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As businesses continue to struggle to find capable staff during the ongoing talent shortage, skills tests have experienced a surge in popularity. Skills tests are particularly useful for screening job applicants for basic learned abilities, including proficiency with the Microsoft Office Suite of products.

Additionally, Microsoft Office skills assessments can be invaluable when training employees. Investing in employee training and upskilling has become increasingly important as it allows employers to close the skills gap by enhancing the capabilities of existing staff.

Suppose your organization has been searching for a way to identify which candidates possess Microsoft Office skills or to improve your current training strategies. In that case, skills tests may hold the key. Join us to explore the impact of these innovative tools on hiring and training.

The Role of Microsoft Suite Assessment Tests in Hiring Better

Let’s face it — traditional screening and hiring practices are downright ineffective, especially for measuring proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, and similar products. Just about every prospective employee has some familiarity with MS Office applications.

Even if they do not possess a high-level knowledge of the products, they may list proficiency with them as a skill on their resume and reiterate this information in an interview.

Fortunately, Microsoft Word skills assessment tests and MS Office skills tests can provide definitive feedback regarding each applicant’s abilities. This feedback allows your hiring team to make decisions based on measurable data instead of taking applicants at their word.

Microsoft Office skills assessments shed light on discrepancies between listed abilities and actual talent, facilitating more efficient hiring. Your hiring team will no longer have to interview dozens of applicants when filling vacant positions.

They can review resumes and assign skills tests early in the screening process to identify top talent. From there, they can focus on vetting the most appealing applicants and reduce the number of interviews they have to conduct.

Over time, Microsoft Office skills assessments reduce the cost of hiring in two ways. First, your HR staff can screen more effectively, which will minimize the chance of a bad hire. Secondly, skills tests will lead to better employee retention, which will reduce recruiting costs.

How Microsoft Office Skills Assessments Enhance Training

Like many business leaders, you have likely explored employee training to reduce the impact of the current skills gap. Investing in your staff by offering training will make them feel more appreciated, but it also allows you to upskill them to perform more valuable services for your company.

However, your team must carefully craft employee training programs to be effective. Otherwise, you will waste countless hours and financial resources on doomed endeavors that make little impact on your staff.

Microsoft Office skills assessments can help you avoid these pitfalls by measuring the current skill level of your existing staff. Before designing your training program, you can assign your team relevant Microsoft Office skills tests, such as MS Office 2019 Word or MS Office 2019 Excel.

You can leverage their performance data to identify strengths and weaknesses. This approach will allow you to target specific areas of need instead of attempt to cover broad topics.

To further increase the efficacy of your training efforts, you should consider administering skills tests after employees complete the program. By comparing pre- and post-training results, you can accurately measure their level of improvement.

If most of your staff made significant strides after training, your program is effective. Conversely, minimal improvements signify that you should refine your program to boost employee comprehension.

Using this pre- and post-testing training model is one of the most effective ways to optimize your investment in staff training. Deploying effective upskilling strategies such as this one will increase your team’s talents, allow you to fill vacancies from within, and raise morale.

Top Microsoft Suite Assessment Tests

There are many Microsoft Suite assessment tests available. When deciding which skills tests to use, you should identify the options that align with the responsibilities of a given position.

For instance, if a clerical assistant frequently uses Microsoft Word, but will rarely use Excel, then a dedicated Microsoft Word skills test would be the most practical option.

Conversely, employees who need an advanced working knowledge of the VLOOKUP and IF capabilities of Excel should take the MS Office 2019 Excel Functions skills test.

By selecting the right skills tests and deploying them as part of your hiring and training processes, you can help your organization overcome the growing skills gap. These assessments and simulations are all created by subject matter experts to test competence across various fields effectively.