Basic Excel Assessment to assess candidates' knowledge of functions and formulas
The Excel Assessment is designed to determine a potential candidate's basic Excel skills. This assessment evaluates the candidate's ability to use Excel for filtering, formatting, applying formulas, and other functions. This test is applicable across various job roles.
About Mercer | Mettl Basic Excel Assessment
The Mercer | Mettl Basic Excel Assessment measures candidates' Excel skills, focusing on the basics of handling the sheet and tracking inventory, among other skills. Excel works as the backbone of operational efficiency across sectors. What made Excel particularly important in the Philippine setting is the combination of accessibility and capability that the software provides. Excel enables instant, cost-effective solutions for organizations operating across diverse resource levels, without requiring significant investment or technological infrastructure. This democratization of data management has become fundamental to how Philippine enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, embed Excel within organizational structures, serving functions that span routine administrative tasks to complex analytical work.
Purpose of the Excel Basics Test
- Screening- This technical test forms part of a critical stage during the recruitment process. When organizations use the test on potential candidates, hiring teams make a distinction between those applicants who possess actual Excel skills and those who may exaggerate their capabilities on job applications. The screening tool ensures that only individuals demonstrating baseline competencies make further progress through the recruitment pipelines. The technical test is a form of protection for organizations from hiring employees who are not ready for the tasks related to the roles.
- Upskilling- The technical test identifies performance gaps within existing employee populations, revealing which team members require targeted training interventions. When managers receive test results identifying specific Excel improvement areas, such as difficulty with pivot tables or conditional formatting, they strategically deploy resources to address these deficiencies. The technical test transforms professional development from generalized training into customized programs tailored to actual workforce needs, ensuring that upskilling investments generate measurable returns in workplace productivity.
- Benchmarking- Organizations use this technical test to establish performance baselines against which they measure progress over time. Through the technical test, companies can determine whether their teams are operating at competitive skill levels in their industries by comparing the Excel proficiency of their workforce to industry standards. Strategic choices regarding training priorities and resource allocation are informed by benchmarking using the technical test.
Who should use this test?
- HR managers- Human Resources managers can leverage the technical test to maintain accurate capability inventories across their organizations. When HR departments understand which employees possess advanced Excel skills, they allocate personnel more effectively to projects requiring data analysis. HR managers deploy the technical test during recruitment cycles to ensure new hires meet role requirements, and they administer periodic reassessments to track skill evolution within their workforce.
- Hiring managers- Hiring managers can integrate this technical test into their recruitment workflows to validate that candidates can execute the technical responsibilities ingrained in available positions. For example, when a department requires someone to manage spreadsheets, analyze sales data, or generate monthly reports, the hiring manager uses the technical test to confirm the candidate's actual capabilities.
- CXOs- Executive leadership can employ this technical test to understand organizational capability across digital tools and identify systemic skill gaps that affect operational efficiency. CXOs can leverage the technical test data to make strategic decisions about technology adoption, workforce development budgets, and competitive positioning within their industries.
Skills assessed
Organizations test a wide range of competencies in Excel via the technical test, thereby ensuring that assessments capture the full range of capabilities needed in modern workplaces.
- The test assesses proficiency with formulas and functions, the basic mechanics by which professionals automate calculations and manipulate datasets.
- Data entry accuracy is assessed because organizations understand that even sophisticated analyses provide flawed conclusions if source data contains mistakes.
- Formatting skills are also assessed as professionals must package information in ways that stakeholders can make sense of, efficiently and effectively.
- A candidate's ability to create charts and pivot tables are another core component of the assessment.
These specific skills matter substantially for job roles across sectors in Philippines. Professionals in finance departments use formulas and functions daily to calculate interest rates, generate expense reports, etc. Administrative assistants rely on data entry accuracy and formatting skills to maintain personnel records, inventory systems, and client databases. The sales teams use charts to demonstrate performance trends to management and clients, making their visualization capabilities critical. In evaluating these sets of intertwined skills, a technical test ensures that an organization assesses whether candidates or employees can execute the real work responsibilities embedded within Philippine professional environments, rather than assessing isolated technical knowledge that is disconnected from practical application.
