Tasks to demonstrate competence at interview?

[forgottenusername]

I'm a fairly new manager who has started to get involved in interviewing potential new recruits. It's become obvious that for the positions we are trying to fill, there can be a substantial difference between the how well a candidate thinks they can use Outlook / Word / Excel and the level required for the role.

The HR department have said we can add a 'skills test' element to the interview process. I was thinking of asking them to write an email asking a colleague for a particular piece of information / basic data manipulation in Excel (sorting a data set based on date then finding the sum and average of a subset of data) / proof reading a short report. All of these are tasks that are required on a daily or weekly basis. So nothing I'd consider to be too tricky for someone with good level of English and Maths (the position is advertised with a science degree as an essential criteria).

I was wondering if anyone here had experience of either completing one as a potential candidate or as an interviewer trying to select candidates? does this sort of task make a difference to the selection process?

thanks :)

I introduced a technical task last couple of times I recruited as I was fed up of getting well-rehearsed answers to our question bank (which are all available internally). I would definitely do so again in the future. It made it easier to compare internal and external candidates.

I would think about what, specifically, you want to test and can't do via questions, and whether you want anything to be prepped in advance.
Consider how you incorporate aspects of the task that are stretching enough to allow you to choose between candidates at the top end - don't make it all too easy!
Also think about the time allocation.

In both cases the task was to be completed in a set time and involved the candidate playing back their presentation/work at the end, with questions from us.

I found it useful to do after the 'set' interview bank questions as it allowed me to probe on any areas I felt were unclear/not covered in those answers. Also allows people to show how they think on their feet and thought process even if the output isn't polished.
I always ask how they found it as it's a more spontaneous way of checking self-awareness!

I've also competed an exercise as a candidate on a few occasions.

I've been for job where I had to do tests like you describe. The job was through an agency who would outright lie about candidates though, and the employer introduced basic skills tests to check people could read/write English properly, analyse complex data to a high standard and write a decent report. These were essential criteria for the job.

I think you should consider that the tasks you describe are very basic tasks and that you can easily train someone to do them - I imagine the roles are specialised as you want a science degree, and I think it would be silly to pass up the perfectly qualified candidate because they can't sort data in excel - It would take you five minutes to show them.

If you want to include tests, you'll need a model answer to measure them against and that is more difficult with a drafted email/letter - have an idea of the information that you'd expect to see in it.

I've sat on interview panels which have presented a customer service-type query in the interview and the candidates have been asked to write a letter based on it at the end (a reminder of the situation was provided, IIRC).

Thanks for the replies :) yes we'd agree on a model answer in advance. I was drafted onto an interview panel a few weeks ago at the last minute where they'd not done that beforehand. The three of us did not agree on the 'correct' order of the prioritisation task....

The drafted email is a tricky one as there is no one 'right' answer. I was hoping to test the ability to communicate via email. Perhaps that's not a fair thing to ask in an interview situation though, as you need to read a few internal mails to gain an understanding of the level of formality / company culture.

The proof reading a report was aimed at measuring attention to detail. The ability to produce good quality, accurate reports is an essential part of the role.

You're right Isleep, it's easy enough to train someone how to do basic data manipulation in Excel. It's not so much about having the knowledge before they start, more about being able to learn and retain that information. All candidates seem to think they pick up new skills quickly, the trouble seems to be their idea of quickly doesn't match ours!

I don't think that a science degree is an essential qualification for many (most?) of the positions we offer - it's a legacy issue thing. Having an analytical brain and the ability to not be freaked out by learning new things is more important than a degree certificate.

I'm glad I started this thread. Explain myself has helped me understand what we need and how best to look for it :)

For the email, where there isn't one 'right' answer then have a mark scheme for the things you need to see demonstrated. Eg the individual points of information you want to see conveyed, plus overall spelling/punctuation/grammar and overall style/tone, and brevity!