Testing Candidate Skills

My boss wants to start testing the skills of all prospective new hires before we make them an offer. Can we do this? Any pitfalls?
- VP Finance, Hedge Fund

Testing is a great way to help validate your hiring decisions, as well as a way to eliminate a candidate from consideration. Testing however must be non- discriminatory in nature or you may be found to be in violation of labor laws. Specifically be sure your test is certified / reviewed by a legal professional specializing in labor law or published by a company that certifies their tests accordingly. Lastly be sure to test all candidates vs. just a few. When you only test a select few you again raise the risk of being accused of discrimination by those tested...and even by those not tested.

David Lewis -- AKA Mister HR
http://www.OperationsInc.com