According to a Gallup analysis, 48% of America’s working population is actively looking for new job opportunities. A job change is on the minds of nearly half of US employees. Added to this, employers are facing a fiercely competitive hiring market within which they need to attract top talent. Increasing the number of employees looking for job opportunities means that there would be a jump in the number of applications for each opening.

Hiring teams would require the right recruitment assessment tools for a smooth and effective candidate selection process. A number of assessment companies in the USA are using candidate assessment tools to screen candidates for various job positions.

The Usefulness of Candidate Screening Software

Several organizations use candidate evaluation software to screen several candidate profiles within a short duration. Online candidate assessment tools empower hiring teams with the tools to evaluate various skills of candidates. Not just technical, job-related skills, recruiting assessment tools evaluate personality and behavioral traits suitable to perform well and work in a team.

The usefulness of recruiting assessment tools can be experienced in the following aspects of hiring:

1. Screen Out the Misfits –

One of the main reasons why employers go for candidate screening tools is to screen out the misfits and narrow down the talent pool. Manual screening of candidate profiles is a tedious process and is subject to human bias and error. HR professionals and hiring managers can better understand who is fit for the job in question by assessing their skills and competencies via candidate screening tools. These tools reveal which candidate has the necessary skills for the role and help the hiring team in selecting candidates for interviews.

2. Make Confident and Informed Hiring Decisions –

Online assessment tools for recruitment provide an objective and standardized talent assessment tool that enables the hiring team to make confident and data-driven hiring decisions. Hiring assessment tools provide performance reports and analytics once the test is completed, which help the hiring teams make informed hiring decisions.

3. Identify Job Performance and Culture Fit –

Pre-screening process in recruitment is useful in evaluating if candidates have the required skills. These tools can also help predict the likelihood of the candidate’s culture fit, which is significant for optimal performance in their role and how well they fit into the team. Candidates who fit well into the work culture are likely to be more successful in their roles and are likely to continue longer with the company.

4. Helps Understand Candidate’s Behavior-

Candidate skill assessment tools include behavioral and personality trait assessments that are extremely useful in understanding the candidate’s behavior at the job and overall personality. Psychometric assessment tests are useful to evaluate the cognitive ability, personality, or work behavior of the candidates.

The test scores of these tests are considered along with other test results, resume information, and role-play scenario results, in order to get a complete picture of a candidate’s work behavior and personality. Complete analysis and interpretation of a candidate’s behavior come in handy while making onboarding decisions.

5. Build High-Performance Teams –

Best pre-employment assessment tests provide deep data insights into a candidate’s skills, abilities, and personality characteristics. These tools enable objective screening of a candidate’s capabilities and skills that are required for performing well on their job.

A workforce that is built with such highly skilled and capable staff is bound to be more productive and competent. Additionally, the performance data gathered from various soft skill evaluations offers rich insights into whether a candidate will fit into the organizational framework and culture.

How to Choose the Best Candidate Assessment Tools?

Now that we have understood the usefulness of pre-employment skill evaluations in the hiring process, the next step is to understand how to choose the best pre-employment assessment test from those available in the market.

Employers must exercise the following steps while choosing candidate assessment tools:

#1 Identify the Timing of Assessment –

Pre-employment skill assessments may be conducted either before or after the personal interview, The most common use of pre-employment assessments is to weed out the bulk of ineligible and unsuitable candidates from the talent pool. While pre-employment assessments are popularly used before the interview process, using these assessments after preliminary interviews gives more support to the final hiring decision. The choice of the candidate assessment tool depends on which stage in the hiring process you’d like to use the candidate assessment tool.

#2 Skills to be evaluated –

The skills required for various roles in an organization vary with the nature of their work. A wide range of skills may be required by every organization to fill vacant job positions. The hiring team needs to first ascertain the skills to be tested.

For example, a financial institution would predominantly require a workforce skilled in finance and accounting, numerical and logical reasoning, attention to detail, financial laws and regulations, and communication skills. The candidate assessment software must provide appropriate test modules to evaluate these skills.

Before choosing the skill assessment tool, the hiring team needs to select the skills to be tested. Interactive and advanced skill assessment tools enable companies to test the candidates on a wide range of skills including, soft skills, hard skills, general aptitude, and physical strength.

#3 – Determine How the Competencies are to be Measured –

There are different ways in which employees work in an organization. Skill and competency assessment needs to adopt different methodologies to simulate these work structures.

The 3 main working structures and corresponding assessment methods are mentioned below:

• Work alone – in basket or in-box exercise and analytical exercises.
• Work one to one – role play and presentation
• Work in a team – role assignment or non-assigned role group exercise

The work structure helps determine the type of exercise that is relevant to the competency you want to assess. Hiring teams must always bear in mind that the best type of assessments for recruitment are those that factor in the 3 main work patterns mentioned above. Assessments that provide such important information complement the personal interview process.

