advising on travel arrangements - a form of travel agent, except I'm not selling anything. My employer used to test numeracy and geography, which is clearly applicable to the job.

The geography test was basically a national map with dots on it and a list of place names, including several fairly obscure ones. If you scored less than 75% you didn't get the job.

My employer no longer tests these things. This has resulted in a lower grade of new-starter, but if they're intelligent they learn, and if they have numeracy problems they didn't disclose it quickly becomes apparent in training.

But in the mid to long term this has no impact. If they don't know how they learn on-the-job. If they won't learn they're gone.

I see no reason why this can't apply to IT too, as ANY job has some sort of learning curve, but in a small company I expect it's safer to test basic skills - you're more likely to get useful results out of them straight away.