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The Benefits of Industrial Skills Testing

The benefits of pre-employment testing include both cost savings and consistency in selection. In a 2007 Business Outcomes Report by a leading provider of pre-employment assessments and partner companies, several findings were reported based on 29 unique research studies conducted with major U.S. and international companies across numerous industries. They included:

  • Turnover in a Warehouse/Distribution role was reduced by 50% for high-scoring associates.

  • High-scoring Customer Service Agents generated $18,000 more revenue than low scorers.

  • Pre-screened Bankers were 48% more likely to pass exams and get licensed.

  • Sales increased by $17,000 for high-scoring retail sales professionals.

  • Assessments at a major Healthcare Services Provider helped identify those most likely to get promoted.

The benefits of testing are clear. So ask yourself, what would happen to your product or service if your measurements were accurate only 60% of the time? Making a quality product requires dozens, hundreds or even thousands of measurements. Your product quality depends on your employees' skills and inherent understanding to provide those measurements. The stakes get higher as the tolerances get smaller as there is a lot less room for error when you are dealing with three and four place decimal measurements.

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Industrial Skills Assessments: The Winning Edge

Using Industry Edge Skills Testing as part of an overall skills training program will quickly pinpoint deficiencies in the basic core skills of your workforce, allowing you to focus on upgrading those skills where necessary. Use Industry Edge Skills Testing to:

  1. Identify basic core skill weaknesses in your employees with Industry Edge. 

  2. Address those weaknesses through training. 

  3. Follow up and evaluate your training effectiveness with Industry Edge. 

The quality of your product or service, scrap rates, and employee retention rate all hinge on the basic core skills of your workforce, so an investment in Industrial Skills Testing pays dividends.

Close-up of a metal caliper measuring a sheet of paper with handwritten numbers.

PreEmployment Testing: Measure Twice, Cut Once

The incident was so significant, that the customer's president personally took a trip to visit this vendor, and the incident almost destroyed the supplier-customer contract and relationship. The $600,000 figure only included the rebuild cost for the 20 motors; it did not include the lost downtime of the locomotive inventory, which, if included, would probably double the original damage costs.


The reality is that making hiring decision based on assumption can be costly. In fact, a 2008 Industry Edge study of over 500 industrial job applicants showed that the average score of the ruler test was 56% and the average score of the tape measure test was 76%. The ruler scores are a bit lower because some of the measurement questions are in 1/32", while the tape measure resolution is limited to 1/16".

Your Questions, Answered

  • Yes, when used properly Industry Edge is a valid employment test. An employment test is considered valid if it meets two criteria: (1) it accurately measures the knowledge or skill it was intended to measure, and (2) it is job related. A test is job-related if the knowledge or skill it measures is useful or necessary for successful job performance. Not only is Industry Edge content valid, but we have also included the Department of Labor's Dictionary of Occupational Titles within the software, to assist in correctly administering tests. HR managers should be aware that there are two types of validity that the EEOC acknowledges, statistical validity and content validity. Content validity is when there is a direct relationship between what a test measures and what the job description says. As a consequence, regression and other statistical procedures for weighting and generating a composite score from a test battery are not applicable when a content-related validation strategy is used. 

    However, pre-employment testing should only be used as part of a comprehensive pre-employment assessment process which also includes information gathered in interviews, reference checks, drug screening and background checks.

  • Industry Edge is different, and focuses on Industrial Skills Testing. Most other testing companies attempt to be all things to all people. We'll leave the white-collar skills testing to the other guys.

  • Yes, and it's affordable too. You can choose to mix and match our current test inventory, or we can help you create one from scratch. 

  • Historically, testing industrial employees has taken a back seat to the testing of clerical and office workers, but from our point of view, Industry workers should be the main priority for skills testing. Think about it this way, how much damage can an office worker cause by mistyping a letter, vs. a CNC machine operator working with a $300,000 precision machine tool. We doubt that a clerical worker could mistakenly cause $600,000 of damage in half a day.

  • This depends on the type of account you purchase, we have an unlimited option as well as testing per person option.

  • There is not a pass/fail score associated with Industry Edge. Applicants are evaluated in a variety of different categories, which pertain to a specific job title in order to identify their current job knowledge. Tests are assigned a percentage score which can be used as a relative measure to determine what skills a candidate may be lacking compared to other scores. Cut-off scores can be established testing your employees and running statistical models, but this service is extra and not included with the purchase price listed above.