Hiring skilled maintenance technicians for food manufacturing comes with unique challenges. Not only is the U.S. facing a shortage of skilled workers, but food manufacturers often have specialized machinery or processes specific to certain brands or companies. Nocti Business Solutions provides food manufacturing skills tests to help companies hire maintenance technicians who are qualified for the job. Here’s how a skills test can improve your hiring process.
Evaluate Skills Before You Hire
Hiring someone who is not qualified to be in a manufacturing environment can be a costly mistake. Not only do you have to spend extra resources on extra training or rehiring for the position, but an inexperienced employee is a danger in the workplace. A mistake could compromise food safety or increase the risk of an industrial accident.
Our food manufacturing clients use mechanical, electrical, and HVAC skills assessments to evaluate a maintenance technician’s skills before hiring them. We design these tests with industry experts to measure specific skills needed to do the job. Our Industrial Maintenance Mechanic assessment measures practical knowledge of electronics, hydraulics, pneumatics, motors, mechanical drives, industrial robotics systems, and safety.
Customize Tests for Specialized Equipment
Food manufacturing often uses specific equipment or processes not found in the rest of the manufacturing world. Maintenance technicians must know how to troubleshoot and repair complex hydraulic machinery and be familiar with poultry processing equipment, beverage bottling machines, conveyor systems, and specialized packaging equipment.
When a food manufacturer needs to hire a technician for a specialized machine or process, we work with them to create customized skills assessments. Do you need someone who can service a one-of-a-kind automated gum wrapper? We can create a skills assessment for that!
Shorten Training Time With Detailed Insights
After a candidate takes a skills assessment, we send you a detailed score report that breaks down scores for each competency. You’ll know exactly how someone did in the electrical controls and programmable logic controller (PLC) parts of the Industrial Electricity test.
If you hire the candidate, these insights make it easy to adjust training material and get them up to speed more quickly. If someone scored perfectly in the PLC section of the test but missed some questions about variable frequency drives, you can create a training plan that focuses on the areas they need to improve.
Make Unbiased Hiring Decisions
Every company should have an unbiased way to make hiring decisions. Skills tests that are thoroughly researched and validated can give you objective insights into whether a candidate is qualified for the position.
Unfortunately, not all skills test developers follow the same standards. A test that isn’t properly validated or is not psychometrically sound may incorrectly measure skills or give inconsistent results. All NBS skills tests are:
- Designed according to international test development standards
- Based on specific industry standards
- Analyzed by a psychometrician (someone who specializes in the theory and technique of cognitive measurement)
- Legally defensible
Get Tests Designed for Skilled Workers
Although 78% of HR professionals say the quality of new hires has improved because of skills assessments, it can be difficult to find candidates willing to take a standardized pre-hire test. Many skilled workers are more comfortable working with their hands and are nervous about taking a multiple-choice test.
NBS designs tests specifically for skilled workers. Rather than asking a confusing question about an instrument panel on a multiple-choice test, we include a picture and an arrow pointing to a specific control. Most of our entry-level tests have an optional hands-on performance assessment where candidates complete tasks like they would on the job. We also offer accommodations for test-takers like text-to-speech and additional time at no extra cost.
Hire Skilled Maintenance Technicians with NBS
We’ve been helping food manufacturers solve their workforce challenges for over 20 years. We can help you, too—whether through standardized pre-employment testing or with a fully customized solution. Contact us to learn more about hiring technicians with skills tests!
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