“Looks can be very deceiving.”
With how many bright-eyed individuals there are in the market looking for a job, it can be incredibly difficult to figure out which of them is the perfect one to hire, both for the position that you need to be filled as well as your company.
At a glance, an applicant’s resume is rarely indicative of their ability to perform as a professional. In fact, it is nothing more than a paper containing details or achievements that THEY want you to see.
So, apart from conducting an extensive vetting and interview process, what else can you do to improve your chances of choosing the best possible employee?
Well, for starters, why not give them an invite to take the Wonderlic test and see how well they can fare?
Numerous organizations, from large banks to your humble startups, employ one of the Wonderlic assessments as its main pre-employment exam due to how well it can help them determine which of them is more likely to flourish and succeed in their role.
So, let’s take a look at a number of them to see which of the existing Wonderlic exams can help you find the best person for your company!
The Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test
Also known as the Wonderlic Personnel Test, this exam is administered early on in the hiring process for entry and middle level positions though some organizations will also use them for upper and managerial positions in order to filter the candidates further.
Like its name, the main function of this assessment is to confirm the cognitive abilities of the candidate, allowing employers to discover the extent of their work-related skills so that they can have a good idea on how well they can perform as an employee.
The Wonderlic Cognitive Ability Test is designed to measure the test taker’s verbal, numerical, logical, and graphical reasoning abilities.
From here, you can see that the test is a good way to see if the applicant can understand written and spoken instructions in the English language; can make simple to complex calculations that are inherent to the profession; have sufficient problem solving skills; and can understand and create statistical and graphical data and reports.
Furthermore, the exam also measures the test-taker’s critical thinking and decision making skills due to its 50-item exam needing to be finished within its 12-minute time limit.
This simulates the time pressure that everyone feels at work, and if they managed to get a high score despite this nerve-wracking situation, then you can be sure that they have the cognitive skills needed to do their job well.
The Wonderlic Personality Test
While primarily given to those seeking a middle or upper level position, the Wonderlic Personal Characteristics Inventory (PCI) is also prescribed for entry level positions in order to make sure that the person is the ‘right one’ for the job in terms of their possible personality and behavior at the workplace.
Patterned to map out a person’s attitude based on the Five-Factor Personality Model, the Wonderlic PCI works by providing employers with a series of personality profiles that contain the ideal results for a particular profession.
For example, customer service position personality profiles have an emphasis on good interpersonal and social skills while those in accounting will have to be highly meticulous and analytical in their work so that not even a single mistake can pass through.
By making candidates answer this survey-type personality test, hiring managers can see which of them matches the ideal profile the most.
After all, no one would like a confrontational sales representative or a shy marketing agent that can barely demonstrate or highlight the pros of the project or product.
This Wonderlic exam is issued when the credentials and experience of the applicants are all considerable for the job and this also allows employers to know if the applicant can adjust their attitude and behavior according to the role that they are applying for.
The Wonderlic Motivation Potential Assessment
This particular Wonderlic test is usually given at the same time as the Wonderlic Personal Inventory Test in order to further assess the inner workings of a candidate’s mind.
Unlike the PCI, this exam mainly focuses on determining what kind of things motivate the test-taker such as if they are driven by reward, achievement, expectations, relationships, among others.
Why is this important? Well, through the years, numerous companies all over the world make the mistake of hiring who they thought was the best person for the job because they excelled through the pre-employment tests and interview process but then discover that the person is actually lazy or easily loses motivation at work just a few months after their employment.
As a result, this Wonderlic test aims to give companies confidence in the applicant that they are wanting to hire.
After all, these people will be part of the organization in the long run, making it incredibly vital to know if they can put in their best effort on a consistent basis, not just in the first few months of them being hired.
