Hiring qualified IT candidates is no easy chore. Aside from the fact that it is so difficult to find such people, once you have found them, how do you know how good they are?

None of the usual methods of screening offers a perfect approach. You hardly ever receive a bad resume. Reference checking is also imprecise because most employers are afraid to be sued by the candidate if they give the candidate a really bad reference. Interviews are equally hazardous, considering the restrictions placed on the interviewer. Furthermore, for strongly technical positions, the interviewer is often at a technical disadvantage and does not have the depth of knowledge to properly assess the skills of the candidate.

So what happens? Usually, you attempt to match the candidate's experience with the software jargon of what the position requires. Very often this is successful, but when it is not, the costs can be very high.

Most of the time, the project that the new hire comes into is a complex one. Consistently successful companies usually have a proven method of bringing the new hire into the process smoothly.

Ultimately, if this person turns out not to be as good as the company requires, the organization can incur substantial costs between the time of hire and when the person is let go. These costs include more than just salary and severance. A hire's inadequate performance can cost the project and the company tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, plus expensive delays.

Fortunately, there is another way to gain insight into the applicant's real abilities: through the use of job-related, valid and predictive tests. Tests that simulate what the person does on the job can differentiate in a very meaningful way between talented people and those whose skills don't match the requirements. The use of testing is not the whole answer, but testing provides insight that you cannot obtain from other screening methods.