CHAPTER -1

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Skill Assessment is the system followed in many of the companies to assess

the skill level of the employees. This system is usually followed for the purpose of
performance appraisal. The appraisal can be of any form like, hike in the salary, promotion,
etc. Skill Assesment test are the test designed to help the employers to evaluate the skills of
their job candidates and employees. This test helps company to ensure that their job
candidates, as well as their current employees have the required skills to successfully perform
their job.

Skill Assessment test are most commonly used in the hiring process. Many employers ask
their applicants to take skill assessment test in order to narrow down their list of candidates
who will be invited to a job interview. High quality skill assessment tests are the only
completely Standardised, Formal and Scientific method for evaluating the skills of
employees and job candidates.

By definition,Skill Assessment tests have to yield a clear score, rating, description and a
category. This is why these tests are able to more objectively define, measure and evaluate
candidates and employees skills and abilities. Besides, Comparing with the skill assessment
methods, skill assessment test have many additional benefits. For example,When using other
methods, you can only hear what candidates themselves or some other people say about their
skills.

Competence assessment is a process in which evidence is gathered by the assessor and

evaluated against agreed criteria in order to make a judgement of competence. Skill
assessment is the comparison of actual performance of a skill with the specified standard for
performance of that skill under the circumstances specified by the standard, and evaluation of
whether the performance meets orexceed the requirements. Assessment of a skill should
comply with the four principles of validity, reliability, fairness and flexibility.

Formative assessment provides feedback for remedial work and coaching, while summative
assessment checks whether the competence has been achieved at the end of training.
Assessment of combinations of skills and their foundational knowledge may provide greater
efficiency, and in some cases competence in one skill my imply competence in other skills.
The thoroughness rewired of assessment may depend on the consequences of occasional poor
performance.

Princilpes of assessment

Validity

Validity is the primary requirement. If the assessment is not valid, then the other
characteristics are irrelevant. Validity means that an assessment process effectively assesses
what it is claimed and intended to assess. To achieve this the assessment tools must address
all requirements of the standard to the appropriate depth (neither too much nor too little) and
be repeated often enough to ensure that the required performance is repeatable.[1]

The training standard that specifies the competency is the benchmark for assessment, and to
be valid the assessment must comply exactly with its requirements, so that nothing required
by the standard is omitted, and nothing that is not required is included.

The assessment tools for a skill therefore need to be designed so that they allow the skill to be
tested in compliance with the requirements of the standard. It can be useful to map the
assessment tools to the specific competences to ensure that they cover the full scope of the
standard

There may be a requirement for periodical validation of assessment tools. This process
generally involves mapping the tools against the standard and checking that the tools comply
with the other principles of assessment and the rules of evidence

Reliability

After validity, reliability is essential. A reliable assessment is one where the evidence elicited
and interpretation of evidence is consistent with the skill required, so that the assessment
consistently produces outcomes that are compliant with the standard. The assessment
decision of a given observed performance should not vary for different assessors. The same
evidence should lead to the same outcome.

To achieve this, the assessment tool must provide sufficient guidance for the assessor. In
practice the assessment instrument provided to the candidate should be paired with an
assessor guide which provides instructions to the assessor to guide their judgement of
satisfactory performance or acceptable answers to questions.
Fairness

To be fair the assessment process must be clearly understood by the candidates, and there
must be agreement by both assessors and candidates that candidates’ reasonable needs
circumstances are addressed.

The assessment tool can provide evidence that the process is understood and accepted by the
candidate, by having a place where a statement to this effect is signed by the candidate at the
start of the assessment. A further statement that the assessor has checked with the candidate
for any special circumstances or requirements can also be included. Reasonable adjustment
must not compromise the validity or reliability of the assessment.

Flexibility

Flexibility of assessment is desirable where reasonably practicable. This is a feature that

should be inherent in the assessment tools for the skill, and should take into account the
expected variability of circumstances, including variations in candidates, equipment, location,
environmental conditions and other things not entirely under the control of the assessor, but
within the scope of the competence requirements. Flexibility does not imply bending the
rules, or failing to comply with the specifications of the standards. All performance criteria
must be addressed.

Types os assessment

Formative assessments are formal and informal tests, tasks, quizzes, discussions or
observations taken during the learning process. These assessments identify strengths and
weaknesses and provide feedback to modify the consequent learning activities to facilitate
efficient learning and skill development.

Summative assessments evaluate skills at or after the end of an instructional unit, to ensure
that competence has been achieved. At this point remedial work may no longer be
practicable.

Integrated assessment is part of the learning and teaching process, and can take place at
various stages of a learning programme. Assessments may combine assessment of theory and
practice. Some skills may need separate and specific assessment, but others can be combined
for efficiency.