Benefits of using the Excel Basics Test
- Objective performance measurement
The test provides measurable data on Excel competency, eliminating the guesswork from hiring and team placement decisions. The scores reflect actual capability rather than resume claims or interview perceptions, allowing managers to match people to projects with confidence.
- Faster recruitment screening
Early testing filters only shortlist suitable candidates, saving time and resources on interviews. By identifying qualified applicants quickly, organizations cut down on hiring cycles and recruitment costs, enabling the HR teams to concentrate on the genuine prospects only.
Sample questions
1. Over a period of six months, a manager wishes to see monthly sales trends for three different product categories. The information is contained in a spreadsheet with category values in columns B, C, and D and months in column A. Which kind of chart best presents this data on comparative trends?
A) Line chart
B) Pie chart
C) Scatter plot
D) Gauge chart
Answer: A) Line chart
2. A dataset contains five hundred employee records that consist of name, department, salary, and hire date. An HR manager needs to summarize total salaries by department to understand labor cost distribution. Which Excel feature enables this analysis most efficiently?
A) Pivot table
B) Filter function
C) Conditional formatting
D) Sort capability
Answer: A) Pivot table
3. A dataset contains employee information with an extra blank row at position 5. What action eliminates this blank row?
A) Right-click row 5 and select delete
B) Click row 5 and press the delete key
C) Select row 5 and press backspace
D) Clear contents of row 5
Answer: A) Right-click row 5 and select delete
MS Excel Competency Framework
Get a detailed look inside the test
Competency Under Scanner
Basic excel competencies
Competencies:
Demonstrating an ability to use different view options, file saving options, setting password option, etc. to protect data in the excel files.
Demonstrating an ability to use different formulas like sum, average, count, if, etc. to perform simple and complex calculations on the data to derive useful insights and present the outcomes in a presentable manner.
Demonstrating an ability to present data in an organized manner and apply filters to sort the data into the given categories.
Demonstrating an ability to work faster and efficiently using shortcuts to work on large amount of data, using pivot tables to filter the required data, using charts to present data efficiently and creating hyperlinks in the document which helps in accessing information stored on a network server using internet.
Customize This Test
Flexible customization options to suit your needs
Choose easy, medium or hard questions from our skill libraries to assess candidates of different experience levels.
Add multiple skills in a single test to create an effective assessment. Assess multiple skills together.
Add, edit or bulk upload your own coding questions, MCQ, whiteboarding questions & more.
Get a tailored assessment created with the help of our subject matter experts to ensure effective screening.
The Mercer | Mettl Advantage
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes, benchmarks can be provided for the test. Please contact mettlcontact@mercer.com for assistance.
Yes, we can do so selectively. Please write to us for such a request and we would be glad to work out a solution for you.
The test targets professionals entering the workforce, existing employees transitioning into data-focused roles, and candidates applying for positions requiring spreadsheet competency. Organizations leverage the test during recruitment and internal skill assessments across all departments and seniority levels.
Excel proficiency directly impacts operational efficiency and data accuracy within organizations. Assessing these skills ensures employees can execute daily responsibilities, reduces costly errors from improper data handling, and identifies training needs that strengthen overall workforce capability.
Assessment formats vary depending on organizational requirements. Tests may combine multiple-choice questions that test conceptual understanding with practical exercises, in which candidates are required to perform real spreadsheet tasks. Practical components provide an authentic measurement of applied skills beyond theoretical knowledge.
Scores help categorize performances different levels such as beginner, intermediate, and advanced. This indicates the candidate's range of proficiency. Organizations refer to individual scores in comparison with benchmarks to identify top performers, and make informed hiring or placement decisions. Results drive organizational strategy and personalized development paths for employees.
