HR fundamentals skills test: Pre-employment screening assessment to hire the best candidates

Use our HR fundamentals test to hire the best

The HR fundamentals test evaluates the core competencies necessary for a Human Resource professional in any organization. The test helps you identify candidates who can take good care of your most valuable asset: your people.

Covered skills

Human Resources expertise
Business acumen
Recommending actionable solutions
Managing relationships

Use the HR fundamentals test to hire

HR Generalists, HR Managers, HR Supervisors, HR Consultants, People Operations managers.

You can use this test for free when you sign up for a free plan.

Type

Role specific skills

Time

10 min

Languages

English, Spanish, Dutch, French

Level

Intermediate

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About the HR fundamentals test

A competent and skilled HR professional serves an organization in many ways. Not only do they develop, maintain, and execute compliant HR management policies and practices, they also help you address organizational challenges through human capital solutions, such as hiring, training, and performance evaluation. HR plays a crucial role in establishing, maintaining, and encouraging productive relationships within the organization and in strategically aligning business functions to serve your organization's goals.

This HR test assesses candidates' knowledge and skills on the fundamental functions of HR. It evaluates candidates' Human Resources expertise, their business acumen as it relates to HR functions, their consultation abilities so they can offer advice and guidance to the rest of the organization, and their relationship management skills that will help bring everyone together to achieve the organization's bigger goals.

Candidates who perform well on this test possess the technical and behavioral knowledge, skills, and abilities to contribute to the overall success of the organization. They can identify challenging areas that directly impact an organization and take actionable steps to ensure that HR goals are strategically aligned with the company goals.

The test is made by a subject-matter expert

Jaquina G.

Highly motivated by unifying teams to increase productivity and success, HR consultant Jaquina’s guidance has benefited clients in the private and public sectors for over 20 years. Jaquina possesses unmatched professional qualifications, including a BBA in HR Management, an MA in HR Training and Development, and SHRM and PHR certifications. Her past projects have involved creating employee training courses, contributing content to online and print resources, and authoring a college textbook.

Crafted with expert knowledge

TestGorilla’s tests are created by subject matter experts. We assess potential subject-matter experts based on their knowledge, ability, and reputation. Before being published, each test is peer-reviewed by another expert, then calibrated using hundreds of test takers with relevant experience in the subject. Our feedback mechanisms and unique algorithms allow our subject-matter experts to constantly improve their tests.

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The HR fundamentals test will be included in a PDF report along with the other tests from your assessment. You can easily download and share this report with colleagues and candidates.

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The importance of an HR assessment

When you have a good HR professional in your organization, they can help your teams and your entire company in a number of ways. One of the main responsibilities of an HR professional is to develop, maintain, and execute human-resources management policies and practices.

The candidate you hire will help you hire, train, and evaluate the performance of your employees. With that in mind, you need to pick an applicant who will be able to encourage productive relationships in your organization and align business functions in a way that will serve your company’s objectives.

You want candidates who score well on this test because this shows that they:

• Have the necessary technical HR knowledge
• Have the necessary behavioral knowledge, skills, and attitude to help your employees succeed
• Can identify challenging areas where the company is struggling and take steps to solve them
• Can align employees’ goals with the company’s objectives

HR fundamentals competencies for candidates

On top of technical HR skills, the perfect candidate will also display the following competencies that would make them great for the open role in your organization:

• Communication skills: One of the most important skills an HR candidate has is communication skills. A human-resources representative needs to effectively communicate with employees as well as keep in mind that they’re representing the employer. Since the candidate will be communicating with different stakeholders, they need to be well-versed in active listening and even know how to use elements of storytelling.

• Managing priorities and time: The HR person will have to implement initiatives and projects. To do so effectively, the candidate will need to know how to manage their priorities and their time.

• Coaching and mentoring: The HR representative will need to do a lot of coaching during their working hours. On top of their regular tasks, the human resources professional will have to deal with problems and challenges one-on-one with employees to solve them. The HR candidate should also be skilled in mentoring and teaching, since these abilities will help employees develop their skill sets.

• Analytical and data-driven: The HR person must be analytical, to ensure they deal with all stakeholders appropriately and without bias. Also, the candidates should showthat their approachh is data-driven and that the initiatives that they want to implement in the company are grounded in solid data.

• Culture add: It’s not enough to have a candidate who is a good technical match for your company – they also need to be a good cultural addition to your business. The candidate’s values need to align with the company’s values to form a successful working relationship.

• Teamwork skills: Most initiatives created by the HR team will be implemented by people in other teams. That’s why HR people need to be team players, understand the reality of other teams, and see what can be realistically implemented. Great teamwork skills really help in situations like these.