Assessment is not an event that only occurs at the end of training, it is most effective when
continuous and when providing constant feedback on progress and problems, allowing timely
intervention where useful. In many cases a sample of evidence is sufficient to infer
competence over a fairly large range, as competence in a skill that requires competence in
other skills may be a proxy for those more foundational skills.

Comprehensive planning is usually necessary to produce robust assessment tools that suit the
training programme and do justice to both the training standard and the learners.

Altho
ugh skill assesmsnet test are around for decades in the last few years the percentage of
employers who use them has grown enormously.Today, 82% of companies some form of
pre-employment tests, according to the recent Talent Board’s Candidate Experience Research
report. This is due to the scientific and technological advancement of skill assessment tools.
Today these tools are more affordable than ever, which is very convenient for employers.
Another reason why so many employers usev skill assessment tests these days is because they
guarantee a great candidate experience.Candidate can access and solve these skill assessment
tests online from their own living room,at that time that suits them the best.

Why so many companies use skill assessment test these days ?

Besides being the most reliable, objective and affordable method for assessing job
candidates, skill assessment test have many additional benefits. The Society for Human
Resources lists the following reasons why employers use skill assessment tests.

1)To hire new employees

2)To evaluate current employees for different roles,
3) To identify employees with high leadership potential
4) To compare talent within an organization against industry or geographical benchmarks
5) To understand talent strengths and gaps
 6 )To develop employees long-term value

When we consider the skill assessment system, some of the industries are conducting the skill
test like a oral test, some industries are conducting written test, some of the industries are
conducting online test to assess their employees. Skill Assessment System followed in
Equitas small finance bank to assess the skill level of various employees like Managers,
Supervisors and Operators.

This system is usually done to assess the skill level and also the performance level of the
employees. Appraisal is done in Equitas small finance bank as per the skill levels of the
employees.

Types of skills:

 Soft skills and hard skills

 Analytical skills
 Verbal skills
 Computer skills
 Conceptual skills
 Creative thinking skills
 Decision-making skills
 Employability skills
 Interpersonal skills
 Management skills
 Teamwork skills
 Technical skills

Soft skills are a combination of people skills, social skills, communication skills, character or
personality traits, attitudes, career attributes, social intelligence and emotional intelligence
quotients, among others, that enable people to navigate their environment, work well with
others, perform well, and achieve their goals with complementing hard skills.

Hard skills include the specific knowledge and abilities required for success in a job.
Examples of hard skills include computer programming, web design, typing, accounting,
finance, writing, mathematics, legal and other quantifiable skills that are included in the
requirements for a job.
Analytical skill is the skill of performing an analysis. Such skills include the ability to apply
logical thinking in order to break complex problems into their component parts.

Verbal Skill:Verbal Skills can also be gauged through out skill tests for verbal aptitude and
english proficiency. These assessments help measure comprehension, technical vocabulary
etc

Computer skills are essential in order to utilize computers and related technology efficiently.

Conceptual skills allow a manager to visualize the entire organization and work with ideas
and the relationships between abstract concepts

Creative thinking is the ability to invent and/or create something new be that a concept, a
solution, a method, a work of art, or an actual, physical device

Decision making skills should accelerate gaining knowledge that will make our choices
more effective. Our decision making model helps us to identify information and abilities
important to choosing

Employability Skills can be defined as the transferable skills needed by an individual to

make them 'employable'.

Interpersonal skills are the behaviors and tactics a person uses to interact with others
effectively. In the business world, the term refers to an employee's ability to work well with
others

Teamwork skills are the qualities and abilities that allow you to work well with others
during conversations, projects, meetings or other collaborations.

Technical skills are the abilities and knowledge needed to perform specific tasks. They are
practical, and often relate to mechanical, information technology, mathematical, or scientific
tasks. Some examples include knowledge of programming languages, mechanical equipment,
or tools.

Management skill is the practice of understanding, developing and deploying people and
their skills.
Measurement of Skills
 There are five measures of critical skills required for high levels of
performance in the first-line supervisor position.
These skills are:

 Information Gathering and Communication

 Analysing and Understanding Information
 Problem Solving
 Scheduling and Prioritizing
 Supervising and Managing People.

Employees who benefit

Skills management provides a structured approach to developing individual and

collective skills, and gives a common vocabulary for discussing skills. As well as this general
benefit, three groups of employees receive specific benefits from skills management.

Individual employees

As a result of skills management, employees should be aware of the skills their job
requires, and any skills gaps that they have. Depending on their employer, it may also result
in a personal development plan (PDP) of training to bridge some or all of those skills gaps
over a given period.

Line managers

Skills management enables managers to know the skill strengths and weaknesses of
employees reporting to them. It can also enable them to search for employees with particular
skill sets (e.g., to fill a role on a particular job.)

