What does in-basket testing mean?

In-basket testing is the term for a type of pre-employment testing that simulates the types of work that a candidate would perform daily on the job. At the beginning of the test, the candidate receives an in-basket of tasks to complete. Their goal is to accomplish each task and move it to the out basket. You may sometimes see the in-basket test referred to as the inbox test or the basket technique.

Related: Pre-Employment Testing: Seven Great Ideas to Try

What is an example of an in-basket activity?

Here’s an example of how an in-basket test works. At the beginning of the in-basket exercise, the employee’s in basket contains the following:

• An email from a customer lodging a complaint about a product and asking for a refund
• A phone message from a member of another department requesting information about a customer
• A form that needs to be completed to change a customer’s address
• An email from a supervisor containing a document that requires editing to reduce the word count from 200 to 150 words
• A memo describing a new policy regarding customer refunds

The employee has 90 minutes to complete the above tasks. At the end of the in-basket activity, the hiring manager and other people responsible for rating the candidate meet face-to-face with the candidate to discuss the experience. They ask a list of standard questions, including:

• How would you rate your performance on the in-basket exercise?
• How did you come up with a plan to complete the in-basket tasks?
• Which tasks were the easiest for you to complete?
• Which tasks were the most difficult to complete?
• What were the biggest challenges that you faced when completing the tasks?

After the discussion, the candidate leaves and the raters assign scores to the candidate using a standard rubric. When scoring, the raters consider the quality of the work produced as well as the candidate’s answers to the follow-up questions.

A member of the rating team then either adds up the scores to give the candidate a final total score or calculates their average score. The total or final score can be used to compare candidates for an open position.

What are the benefits of using an in-basket exercise?

In-basket testing provides numerous benefits for employers, including all of the following.

More informed hiring decisions

The biggest benefit of in-basket testing is that it can increase the chances of a company making the right hire for an open position by giving an indication of a candidate’s:

• Planning skills: To complete the in-basket exercise, the candidate will need to quickly develop and then implement a plan.
• Decision-making skills: The in-basket test requires candidates to make decisions and exercise the best judgment.
• Organizational skills: During the exercise, a candidate will need to keep information and documents organized.
• Multitasking skills: To finish the assessment on time, the candidate may need to switch back and forth between tasks.
• Communication skills: The in-basket test may require both verbal and oral communication, giving employers a chance to see how well the candidate expresses ideas and concepts.
• Interpersonal skills: In-basket testing can give an indication of how a candidate will interact with customers, supervisors and coworkers.
• Analytical ability: An in-basket test may involve interpreting statistics or numerical data that is relevant to the position.
• Time management: Because the in-basket exercise is usually timed, employers can see how a candidate budgets their time to complete tasks before a deadline.
• Stress management: By simulating the pressure to complete a daily task, an in-basket activity can reveal how well a candidate performs under stress.

Related: Testing Analytical Skills When Hiring Employees

Simplicity

Compared to other types of pre-employment testing, an in-basket activity may be simpler to plan because it doesn’t involve developing written or oral exam questions. Instead, employers can draw inspiration from issues that occur on the job and use existing paperwork.

Flexibility

Once an evaluation framework is in place, an employer can modify the specific types of tasks in the in-basket exercise to reflect the specific duties associated with different jobs. As a result, the exercise can be used as a part of the hiring process for many roles.

What are the drawbacks of using an in-basket exercise?

In-basket testing does have some potential drawbacks for employers.

Requires advance planning

Initially, a company will need to spend time developing an evaluation system and training hiring managers and HR professionals on how to use it. As a result, in-basket testing isn’t something that can be deployed immediately.

Slows down the hiring process

Scheduling and administering in-basket activities for each candidate increases the length of time between advertising a job listing and making a hire. Consequently, teams may be short-staffed for longer. It may also be difficult to juggle a large number of tests when an organization needs to hire many people at once, such as when expanding and creating an entirely new team.

Risk for biases and inconsistency

When creating an in-basket exercise, employers must ensure that the evaluation criteria are objective and measurable. If subjectivity enters the rating process, certain candidates may be at a disadvantage and hiring practices may unintentionally become unfair.

Is in-basket testing right for your business?

Whether in-basket testing is right for your business will depend on the types of positions you need to fill, how many job openings you have, how much time you have to fill them and whether you have the resources available to design and train your hiring team on an objective evaluation system. Weighing the pros and cons of in-basket exercises can help you decide if you should begin using them to evaluate candidates.

In-basket test FAQs

Do I need to notify candidates about our in-basket test ahead of time?

It’s generally a good idea to let candidates know that an in-basket exercise is a part of the hiring process. This way, they know what to expect and can come prepared for the test. Notifying candidates in advance will also help ensure that they have enough time in their daily schedules to complete the test.

What is the difference between an in-basket test and a cognitive ability test?

A cognitive ability test assesses a candidate’s mental abilities. It may focus on verbal comprehension, learning agility, numerical or verbal reasoning or logical thinking and typically consists of a series of written questions. An in-basket test also assesses candidate abilities but does so by requiring them to perform tasks similar to those they would be expected to perform on the job rather than by answering test questions.

What is the difference between an in-basket test and a personality test?

A personality test gives employers a picture of a candidate’s traits rather than abilities and skills. Although elements of a candidate’s personality may become evident during an in-basket test, the focus of this type of pre-employment testing is to assess how well they can perform the types of tasks they will be asked to do on the job.

How can you make in-basket testing more inclusive?

Making your in-basket exercise and the room where you administer the test accessible to people with disabilities can help foster inclusivity. Some things you can do to improve accessibility include installing text-to-speech software for people who have vision impairments, allowing candidates to stand as needed during the test and stopping the test as needed to give candidates short breaks. It’s a good idea to ask candidates if they will require any accommodations to perform their best on the test.