Mobile Testing: Are some pre-employment testing providers acting like Ostriches?
July 31, 2014, 8:00:00 PM EDT By Mike Russiello By almost all accounts, most pre-employment online testing today is performed via traditional desktop and laptop computers. Our own study of device usage for testing indicates that mobile devices are used less than 5 percent of the time. Consequently, you probably don't see the major pre-employment testing companies rushing to make their tests mobile-friendly. However, the changing demographics of Internet access cannot be ignored. Consider this chart, published by Morgan Stanley back in 2010, that shows that by 2014 most web browsing will be conducted by mobile devices: In January of 2014, the Pew Research Internet Project, a wide referenced source of Internet usage statistics published these facts:
Based on these American statistics, it appears Morgan Stanley was right, and the future is now. The majority of Internet usage is mobile. Taking a second look at the statistics above from an employer's perspective, the most telling factoid is the last one, which hints that there is a growing number of potential candidates that don't have access to a desktop or laptop device. This means that unless a mobile alternative is offered, a growing number of candidates could be excluded from the candidate pool. That is something virtually all employers want to avoid. So why are test providers putting their heads in the sand? There are several explanations, and they all probably contribute to this behavior. 1) Test providers don't see evidence in the numbers.This reminds me of when I started Brainbench, an online testing company, back in 1998. At the time, the Internet was just becoming mainstream, and the vast majority of pre-hire tests were conducted using paper booklets. Many test providers said they didn't see demand for Internet testing. Yet within 2-4 years all of them were forced to move their offering online.2) Test providers want to research mobile testing before they implement it.Many testing companies are led by psychologists, and by definition, psychologists are scientists. They tend to avoid doing anything new until there is sufficient published research providing a justification for it. A similar argument was voiced repeatedly in the early days of Internet testing, and the research is still trickling in for that one. However, the world would not wait for the researchers to agree on conclusions, and the world shifted to online testing. The same thing is happening with mobile testing.3) Mobile support for pre-employment testing requires significant technical modifications.Here are some key requirements that must be satisfied to make tests mobile friendly:
Of course, performing these modifications requires significant investment. Is it enough to make other test providers stick their heads in the dirt? Quite possibly. Just ask them. |