• Leadership skills: Since an HR professional works with many different stakeholders in new situations, they will have to lead the process to solve problems and challenges. On top of that, they will have to lead people by example, gaining the trust of fellow employees and all relevant stakeholders in the process.

What happens when a candidate doesn’t have HR fundamentals

When you hire a candidate who is lacking in HR fundamentals, you will get someone who won’t be able to create working relationships with employees in different teams. They will probably lack communication and leadership skills, which will create problems when it comes to teamwork and problem-solving.

And if the candidate isn’t strong in technical skills such as interviewing, onboarding, and organizational psychology, they are likely to choose similarly poor candidates to hire. So you need to make sure that you have a candidate with great HR fundamentals if you want them to take care of your most valuable resources: your people.

How can the HR fundamentals test help recruiters hire?

We’ve already discussed the importance of identifying applicants with the right skills and what can happen if you don’t find a good candidate. So now is the time to discover the best possible way to find and recruit that candidate –- enter pre-employment tests.

A pre-employment test has many benefits:

• Bias-free hiring process: You should start the hiring process by giving your candidates an HR fundamentals pre-employment test. With it, you’re giving all your candidates the opportunity to be evaluated on just one thing – their competency. The average CV gets only a few seconds of attention and because of that, many great candidates can slip through the cracks. But with a pre-employment test, the candidates can show their expertise and be considered for the next steps on the merit of their test results.

• Objective and quantifiable results: With TestGorilla, your pre-employment tests will provide objective and quantifiable (numerical) results. Your hiring manager will receive every candidate’s scores, marked on the same scale, and they will easily be able to compare them to identify the strongest applicants.

• Simple and easy to use: When you use pre-employment tests, it doesn’t matter if you get 50 or 250 applications for your open role. The hiring manager simply distributes the test to all candidates with a single click.

In summary

The HR fundamentals test will help you assess the core competencies and skills that are necessary for a candidate to work as a human-resources professional in your company. With an HR fundamentals test, you can find a candidate who will be the perfect fit to take care of your most valuable resource: your people.

The test will help you evaluate the candidate’s HR expertise, their business acumen, how they manage work relationships, and their ability to recommend positive and effective courses of action.

You can use the HR fundamentals test when you want to hire:

• HR generalists
• HR managers
• HR supervisors
• HR consultants
• People operations managers

Hiring a candidate with strong HR fundamentals is essential for your company’s HR team. And to find the best possible candidate, you should use an HR test.

FAQs

What is the difference between an assessment and a test?

An assessment is the total package of tests and custom questions that you put together to evaluate your candidates. Each individual test within an assessment is designed to test something specific, such as a job skill or language. An assessment can consist of up to 5 tests and 20 custom questions. You can have candidates respond to your custom questions in several ways, such as with a personalized video.

Can I add my own questions to an assessment?

Yes! Custom questions are great for testing candidates in your own unique way. We support the following question types: video, multiple-choice, coding, file upload, and essay. Besides adding your own custom questions, you can also create your own tests.

How do video questions work?

A video question is a specific type of custom question you can add to your assessment. Video questions let you create a question and have your candidates use their webcam to record a video response. This is an excellent way to see how a candidate would conduct themselves in a live interview, and is especially useful for sales and hospitality roles. Some good examples of things to ask for video questions would be "Why do you want to work for our company?" or "Try to sell me an item you have on your desk right now." You can learn more about video questions here.

Can you explain how the other custom question types work?

Besides video questions, you can also add the following types of custom questions: multiple-choice, coding, file upload, and essay. Multiple-choice lets your candidates choose from a list of answers that you provide, coding lets you create a coding problem for them to solve, file upload allows your candidates to upload a file that you request (such as a resume or portfolio), and essay allows an open-ended text response to your question. You can learn more about different custom question types here.

Can I customize an assessment with my company logo and color theme?

Yes! You can add your own logo and company color theme to your assessments. This is a great way to leave a positive and lasting brand impression on your candidates.

What type of support do you offer?

Our team is always here to help. After you sign up, we’ll reach out to guide you through the first steps of setting up your TestGorilla account. If you have any further questions, you can contact our support team via email, chat or call. We also offer detailed guides in our extensive Help & Inspiration Center.

What is the cost for using the HR fundamentals test?

You can find our pricing packages here. Sign up here to try TestGorilla today.

Can I combine the HR fundamentals test with other tests?

Yes. You can add up to five tests to each assessment.

Where in my recruitment process should I use the HR fundamentals test?

We recommend using our assessment software as a pre-screening tool at the beginning of your recruitment process. You can add a link to the assessment in your job post or directly invite candidates by email.
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