By Theresa Minton-Eversole
22/11/2010

College seniors are about to enter one of the most unaccommodating labor markets in decades, and many are wondering what they can do to distinguish themselves from their peers during their job searches. Many employers are wondering how to cull their overloaded applicant tracking systems to find the gems in the rough, too.

The GF Education Group has created a Certified Business Laureate Exam (CBLE), a certification exam measuring “applied business knowledge” in five subject areas: finance, accounting, marketing, Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and writing proficiency. The exam was developed through a collaboration of business leaders, business professors, economics professors and educators from top academic institutions, including the Wharton School of Business, Loyola University-Chicago and the University of Florida, among others.

The first CBLE will be administered in March 2011. At a price of $250, it is being marketed to graduates as a tool that will help them get a leg up on the competition. Exam-takers will receive a composite score as well as a section-by-section breakdown of their results.

In a survey conducted by GF Education Group in October 2010 of nearly 850 college students and recent graduates, more than three-quarters (78 percent) of respondents said they would be interested in taking a business skills exam to prove readiness to prospective employers. Twenty-nine percent of students said their greatest hurdle in securing a full-time job is their resume strength, and one-quarter of students said they do not have the chance to demonstrate their skills and abilities.

“What we’re seeing across the country is that college students actually do have the skills businesses are looking for—working knowledge of finance, accounting, marketing, using the Microsoft Office suite of tools and an ability to write—but that it is difficult for students to demonstrate this knowledge,” said Guy Friedman, CEO of GF Education Group. “In many ways, it’s a broken system in which students earn diplomas and grade point averages, two metrics for success specific to their campuses and majors only but ones that are hard to evaluate when compared to peers across the country. The CBLE finally gives students a way to show their business knowledge at this critical career stage. It gives everyone a better solution to the recruitment process.”

Are Such Tests Useful?

The CBLE allows employers, at no cost, to view a nationally standardized score for candidates of all backgrounds.

“In this very difficult economy, hiring managers have been tasked to do more with less. While they have fewer resources to recruit, they have more applicants than ever before,” said Terry Williams, a 30-year veteran of the recruitment industry and founder of TWC Group, a human resources consulting firm. “This has created a vicious cycle of pressure to filter and screen applicants faster and at the same time more efficiently. The industry really needs a way to sort through the thousands of applicants and measure their business aptitude against a national benchmark.”

Such tests and certifications aren’t really new. In fact, specific industry certifications have been around for years. But the relative importance or weight of individual test scores in the overall recruitment screening process remains elusive.

“A well-constructed assessment will provide some level of confidence of skill level on the specific competencies assessed,” said Kim E. Ruyle, vice president, research and development for Minneapolis, Minn.-based Korn/Ferry Leadership and Talent Consulting. “While [applied business knowledge] is very important, it's in relatively high supply in the workforce and for many positions would be considered a price of admission. People are often hired for these skills, but they rarely stand out for having them and are almost never fired for not having them. Other competencies, such as conflict management, motivating others and managing diverse relationships are harder to find in the workforce. And it's the ‘softer’ skills that relate to interpersonal relationships and adapting to change that are often at the root of career derailment.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘You likely need multiple assessments to get an accurate picture.’

-- Kim E. Ruyle, Korn/Ferry

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Still, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) commissioned the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to conduct a series of studies in 2009 with 272 HR faculty members and 399 HR practitioners to identify important HR topics and knowledge areas that its new assurance of learning exam should cover. Those findings revealed that 91 percent of faculty members and 89 percent of HR practitioners that AIR contacted believed strongly that employers who hire new HR staff will appreciate job candidates passing an HR assessment. SHRM is launching its assessment exam for graduating college students in May 2011.

SHRM members who are hiring managers “should rely on this as the universal benchmark to show that recent graduates have acquired the minimum knowledge to be a successful HR practitioner,” said Nancy Woolever, SPHR, director of academic initiatives at SHRM.

Ruyle acknowledged that savvy firms understand that it's important to have an assessment strategy. And these companies use assessment results effectively because they understand that “no one assessment tells the entire story. You likely need multiple assessments to get an accurate picture,” he said. “Assessment data inform decisions. They shouldn't make the decision for you but should rather validate or call into question decisions that have been attended to with discipline and rigor. You can't abdicate your responsibility to make a selection decision, for instance, by excusing yourself with a test score.”

Ruyle and other staffing experts agree that there’s growing interest in this kind of testing, and as such, the growth in this segment of the testing industry is likely to increase.

Theresa Minton-Eversole is an online editor/manager for SHRM.