#4 – Determine the Level of the Role you want to Assess –

One size does not fit all when it comes to the hiring plan. The testing exercises used in the recruitment process should be role and experience-level appropriate. The difficulty level and scope of questions must be based on the intellect and experience of the candidate. The skill assessment tool you choose must reflect the variety and demands of the target role.

The common levels that jobs can be categorized are:

• Graduate level – candidates that have completed a graduate degree
• Officer / first-line management – candidates of team lead level
• Middle management – candidates of the team or project manager cadre
• Senior and Executive management – candidates of the senior manager or vice president cadre

The software tool that is used for middle management role hiring cannot be used for hiring at the graduate level. The use of role and level-appropriate assessments helps the hiring team narrow down on the perfect fit for the role.

#5 – Determine the Exercise Setting –

While designing screening tests, one has to bear in mind the specific business functions for which candidates are required. The business function determines the kind of tasks that the candidate will handle.

For example: Hiring for the finance and accounting function will require candidates to handle accounting and calculation tasks. In any business function, the tasks and criteria are the two most important aspects that will be elicited regardless of the context of the exercise. It is important to review critically while buying an off-the-shelf tool to ensure that it addresses the tasks and criteria of the business function.

#6 Customization and Compatibility –

Customization of skill assessment software is a must-have feature. This enables the hiring team to customize the skill evaluation as per the requirements of the role. Thus, it is important to check whether the tool offers customizable tests depending on the skill level you desire to recruit for. The tool must be able to provide instant performance reports and analytics that shed light on the performance of the candidate. Another important aspect is that the candidate assessment tool must be compatible with the existing HR software like the applicant tracking system, employee onboarding tools, etc.

#7 Legal Compliance –

Recruitment of employees must adhere to several labor laws and regulations. Protection of the disabled, women, and minorities are some of the legal requirements that organizations need to adhere to while recruiting employees. They also need to consider visa and passport limitations while choosing candidates. The assessment tool must score different candidates differently based on these legal requirements.

#8 Validity and Accuracy –

The skill evaluation must be relevant to the role for which the candidate is being hired. The questions must be valid, accurate, and up-to-date according to the skill requirements of the role.

For example: For hiring a software developer, the technical skill assessment must comprise relevant and updated questions on software coding. The assessment must be relevant and predict the job performance of the candidate accurately. The hiring team needs to analyze the skill requirements of the role beforehand to choose the appropriate test modules to be included in the assessment. Skill evaluations that include work simulations and performance ratings offer reasonably accurate evaluations of candidates.

#9 Security –

Information security is mandatory in almost all software applications. Software apps that provide superior data security and safety gain a competitive edge in the market. Data safety and security is an important aspect to consider when choosing the pre-employment skill assessment tool. How well does the tool protect sensitive candidate data? Does the tool provide data security at all user levels?

#10 Value for Money –

For any investment that the business makes, however big or small, a reasonable return on investment is expected. Candidate assessment software is no exception to this expectation. Investing in candidate assessment software must enable time and cost savings for the business.

Pre-employment testing vendors must provide flexible pricing options like monthly or quarterly subscriptions, per-candidate pricing, price per test, and price per batch of candidates. The assessment software must fit into the budget allocated for hiring. Teams that are constantly hiring candidates will benefit from monthly subscriptions.

Other factors that hiring teams must consider while choosing candidate assessment tools are:

Candidate’s interaction with the tool and fraud and cheating preventive features provided by the software. The user interface of the software must be easy to understand by the candidate and the hiring team. The assessment questions must be engaging and immersive for the candidate. The candidate assessment software must have sufficient fraud and cheating measures in place for remote proctoring.

Online pre-employment skill assessments require remote proctoring features to ensure that candidates do not indulge in fraudulent practices. Another important feature that recruitment assessment tools must provide is instant reports and analytics on the test performance. These reports enable the hiring team to make data-driven hiring decisions.

Choosing the right candidate assessment tool helps the hiring team build a strong hiring strategy that ensures only the best candidates are onboarded. The appropriate skill assessment software makes the hiring process more efficient and speedy. The tool must explore some effective ways to screen employees before they are hired. The use of candidate assessment tools improves team synergy and also saves significant time and costs for the recruitment team.

SkillRobo from Cavintek is an online pre-employment skill test that provides all of the above features. Armed with a recruitment assessment tool like SkillRobo, organizations will be able to find the perfect fit for all the open job positions.

Conclusion

Choosing the right candidate assessment tools makes the hiring process more effective and efficient. Finding the right fit for open job positions in any organization can be a daunting task without the right recruitment assessment tools. SkillRobo is an online pre-employment skill assessment tool that hiring teams can trust to screen candidates quickly and effectively.

To explore effortless and efficient screening of candidates with candidate assessment software, Sign Up for the free trial of SkillRobo today.