Choosing the right candidate is an important decision to make. Not every candidate is a viable option for a specific job role. Note that the person the recruiters choose must add value to the role, the team they are part of, the workforce, and the overall business objectives of your organization. This seems quite a lot to achieve.

This is where the talent assessment test can prove its relevance in helping recruiters appoint a suitable candidate for the role. In this write-up, we shall try to explore what is a talent assessment test, its types, benefits, and the essential steps in conducting the assessment test.

What is Talent Assessment?

Several applicants apply for one job role but choosing the right candidate is what recruiters aim for. This is made possible through a talent assessment test. Therefore, a talent assessment test is an assessment method that evaluates the candidates’ talent for a particular position. Consider a situation where there are three candidates with the same qualifications shortlisted through resume screening. The question is here, who would you recruit for the open position? A talent evaluation test will focus not only on the experience, qualification, or training the candidates have undergone but also assess the skills and behavioral aspects as well. By doing this you can rightfully find the best fit. 

To put it in simple terms, a talent assessment test measures the candidate’s aptitude, skills, and abilities in-depth and aids the organization in adding more value to the workforce. Not restricted to the recruitment of candidates, but it is also used to conduct employee assessments as a part of their training and development or appraisal needs. It can also be for determining their strengths and weaknesses.

Why Use a Talent Assessment Test?

A talent assessment test can comprehensively deal with every aspect of talent evaluation of candidates or employees. Hence, using a talent assessment can increase the chances of helping hiring managers choose the right candidate. It shows the actual abilities of the candidates and helps the recruiters to make data-driven decisions objectively, and the greatest advantage is that the process saves a lot of time. It is minimalistic yet efficient. 

A hiring process that involves employee talent assessment is more reliable and empowers the HR manager to seamlessly conduct, and regulate bad hires, and also have control over the complete process. It will also suggest if the candidate is the right choice culturally as well, as in, how well the candidate can adapt to the organization’s working culture. 

Depending on the scope of the test, some important areas that it evaluates are:

• Cultural value
• Skill level
• Motivation level
• Job aptitude
• Versatility

Benefits of a Talent Assessment Test

More Accuracy in Identifying the Right Candidates

The talent assessment process is designed to identify the candidate that is most suitable for the role. The process tests the applicant’s skills, and knowledge and can reach deeper into the cognitive abilities than any ordinary interview can. Hence, the finalized candidate will be an accurate projection of the criteria and standards set by the organization for the role. It can guarantee comparatively more accuracy than a traditional and manual process. 

High-quality Hires

It is also essential to note that the hires that are made are high in quality and it drastically reduces the chances of any mis-hires. So, how is it achieved? When a talent assessment test is used for talent acquisition assessment, a common and standardized framework for the evaluation is given. This makes all the candidates go through a single structured process and the highly viable candidate will automatically be filtered out without much scrutiny by the recruiters. Hence, the hires will be outstanding. 

Enhanced Diversity in the Workplace

Since the selection process is completely objective, recruiter bias is reduced to a great extent. The assessment process will not bring the personal characteristics of the candidates into the tests. The focus is completely on the cognitive and behavioral aspects only, and a heterogeneous group of candidates will be shortlisted

Reduced Onboarding Time and Costs

A study conducted last year by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) showed that the average cost per hire was nearly $4,700. The study also estimated that if employers are hiring for a job that pays $60,000, they have to spend around $180,000+ to close that job role. To overcome such high-end expenses, leveraging talent assessment tests helps cut down a large part of the expenses that are spent in a recruitment process. 

Moreover, time is saved in the process. The recruiters do not have to manually screen resumes and shortlist the candidates. Using a pre-employment assessment tool like SkillRobo will allow the recruiters to conduct free online talent assessment tests that will effectively streamline the process reducing the time spent on each candidate. After the test is completed, only the best performers will be selected for the interview rounds. Hence, it will minimize the burden on the interviewer as well. This reduces the time consumed compared to a manual onboarding process. 

Increased Employee Satisfaction

With more and more accurate talent being added to the workforce, the organization can witness better performance and coordination in the workforce. This increases the chances of employees understanding what needs to be done more precisely and helps towards the common goal. The selected candidate will add value to the team enhancing the work. A great amount of pressure is taken off the working group and more work satisfaction is achieved. 

Greater Employee Retention Rate 

With satisfaction comes employee retention. When an employee is not the right match for the role, it will be a costly affair for the team as well as the organization. This can often lead to employee turnover. A right match will result in the right team alignment, and in turn, elevate the employee retention rate. 

Better Talent Sourcing

In a well-defined hiring process with standardized assessment tests, there is a high chance of pooling only the top talents. This will allow the organization to develop a targeted plan of action according to the available resources. For the existing employees too, talent assessments can guide them in developing their skills for professional growth. The organization will also be in a position to offer them the right training and development opportunities and help them advance in their careers. 

