Candidate Assessment Platforms for Comprehensive Skill Assessment

The one size fits all doesn’t apply to the interviewing process. Over the course of time, the recruitment team of an organization builds its own interview method. Interview techniques for employees followed by the hiring team are aligned to the culture fabric of the organization. Some of the interviewers stick to conventional recruitment processes, while others incorporate modern recruitment methods in their hiring processes. This blog focuses on modern recruitment methods and various interview techniques and formats followed by employers.

Effectiveness of Modern Recruitment Methods

Recruitment may not be an exact science, there is no right or wrong way of recruiting new talent. However, sticking to conventional recruitment processes may slow down and render the hiring process ineffective. Modern recruitment methods leverage technology in order to cater to evolving market requirements and candidate expectations.

Conventional recruitment processes rely on subjective candidate evaluation methods like written evaluations and face-to-face interviews. Manually managed candidate assessments are ineffective for mass recruitment requirements as they are time consuming and unscalable. Archaic candidate assessments focus only on technical skill evaluation and evaluation of soft skills is side lined. Apart from being technically skilled, the candidate must have the right demeanor so that he/she fits well into the cultural fabric of the organization.

Modern recruitment techniques use candidate assessment software for effective and quick evaluation of candidates at scale. Screening of several candidate profiles can be done by the pre-screening test process by evaluating their technical, behavioural traits, cognitive ability, and reasoning abilities.

Here are 5 reasons why modern hiring methods are effective:

Modern assessment platforms are equipped to evaluate several candidate profiles within a short duration of time.
Candidate assessment platforms ensure holistic evaluation of candidates by including behavioral assessment tests, cognitive ability evaluations, logical and analytical reasoning ability assessment tests, and work simulations in the pre-employment screening.
Technology-driven candidate assessment saves time and costs for the recruitment team.
Candidate assessment software enables the hiring team to hire at scale.
Instant reports and analytics at the end of the test are shared with the hiring team to make informed hiring decisions.

Pre-employment assessment platforms are a great way to determine the skill gap in the workforce. Administering the skill assessments on employees helps in planning the training and development programs to bridge the skill gap.

Types of Interview Techniques

The interview techniques followed during the recruitment process vary depending on what the employers are trying to assess. Interviews are meant to give you insights into the candidate’s skills and competencies so you can make informed hiring decisions. Different roles and skills govern the kind of interviews that employers need to run.

Conversational Interview: This is the most popular interview type. Conversational interviews aim at striking casual conversation with the candidate about the role. Prior to a conversational interview, the interviewer would go through the candidate’s CV so that they are familiar with the candidate’s skills, experience, and competencies. This is often the final step in the recruitment process. This is also referred to as an informational interview.
Behavioural interviews: Behavioural based interview (BBI) is used for assessing how candidates handle work-related situations. Psychological evaluation has crept into the recruitment process in the 1970s. Behavioral interviews are now an integral part of the hiring process. The past performance of the candidate can be assessed in a more specific format through behavioural interviews. Interviewers ask questions that go into specific details on how the candidate handled a situation in the past, and the thought process behind the course of action. The response to such specific questions throws light into the prospect’s emotional state at challenging situations in the past, which helps assess how well they would perform in your company. Actual core skills required for the job like critical thinking, initiative, motivation, willingness to take up work challenges, professionalism, and teamwork, can be assessed through behavioural interviews.
Direct interview: This interview technique is particularly useful when you need to compare the performance of a large number of candidates. In this technique, the same set of questions are asked to all candidates and their responses are compared. Some recruiters however discount the effectiveness of this technique in the qualitative aspect of evaluation. This technique is usually used in the first round of the interview process or as part of the written test in the initial job application.
Stress Interviews: As the name suggests, the stress interview evaluates the candidate’s response/reaction to stressful or pressure situations. In extreme stress interview situations, the candidate may end up crying or rushing out of the room or even withdrawing their job application. Okay! That was taking things a bit too far! The point is stress interviews are designed to deliberately put candidates in a stress situation to gauge their ability to handle work challenges, multi-task, innate personality, and problem-solving skills. The company’s toughest negotiators are often roped in for conducting stress interviews. These interviews are conducted at the later stages of recruitment when you are down to 3-4 people to choose from.
Practical interview: Practical interview rounds are especially used in software companies where simple conversational interviews will not provide clear insights into candidate competencies. Practical interviews are commonplace in technical industries which require specialists to be hired. The candidate’s response to practical interview questions will throw light on their past performance and their confidence to take up new work challenges. Typical questions in practical interviews are ones that present a technical real-life problem that has several solutions. The candidate is given a time limit to come up with a solution to the technical question. The evaluation does not stop with knowing the candidate’s response, the candidate needs to explain the thought process behind choosing the solution and eliminating the other possible solutions. The candidate’s response helps gauge critical thinking skills, logical and analytical reasoning ability, and lateral thinking.

Each of the above interview techniques has its own pros and cons and provides insights into various technical and behavioural aspects of the candidate. Employers must choose the technique that works best for the role for which the candidate is being considered, work environment, and organizational culture.

Types of Interview Formats

The format of conducting an interview depends on the industry, role, and the geography. The interviewer chooses the interview format based on these factors. The common formats of conducting interviews are:

Telephonic or Video Call Interviews: This format reveals the presence of mind, communication skills, and responsiveness of the candidate. It is faster and transcends geographic boundaries. The cons are poor network connectivity affects the quality of the interview and candidates may not take it seriously as opposed to an in-person interview.
Candidate assessment platforms: Pre-employment skill assessment platforms help evaluate talent on multiple skill sets and competencies. Ideal for screening large groups of candidates and freshers. Cons are that best talent may be missed in mass screening and requires more planning.
Face-to-face Interview: This format is a thorough evaluation of the candidate’s skills, attitude, and other soft skills. The cons are that interviewer bias may affect the result and lack of standardization in assessment.
Group interviews: This format is fast and effective for mass assessments and can be conducted by less qualified recruiters too. The cons are that the best candidate may get missed out and more planning and manpower is needed.
Interview Panel: Multiple recruiters assess a candidate simultaneously on separate sets of parameters. Getting interviewed by a panel makes the candidate feel more valued. The cons are that it is a high involvement and resource consuming process and chances of disagreement in the panel are more.

Types of Interview Rounds

The interview rounds required for the role are decided by the recruitment team based on the seniority of the position, experience level of the candidate, availability of the interviewer/panel, and the effort/resources required for interviewing. The lower the role and skill level, the more the number of rounds.

5 Interview rounds are conducted for fresh graduates and entry level jobs. The first round is assessment tests consisting of aptitude, cognitive ability, and behavioural assessments. This assessment is exhaustive and provides a complete picture of the candidate’s ability.
4 interview rounds comprise of pre-screening tests, aptitude or domain tests, HR interviews, and hiring manager interview. This process provides quick results but fails to include behavioural assessment that may cause higher attrition rates.
3 interview rounds are followed for hiring experienced candidates who are chosen for their skills and abilities.

Interview rounds for software companies vary between 5 to 3 rounds depending on the role for which the candidate is being hired and the organization.

Conclusion

The interview techniques for employees may be chosen based on the demands of the role and the type of organization. The hiring team would choose the format of the interview based on resource availability and related factors. Pre-screening test processes brings down the time to hire and improves the quality of hire. Organizations looking to gain deeper insights into the candidate’s skills and competencies through pre-employment assessments must invest in candidate assessment software like SkillRobo.