Campaign To Scrap Ridiculous Competency Tests

Hammyman

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You won't find public sector jobs being profiles alone for selection - they are a useful weeding out tool at an early stage.

Indeed. The DWP application I went through included a mickey mouse literacy and numeracy test. I was absolutely disgusted that they actually allowed the use of calculators and yet people still managed to fail to meet the ridiculously low pass rate.

Oh and I passed the profile simply by putting the answers which I thought they wanted to hear which were basically the complete opposite of what I believe. Anyone with half a brain can work out what order to put the items in.

Googlewhacker

Truegho wrote: »

I am thinking about organising a campaign to get the government to scrap these ridiculous online competency questionnaires. You know the ones I mean - where you have to rate your answers "What is most like you, what is least like you blah blah."

These stupid questionnaires are a big hindrance to us unemployed people seeking work, as they just make it harder for us, employing these ludicrous "Krypton Factor-like questions."

So - in the words of Sherbert's 1976 hit - howzat for a good idea? Yes, let's bombard Mr Cameron to force these retail employers to scrap these stupid competency forms and go back to a more sensible method of recruiting.

Your idea won't happen and stop trying to blame anything and everything for you not getting a job, you have had plentiful advice from plenty of people and you need to action this rather than coming back and moaning

FATBALLZ

My employer made me do one of these personality profile tests and I agree they are a load of bol1ocks. My report made out I was some super lefty goon who worked for altruistic reasons and wasn't bothered what I got paid as long as I could afford a handful of rice a day and a cardboard box. I sometimes wonder if that's why they tried to shaft me with virtually no pay rise for 2.5 years. I've now handed my notice in because another company has offered me 25% more so I think it's fair to say the test backfired on them.

Andy_L

bristol_pilot wrote: »

This sums up why there are so many useless people in the civil service and why government services are so poor. You will not find many companies in the private sector using personality profiles alone for selection.

nor will you in the public sector

Googlewhacker

FATBALLZ wrote: »

My employer made me do one of these personality profile tests and I agree they are a load of bol1ocks. My report made out I was some super lefty goon who worked for altruistic reasons and wasn't bothered what I got paid as long as I could afford a handful of rice a day and a cardboard box. I sometimes wonder if that's why they tried to shaft me with virtually no pay rise for 2.5 years. I've now handed my notice in because another company has offered me 25% more so I think it's fair to say the test backfired on them.

Not really because they are not paying you this extra 25% and most likely they will either promote within or hire someone on the same as you were on or less.

FATBALLZ

Googlewhacker wrote: »

Not really because they are not paying you this extra 25% and most likely they will either promote within or hire someone on the same as you were on or less.

They won't be able to get anybody nearly as good as me for the money they were paying me. They may replace me with somebody on my previous wage but they'll lose out in productivity.

Replacing staff is an expensive business in any case, that's why a lot of companies try to keep attrition low, espeically in skilled jobs where it takes a long time to pick up the knowledge required to do the job to full potential.

bristol_pilot

Andy_L wrote: »

nor will you in the public sector

They are not considering all the results of the different assessments together, they are deselecting a proportion of the candidates up front on the basis of the personality test alone, ergo they are selecting the remaining cohort on the basis of the tests alone.

They may use some other method to choose the final candidate, I think we can be fairly confident that this will also have little to do with ability to do the job.

Googlewhacker

FATBALLZ wrote: »

They won't be able to get anybody nearly as good as me for the money they were paying me. They may replace me with somebody on my previous wage but they'll lose out in productivity.

Replacing staff is an expensive business in any case, that's why a lot of companies try to keep attrition low, espeically in skilled jobs where it takes a long time to pick up the knowledge required to do the job to full potential.

I totally agree but without knowing how much you earn now etc I can only assume that a 25% differance is a significant number and as such the cost of recruiting someone else and getting them to do the job (the job as they require, even if production is lower) is a more acceptable term than paying you 25% more.

WhiteHorse

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You won't find public sector jobs being profiles alone for selection ...

See my earlier post. I've was told to my face at a civil service interview that qualifications were 'not important'.

Initially, I had to do one of these psychological profiles (which was heavily politically slanted). Knowing what they wanted, it was filled in accordingly.

At the subsequent interview, no interest whatsoever was displayed in my qualifications. Rather, the interview was nothing more than a repeat of the personality test.

It all boiled down to one question. Was I a trendy lefty or not? Did I think like them? Indeed, did I think at all?

WhiteHorse

bristol_pilot wrote: »

They are not considering all the results of the different assessments together, they are deselecting a proportion of the candidates up front on the basis of the personality test alone, ergo they are selecting the remaining cohort on the basis of the tests alone.

Well put. They know what they don't want. Certain character traits disqualify automatically.