If you are an employer interested in bringing a pre hire physical abilities testing program into your workplace, ensuring that testing is as cost effective as possible is a priority. What do you need to know to make that happen? When it comes to developing a testing program for your company, there are four crucial steps that can help maximize cost-effectiveness.

Use Testing Only Where You Need It

You may not need physical abilities testing for every job in your workplace. If you're like most employers, only a few jobs account for most of the injuries. Testing only for those jobs where screening can really reduce employee injuries is key to ensuring that your testing program is cost-effective. Spending some time going over your organization's injury data can help you identify which jobs have the highest rates of injury. Once you know, you can create a program that targets those positions.

Build a Solid Foundation

Once you have your list of injury-prone positions, performing a job demands analysis for each of them is the next step. To be cost-effective, physical abilities testing must accurately identify which job candidates are a good match for the physical demands of a particular position. A job demands analysis identifies the most physically demanding aspects of a job, creating the foundation for a test that can accurately assess candidates. It also helps to ensure that your testing correlates with the specific demands of the job, as required for EEOC compliance.

Develop Your Testing Program

Using the information gathered by job analysis, you can develop a physical abilities testing program that mirrors the tasks necessary for good performance in the workplace. If those tasks are highly specialized in terms of equipment and/or materials, lending those materials and/or equipment to evaluators for testing can help create a more accurate simulation of those tasks. Be sure that you have clear pass and fail criteria, and that your testing is done via research-based and validated testing methods.

Periodic Outcomes Review

Once your test is developed and put into action and you're screening all potential new hires, it is important to review outcome information periodically. Evaluating pass/fail rates, reductions in injuries, and related costs, as well as taking into account changes in job demands, will go a long way in determining just how effective and cost efficient your program is. Continuous improvement and regular review allows you to update the program as the needs of your business and the demands of the workplace change.

The best way forward is to choose a testing provider who is willing to work with you to meet the needs of your business. No two companies – even in the same industry – are alike, so the most cost-effective program will always be one that is tailored to meet the specific needs and challenges of your particular workplace.