Initiated by the RGD's Ethics Committee, the Guidelines outline the key components of a fair skills test and provide employers with do's and don'ts to follow when creating them. The Guidelines also provide a simple checklist to determine if an existing skills test is fair, and examples of skills tests that meet the Guidelines' criteria.

“Skills testing has become increasingly common during the hiring process, and after hearing too many horror stories where the practice was misused or abused, I felt like something needed to be done,” says Evelyn Csiszar RGD, the Ethics Committee Member who lead the creation of the Guidelines. “I hope these will help designers understand what employers can reasonably ask of them and when they should refuse to partake altogether, while also providing employers with best practices for how to conduct fair and ethical skills tests if they choose to do so. I hope this initiative will help empower the design community and foster respect and dignity for the design profession at large.”

Click here to download the new Skills Testing Guidelines.

Document design and copy: Evelyn Csiszar RGD