Many different factors can affect an individual’s ability to multitask effectively. Multitasking tests can be a great way to ensure candidates can handle daily life in certain roles. Completing more than one task at a time, especially more than one complex task, is a “meta-skill” that companies often look for in new hires.

Multitasking is a difficult skill to measure; however, a few methods are commonly used to evaluate it.

What is multitasking?

Multitasking is commonly known as the ability to complete several tasks simultaneously. This definition is, however, contentious, and there is evidence to suggest that the human brain doesn’t actually multitask; rather, it just switches between tasks quickly. Putting neuroscience to one side for a second, whether our definition incorporates an ability to switch tasks quickly or to run them concurrently, multitasking in a broad sense can be a valuable skill for us to possess.

Many roles that require multitasking go unnoticed. Take the call centre worker, for example. This employee needs to speak on the phone while dealing with a customer’s problem while simultaneously logging details into a computer screen, solving the problem, and explaining the information back to the customer. If they are unable to do all of these tasks at once, they will be ineffective at the job. 

Multitask testing provides employers with the means to evaluate how effective a candidate is at switching contexts and their ability to mentally juggle multiple tasks at once, making it a really valuable tool in the pre-employment assessment phase.

How to Test Multitasking Skills

Asking a candidate to give you examples of times they’ve had to multi-task doesn’t demonstrate a skill; it just tests someone’s interview preparedness.

A well-crafted multitasking test will help you to understand someone’s capability in this area. Here are the steps to follow to test multi-tasking skills:

1. Know the role 

It is helpful to know exactly the type of tasks that the employee will need to juggle. Is it a role that involves communicating directly with customers whilst solving problems? Or is it a mix of digital and physical tasks? Do they need to be able to avoid or manage distractions?

The most accurate assessments are contextual, meaning they’re set within a real-life setting. It matters what tasks someone will do, so measuring the exact skills and behaviour is always the best approach. Knowing the job role thoroughly, preferably through an in-depth job analysis, will help to design the most effective multitasking assessment.

2. Know where in the hiring process to use your test

When will candidates be tested in the recruitment process? At the start or midway through? Knowing this may determine what type of test you want to create and the medium of delivering it. Multi-tasking tests can be delivered online through a work simulation or realistic job assessment at the top of the hiring funnel; other times, it’s best to assess them in person via a role-play exercise after an initial screening.

2. Determine a job-relevant style of test

Tests should be tailored to the role’s actual responsibilities. First, identify what types of multitasking appear in the role’s context. Is it simultaneous communication and data entry, or perhaps visual identification, attention to detail, and customer service? 

3. Evaluative Assessment

An evaluative assessment involves each candidate having to focus on completing several tasks simultaneously. This may include tasks overlapping with specific time intervals and task switching. By comparing how long it takes for people to get everything done, you can measure the cost in time for switching tasks. You can then also assess how different aspects of the tasks, such as complexity or familiarity, affect any extra time cost of switching.

This should provide a sound evaluation of the candidate’s ability to juggle tasks under pressure. A well-designed online pre-hire assessment tool automatically enables multi-tasking questions that create artificial pressure through time penalties or inaccuracies.

4. Let the candidate “experience” the role 

Personalised job simulations and automated work samples have the added benefit of providing a realistic job preview for candidates as part of the assessment. This will be more effective than just giving candidates a generic multitasking test, as it will also give them an insight as to what the role will involve. This offers them the opportunity to decide if the role is really suited to them as individuals.

5. Involve a memory component

Research suggests that people who are good at multitasking tend to have a better prospective memory. Prospective memory involves remembering to perform a particular task at some point in the future. In a work context, this may be things like replying to an email or remembering to conduct health and safety procedures. Of course, prospective memory can also be a precious skill for employees to possess; therefore, testing someone’s multitasking capability can bring a correlative benefit.

Selecting candidates with strong prospective memory abilities can be valuable in environments where there are few reminders for tasks to be performed, such as startup or unstructured workplaces.

6. Keep it simple

Multitasking tests shouldn’t require any pre-requisite training or domain knowledge. It’s important to check that your test doesn’t benefit candidates with previous domain expertise. Your test provider should be able to help you with validating that either before or shortly after a test has been activated.

7. Score it Objectively

Where possible, tests should be objectively scored. Meaning that it shouldn’t involve personal opinions or thoughts. Scoring consistency is easier to achieve via online assessments rather than in-person assessments with a manual scoring element. The best selection methods combine the objectivity of an online assessment with an in-person subjective assessment. However, these tests must measure the same things relatively similarly.

8. Weighted Scoring

The final thing to consider is how much emphasis you want someone’s ability to multi-task to have in the overall selection decision. Although a critical skill, it usually needs to be considered alongside other desired attributes in your ideal candidate profile. Knowing this is critical to making better hiring decisions, after all, no role consists of pure multi-tasking, it’s also important to be good at the separate tasks involved!

Closing

Testing a candidate’s ability to multitask for certain roles can be crucial. For example, losing just a half-second of time to task switching can make a life-or-death difference to an air traffic controller or a driver. On a more generic note, slow task switching can negatively impact someone’s productivity if they are switching tasks constantly over a working day.

Multitask testing in the pre-employment stages should make your selection decisions for the roles where it is essential much easier by unlocking information that you can’t easily get from a conventional interview. It will enable you to gain valuable insight into a candidate’s skills, which are usually only revealed once employed.

If you need any assistance with testing multitasking skills, please contact us here at ThriveMap. Our real-life assessments will help you conduct an effective and informative multitasking test for any job role you need to fill.

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