The Hire Success® Pre-Employment English Grammar Test

Hire job applicants with excellent language skills

Because hires reflect your organization, it's vital they have good communication and language skills. Add an English grammar test for hiring and find out whether your candidates have the language skills needed for the job:

  • Uncover candidates who exhibit the level of professionalism wanted in your organization
  • Find candidates who can communicate in an intelligent, thoughtful, and organized manner
  • Because good grammar is also associated with attention to detail, trainability, and self-esteem, you want to identify candidates with these skills
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What is a grammar test for employment?

A pre-employment grammar proficiency test is an assessment given to job candidates to determine their knowledge of basic English grammar and punctuation. When used as part of the hiring process, this test can save you time — and possibly a bad hire — by helping you eliminate anyone who doesn't have the skills you need.

Why test your job applicants' grammar skills?

Written communication remains an important job skill for most roles. Whether you have technicians writing up repair notes, a marketing staffer sending out a social media post, or a billing clerk sending out a statement of account, good writing matters. The stakes of a misspelling or missing comma can be high:

  • Creates a poor impression, leading to trust issues
  • Makes your company look unprofessional and sloppy
  • Slows readers and creates confusion
  • Miscommunication
  • You may lose business
  • Remedial training will cost you time, and money

Grammar testing for employment purposes is one of the best ways to ensure that your job candidates have the necessary language skills for the position.

What is a pre employment grammar proficiency test for employment?

Jobs that benefit from administering a grammar assessment

By requiring a grammar proficiency test for employment, you can ensure that everyone you bring in for an interview has the language skills needed for a role at your company. You can also create custom aptitude and skills tests that include questions tailored to the job.

Occupational roles that might benefit from a grammar test for employment include:

  • Customer service representatives
  • Writers/editors
  • Marketing assistants
  • Administrative assistants
  • Communications associates
  • Public relations specialists
  • HR associates
  • Paralegals
  • Real estate agents
  • Many others

How do language skills affect customer service?

Language skills are important to customer service in three ways. First, skilled communicators make customers feel valued and serviced. Second, language reflects on people's impression of your company and the quality of service they get. Lastly, good communication solves problems, provides advice that is easy to understand, and leads to high customer satisfaction. The right words can save you money and your reputation.

What does the Hire Success® basic grammar test include?

The Hire Success® Grammar Proficiency Test consists of 41 multiple-choice questions about basic English grammar and punctuation, ranging from fourth grade to college level.

The basic English test for employment includes the following topics:

  • Identifying grammatically correct sentences
  • Identifying correct subject-verb combinations
  • Punctuation
  • Capitalization
  • Word usage

Difficulty levels: 4th through 8th grade, 9th through 12th grade, and College level.

Time limit: Not timed

You will receive up to 3 separate reports:

Grammar Proficiency Summary Report

The Hire Success® Summary Report for every grammar skills test is broken down into sections.

  • High-level summary. Get information specific to the test-taker, such as overall score, weighted score, and correct answers.
  • Summary of statistics by cohort. Incorporating campaign, position, location, and account, this section shows how the applicant compares to other cohorts.
  • Distribution of people. A graph shows you the distribution of people within the applicant's campaign.
  • Scores by category. View scores in each of three difficulty levels: fourth through eighth grade; ninth through 12th grade; college level.
Grammar proficiency summary report.
Grammar proficiency detail report.

Grammar Proficiency Detail Report

The Detail Report for the grammar skills test gives you a breakdown of how the candidate answered each question on the test:

  • Section 1 — incorrect answers
  • Section 2 — correct answers

Grouping the candidate's test answers in this way not only provides you with an easy way to gauge where the candidate made mistakes but also helps you get an idea of the candidate's areas of strength or weakness. You may want to follow up on some concepts in an interview if the candidate is selected for the next step in the hiring process.

Candidate Audit Report

If you activate the cheating mitigation feature for your grammar aptitude test, you'll receive a Hire Success® Audit Report showing you a timeline that reveals:

  1. When the candidate selects answers within a question.
  2. When the test taker moves to the next question.
  3. If or when the test taker leaves/returns.

The report also shows whether the test was automatically submitted because the candidate left the testing window for too long or ran out of time.

This feature doesn't just help you find out whether applicants know the test answers — it uncovers how well they know them. With the Audit Report, you can confide in hiring decisions.

Candidate audit report.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you test grammar skills in the workplace?

You explore several different areas when conducting grammar tests for job candidates. Language, such as subject and verb agreement, conjugation, and sentence structure, are core concepts. Pronouns and proper punctuation are also important. Spelling, while not technically grammar, is often included. You test in general business settings by default but can add industry-specific concepts.

How will I receive each job candidate's grammar test results?

For every grammar aptitude test that's submitted, you'll receive two reports or three, if you activate cheating mitigation. You'll receive an email notification immediately upon submission, and results will be available for review in your Hire Success® online account instantly. You can view results in your account securely from any internet-connected device, and print or share results.

Can I customize the pre-employment grammar test?

Yes! With the Custom Test Builder, you can use questions from our database to tailor the exam exactly to the job you're hiring for. When customizing your grammar test for job applicants, you can also include questions in other areas, such as reading comprehension or logic.

Learn about the Hire Success® Custom Test Builder

How much does the grammar skills test cost?

Hire Success® offers a complete system to help you improve your entire recruiting, interviewing, and hiring process. Pricing depends on factors specific to your business, such as the number of assessments you'd like to be administered and scored, so the best way to get accurate pricing information is to contact representatives for a no-pressure customized quote.

Why is English fluency so important in a call center?

Grammar tests for job interviews are important, especially in call centers. Call centers are where your company communicates directly with customers at critical moments. People interacting with call centers are usually either trying to buy something or they have a problem. In both cases, being able to speak and write fluently in English can directly affect your bottom line. The ability to accurately transcribe notes, use the correct phrases and terminology, and help the caller successfully achieve results all depend on effective English grammar skills.

How can existing employees improve their language skills?

A grammar skills test given to existing employees can help you understand how to help a valuable staffer improve. Many people welcome the chance to increase their skills, especially if it can lead to more responsibility, a higher position, and increased pay. People with poor grammar skills may suffer self esteem issues or become embarrassed when they have to read or write something. When given an opportunity free of judgment, they likely will appreciate opportunities to strengthen their skills.

Request a customized quote from Hire Success®

Ready to hire employees with perfect grammar skills?

Take a free test run of our whole system — from the grammar proficiency test to the personality profile to the integrity test and more — and find out why thousands of companies have turned to Hire Success® to build stronger, more organized and more consistent hiring systems.

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