Organization executives

A rolled-up view of skills and skills gaps across an organization can enable its
executives to see areas of skill strength and weakness. This enables them to plan for the
future against the current and future abilities of staff, as well as to prioritize areas for skills
development.
Assessing Employee Skills

Employee skill assessment is the process of determining the employee’s current

skills/knowledge/abilities or behaviors against the defined competencies for a specific job.

Skill assessment is initially done when a job class “rolls – over” to a banded class.
Supervisors review individual employee assessments annually and at the mid cycle along
with the performance evaluation. Supervisors assess new hires to determine salary and
establish skill level. Supervisors/managers conduct an assessment of each employee. These
assessments are reviewed by management and by HR.

Assessing employee skills can help you determine if your employees are in the roles
best suited for them, and if any of them are ready to be promoted, or instead should be
transferred to another department or position. Your employees will also benefit from an
employee skill assessment, because they can use it as a learning tool to discover more about
their strengths, weaknesses and goals.

With an employee skills assessment, you can

 Ensure your current employees are in the best role for their skills.
 Identify employees who are ready to move up in the company.
 Determine which applicants are best suited to the position you're hiring for.
 Help employees learn more about themselves, by sharing with them their assessing
employee skills list of results.
 Formalized testing can provide more accurate representation of individual skill sets,
allowing you to better match workers to projects or job openings.
 Use skill assessment data to compare worker’s skills against each other, in relation
with a norm or in relation to a group.
 Review salaries against market data at roll over.
 Skill assessment can help you better to align training programs with employee’s skill
deficiencies.
 Increasingly, companies are beginning to form task forces or teams based on skill
sets, rather than departmental domains using skill repository, you could form a team
on the basis of specific expertise.
 Increase morale of employees.
1.2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

In order to perform the functions of management and to assume multiple

roles, managers must be skilled. Robert Katz identified three managerial skills that are
essential to successful management: technical, human, and conceptual*. Technical skill
involves process or technique knowledge and proficiency. Managers use the processes,
techniques and tools of a specific area. Human skill involves the ability to interact effectively
with people. Managers interact and cooperate with employees. Conceptual skill involves the
formulation of ideas. Managers understand abstract relationships, develop ideas, and solve
problems creatively. Thus, technical skill deals with things, human skill concerns people, and
conceptual skill has to do with ideas.

A manager's level in the organization determines the relative importance of

possessing technical, human, and conceptual skills. Top level managers need conceptual
skills in order to view the organization as a whole. Conceptual skills are used in planning and
dealing with ideas and abstractions. Supervisors need technical skills to manage their area of
specialty. All levels of management need human skills in order to interact and communicate
with other people successfully.

As the pace of change accelerates and diverse technologies converge, new global
industries are being created (for example, telecommunications). Technological change alters
the fundamental structure of firms and calls for new organizational approaches and
management skills.

García-Beltrán and Martinez (2006) created a web-based self-assessment

environment to enhance students’ motivation in programming. Setting aside he assessment
character of this approach, they were also interested in creating an environment that would
encourage students to practice programming. Students can select a variety of tests and also
re-take them if they want to re-assess their learning. This is an important characteristic of
automated tools which will be addressed in a later section.
 Lister (2005) presented a multiple-choice exam for assessing undergraduate students’
learning in programming. In his paper, he discusses criteria for assessing such questions. He
created a twenty-six multiplechoice question exam to address three learning objectives
covering object-oriented programming concepts, programming constructs and arrays. The
researcher intended to start a community discussion about criteria to assess such exams and to
suggest a repository with assessment questions in which students’ responses should be stored
as well for future analysis.

Kuechler and Simkin (2003:396) provide a list of advantages of employing

multiple-choice questions in an exam: “machine scoring, volume grading, covering a wide
range of course topics, more objective tools”.

Kuechler and Simkin (2003) also explored the correlation between multiple-choice
questions and constructed response questions in computer programming in higher education.
Even though their results do not suggest using multiplechoice questions exclusively for
assessment, the authors argue that other factors, such as limited budget and large number of
students, could justify the exclusive use of multiple-choice questions for assessment tasks. In
a similar vein, Roberts (2006) welcomes this assessment for programming and describes a
way of connecting multiple-choice questions with feedback and the benefits of this approach
to learning. He argues that multiple-choice questions provide opportunities for learning and
are objective instruments; thus, disagreement over marking hardly arises.

Woodford and Bancroft (2005) also proposed guidelines for educators on creating
effective assessment multiple-choice questions for Information Technology courses

Gawade Santosh Bhiwa “Skill Development-an engine of economic growth” found

that although India had acquired the membership of G20 countries still our human
development index is low and requires a huge intervention and initiatives from the
government. Our expenditure on education share 3.4 of GDP in comparison of other
countries like thailand which share 7.6 share of GDP. India’s world population share is 17.6
 A Study on
Effectiveness of Skill Assessment Test
In
Equitas Small Finance Bank