Observation

U.S. organizations spend billions of dollars each year on employee training. Observation skills play an important role in the success of workplace training and are critical to job performance and learning. Paying attention to instructions, demonstrations, and noticing details are critical components of successful training, quality control, and safety in the workplace.

The WorkKeys Observation test measures the skill people use when they pay attention to and remember work-related instructions, demonstrations, and procedures. There may be distractions or other information competing for the individual's attention.

The scenarios and items in the Observation test are based on the actual demands of the workplace, and selections take the form of video presentations of individuals in various workplace settings. When presented with increasingly complex situations, examinees are asked to pay careful attention to steps to be followed in a process, to safety procedures, and to quality control standards. Factors influencing the complexity of an observation task include how many variables the task involves, how strongly the examinee is directed to pay attention to certain details, and how many distractions (e.g., extraneous details) are present and how strong these distractions are.

Related Information

Characteristics/Skills
Sample Items—Level 3, Level 4, Level 5, Level 6

NOTE: Since the actual test is video-based, the samples included are intended only to give a sense of the types of scenarios and items used in the test. Printing the samples and having someone read them aloud while you try to visualize the scenarios and clips that precede the questions will more closely simulate the test than would a simple reading of the descriptions.