Attention to Detail: Why It Is Important and How to Test It?
Every company craves detail orientation. They want to hire smart candidates who are accurate and detail-oriented. To hire such candidates, there is immense pressure on the company. The pressure gets amplified even more if you don’t know the right way to assess their ability.
When you are hiring a new employee, it is easy to think that you need to hire the candidate with the most experience. Yet, a candidate who has a lot of experience and a lot of attention to detail is the ideal candidate.
Attention to detail is an ability that is quite in demand in most industries. This article focuses on various aspects of attention to detail. It covers what it means, and what are the types. It also elaborates why attention to detail is important and how to test attention to detail.
What Does Attention to Detail Mean?
Attention to detail is a skill that focuses on doing any work with minute detail. It is an ability that makes a person precise and detail-oriented.
People with attention to detail produce more accurate work within a given time limit. They possess good planning and time management skills. Such people add great value to your company.
Types of Attention to Details
There are two types of attention to detail skills; visual and textual. It depends on the job requirements and roles.
Visual Attention to Detail
Visual detail orientation refers to a person’s ability to identify visual stimuli. Graphics, designs, visuals, etc. need visual detail orientation.
Website designing, UX/UI designing, healthcare, etc. are some industries that demand visual attention to detail.
Textual Attention to Detail
Textual attention to detail refers to a person’s ability to identify textual stimuli. Data, instructions, tasks, etc. are some areas requiring textual detail orientation.
Software development, writing, data science, and marketing are some industries that demand textual attention to detail.
Why Attention to Detail is Important?
Imagine an employee doing his work without paying attention. His work is full of errors. Such a candidate will affect your company. Meanwhile, an employee who focuses on every minute task produces error-free work. He/she is an asset to your company.
Attention to detail ensures that all staff deliver precise work with minimal error. Their work requires less correction which will save lots of time. However, not all industries demand attention to detail. Still, detail-oriented work is valuable.
When you hire employees with attention to detail skills;
- They give you error-free work.
- The quality of work is top-notched.
- They identify problems and give solutions.
- They work with minimal supervision.
An employee with no detailed orientation will cost much more to the company as;
- They will ruin customer satisfaction.
- They are less trustworthy.
- They failed to follow instructions leading to misinterpreted work.
How to Test Attention to Detail?
Attention to detail is a crucial skill to have. You can not gauge it in a short span of interviews. When you keep following things in mind, you can assess future hires with the required skills.
Attention to the Resume/Portfolio/Cover Letters
By now you must know that a resume can make or break your hiring intentions. suppose you have less time to scrutinize every resume. You can always pay attention to the skills, spelling, grammar, format, synchronization, etc.
According to a survey, 43% of hiring managers reject resumes only due to bad grammar.
If a candidate is putting effort into making his/her resume stand out, he/she is a detail-oriented person.
Use of Screening Assessment Tools
Assessment tools come to the rescue when you want to analyze many candidates. These tools comprise pre-defined questionnaires by subject matter experts. These tests can also help in identifying personality and human behavior.
Testlify offers several predefined attention-to-detail assessment tests. It helps with attention to detail quality.
Observation During the Interviews
Interviews are one of the most useful ways to assess attention to detail quality. If you want to assess candidates’ preparation for the interview, quiz them. You can ask them about the company, job requirements, previous work, etc.
Assess The Previous Work
While interviewing you can ask your candidates for their previous work or portfolio. Their work will help you to check their attention toward precision.
The above methods elaborate on how to test attention to detail. You can practice most methods to ease the process of hiring and hiring the right employee.
Conclusion
Attention to detail is an important soft skill to have. When your hires have detailed orientation, your company will never suffer a loss. To assess this ability in your future hires, you need to take them through good assessment tests. Attention to detail assessment will gauge their abilities.
Testlify is an AI-powered tool. It hosts predefined assessment tests for various job roles. You will get a pre-defined system that will help you to hire the right candidates.
