Assessment test for managers: a recruiter’s guide

Managers move your business forward, and the importance of managerial roles to the success of any organization cannot be overstressed. From organizing teams to handling paperwork, the job of a manager involves many crucial duties.

While hiring leaders like managers for your company, it’s critical to assess all your candidates for the essential management skills they need to succeed in the job. To achieve this, you should use an assessment test for managers.

A management assessment helps you find and hire managers with superb interpersonal, leadership, and technical skills. It checks candidates’ ability to communicate effectively with other employees, share ideas, and ensure their team is productive.

In this article, we will describe what a management assessment is, the skills it measures, why you should use one in recruitment, and how to incorporate it into your hiring process so that you can hire great managers for your company.

What is a management assessment test?

A manager administers and organizes a group of staff and their resources. The role of a manager ranges from monitoring employee and business growth to planning strategies to move the company forward.

Since the role of a manager is key to the success of any organization, it’s crucial that you take extra care to avoid mis-hiring. That’s where a management assessment comes in.

A management assessment test evaluates a candidate’s suitability for a particular managerial post. This test focuses on evaluating management skills like leadership, collaboration, and communication to point you toward great managers.

Management assessments typically consist of more than one test since managers need more than one basic skill to function effectively. These tests, when compiled in a single assessment, assess each candidate for all the managerial skills required to perform the role effectively.

With a management assessment test, you can easily assess candidates according to various criteria to measure their management skills and determine whether they have what it takes to function effectively in the position.

Furthermore, management assessment tests provide a reliable way to examine candidates’ expertise in administration and organization.

What skills does a great management assessment test measure?

A good management assessment comprises tests that evaluate candidates based on all the essential management skills. Here are six vital management skills that a great management test measures:

1. Communication skills 

In a survey of more than 15,000 managers, 77.7% reported that communication is a critical competency for a good manager.

As such, it’s one of the skills an effective management test should measure. Managers must be able to communicate their ideas with other employees for the benefit of the organization.

2. Business judgment skills 

The ability to make decisions and take actions that will benefit the company is a skill that all efficient managers possess. To find top-notch managers, you must include a management test that checks the candidates’ business judgment skills.

3. Culture add

To prevent the disappointment that comes with finding a talented applicant who doesn’t suit your organization’s culture, you must ensure that the management assessment you administer to candidates checks if they will add to your company culture.

You should look for applicants who are a culture add and not just a culture fit. This means hiring someone who shares your organization’s values but also contributes diversity and new perspectives rather than simply fitting the existing mold, which can lead to groupthink.

4. Cognitive skills 

A great management assessment evaluates how quickly and accurately candidates can understand and interpret certain information. In other words, it assesses the applicants’ cognitive ability.

5. Problem-solving skills 

Problem-solving is considered one of the most important leadership skills. Since a major part of a manager’s role is providing solutions to various problems, a good management assessment test must evaluate each candidate’s problem-solving skills.

6. Numeracy skills

Many managers regularly work with numbers, so they must possess extensive numerical reasoning skills. Therefore, an excellent management assessment must assess candidates’ understanding of numerical operations and general aptitude with numbers.

Why should you use manager assessment tests?

Aside from helping you source the best managers for your organization, management assessment tests are also time- and cost-effective.

They’re also extremely reliable when it comes to validating candidates’ skills because applicants must apply their skills to answer a wide variety of questions and solve challenging problems.

Here are five reasons you should use management assessment tests:

• They save time and costs

• They enable you to see how the candidates use their skills

• They let you test many applicants at once

• They eliminate hiring bias

• They reduce the risk of hiring the wrong candidate for the job

How to use a management assessment test

Now you know what a management test is and the skills it measures. Before incorporating one into your recruitment process, you must first understand how to use it.

Below are the six steps you should follow to use management assessment tests effectively:

1. Determine your company’s needs

The first step in recruitment for any post is to determine your company’s needs. This enables you to lay down the requirements for the open position and provides a scale to rate each candidate.

2. Carry out a thorough job analysis

By carrying out a job analysis, you can better understand the job and the qualifications, skills, and level of experience it requires. This makes identifying the best candidate for the job easier and less time-consuming.

3. Draft a stellar job description

Since the job description is the first thing the candidates will see, you must ensure that your job description is crafted to perfection. You must also make sure to post your job description on a platform that can easily reach a highly qualified audience.

Platforms like Indeed and Glassdoor provide an excellent stage for your job post to attract the best talent so that you can hire great managers.

4. Administer the management assessment test

After posting the job description and accepting applications, the next step is to administer the management assessment to the candidates. This helps you gauge their level of expertise and verifies whether they are qualified for the position.

5. Conduct interviews

At this stage, you can either conduct interviews individually or administer another employee assessment to help you understand your applicants’ non-technical skills and personalities. 

6. Make your decision and proceed to the onboarding stage

As soon as you find the perfect candidate, you should always extend the job offer immediately and secure their spot in your organization. Afterward, you can proceed to onboarding and orientation to help them become familiar with your business.

Sharpen your recruitment with TestGorilla

Adding a management assessment to your recruitment doesn’t just make it easy to hire managers. It also ensures that the managers you hire can produce the best results for your company.

TestGorilla provides you with multiple management assessments to choose from based on your requirements and needs. Our tests range from leadership and people management to communication skills tests. These tests can point you toward top talent in management such as hiring the best operation managers for your team.

Get started with TestGorilla by creating a free account with us. Visit our test library to explore our tests, and begin hiring only the best managers for your business today.