Types of Talent Assessment Tests

Broadly, talent assessment tests can be classified into two approaches. The best practice is to incorporate both approaches together and build an all-encompassing evaluation test to acquire a better understanding of the abilities of the candidate pool. The two major approaches are

1. Cognitive ability tests
2. Behavioral or Personality tests

1. Cognitive Ability Tests

Cognitive ability tests are a group of assessments to evaluate the candidates’ reasoning, perception, and problem-solving skills. This evaluation mainly focuses on the individual’s ability to work towards the common goals of the organization. The results will also reflect on the ability of the candidates to learn and train in new tasks. Cognitive ability tests are widely used as it is easy to use and provide a space for making definitive judgments. The important areas of evaluation in cognitive ability tests are:

• Reading comprehension
• Memory
• Logic
• Perception
• Ability to learn
• Mathematical skills
• Spatial relations

A limitation of this type of test is that it only measures the quantitative abilities of the applicants’ abilities. The behavioral aspects remain unexplored. Therefore, it has to be combined with other types of assessment tests. 

2. Behavioral Assessments

Behavioral assessments also known as personality tests focus on personality traits like patterns of behavior, the individual’s core drives, values, and even morals in the working environment. These types of tests provide deeper insights into their needs and behaviors and can effectively determine the values that they will impart to the organization. Some questions can be hypothetical, where the candidates are left to answer by themselves, or certain questions where they are provided with options to choose from. Some important types of behavioral test questions can be 

• Statement-based questions
• Open-ended questions
• Forced-choice questions

Personality tests create the possibility of promoting diversity in the workforce. One notable disadvantage is that they can be subjective, and is a qualitative form of assessing the candidates. 

Combining both cognitive and behavioral assessments together, here are some of the most prominently used assessment tests 

Situational Judgement Tests

As a type of cognitive ability test, a situational judgment test would give the candidates a problem and ask them to solve it. Areas like their soft skills, ability to do teamwork, problem-solving, and especially conflict resolution. 

Integrity Assessments

It mostly focuses on the candidate’s integrity, honesty, dependability, trustworthiness, reliability, and social behavior. 

Skill Assessment

Skill assessment tests are conducted to assess any specific skill associated with the job role. This evaluation will analyze the abilities at a deeper level. For example, if a candidate is appearing for the position of a software developer, they will be assessed for their knowledge of programming languages. 

Work Sample Assessment

Work sample assessment, as the name suggests, is to evaluate the candidates’ ability to perform certain tasks that are specific to the role. For example, for the role of a content writer, the candidates will be asked to produce content on a given topic, or for the role of an accountant, they can be asked to apply a few formulas. This type of assessment is best for predicting the performance of the candidates in the job role. 

Video Interviews

This is one of the new trends in the recruiting process. In this type of interview, the candidates are asked to send recorded answers to the questions asked by the interviewer. The process will run over some time, and the interviewer can evaluate the responses at their convenience. 

How Do Talent Assessment Tests Work?

A talent assessment test has to be conducted with proper research and it is important to note that the right combination of different types of assessment tests has to be used. A reliable talent assessment will take the inputs of all these tests and give the right insight into each candidate. Even though skill assessments are direct and less complex, recruiters have to find the best way to filter out the right ones for the interview. 

It is ideal to make use of multiple types and formats of questions. Talent assessments generally have multiple-choice questions, sentence completion, true or false, and even short-answer questions. Since the questions and evaluation criteria are standardized, these assessment tests are professional, reliable, and entirely result-based. 

These tests can be conducted online by sending the test to the candidates who have applied or it can be taken in an offline format. However, the online option would cut down on the use of resources like paper and other necessary items. The tests can be set within a fixed time period and the reports containing the results are automatically generated once the candidate finishes the test.

Steps to Implement a Talent Assessment Test

Using a talent assessment tool should never be a thought overnight. There has to be proper planning, readiness, and objectives set to choose the most apt candidate for the role. Proper research and organizing are important as it is the business that will take the impact of the change that is made. Therefore, here are the crucial steps involved in preparing for the implementation of a talent assessment test.

Assess and Fix the Business Needs

Before deciding on the open roles, it is crucial to determine the needs of the business and what you are aiming to achieve. This will guide you in understanding the resources that your business needs and what roles need to be filled. Once the roles are fixed, determine why you want to use a talent assessment program and how effectively it will assist you in carrying out the hiring process.

Define the Objectives for the Talent Assessment Process

Defining the objectives you are trying to achieve with the talent assessment test is the primary step. This will let you decide what types of tests will be part of the assessment test. This can be followed by developing the framework to effectively spot the talented candidates. 

Choose the Appropriate Assessment

Followed by setting up the framework, you can now choose the right assessments for evaluating the candidate for specific roles. The reliability and utility of the tests have to be determined before finalizing them. Also, as mentioned earlier, it is ideal to use a combination of different types of talent assessment tests. 

Set Clear Expectations

The criteria for evaluation have to be framed with the right expectations. Understanding how the set talent assessment will work is essential and how the results are going to be used by the team. Everything regarding the pre-assessment and post-assessment has to be determined before taking the assessment into action. 

Administer the Assessments

Once applications have been invited for the open role, identify the candidates and send them the link for the talent assessment test. Remember, the tests have to be standardized to be fair and equal to all the candidates. 

Review the Assessment Results

When the test is completed by all the candidates, the reports will be generated automatically for the online mode. A thorough analysis has to be carried out considering the business’s goal for that particular position. If the test was conducted offline, then ensure that the evaluation will be carried out objectively, with zero bias towards any candidate. 

Follow up with Candidates

It is always a healthy habit to share the assessment results with the candidates. Along with the assessment results, it is highly recommended to consider the candidates’ experience, education, and video answers if any were sent. 

Examine the Results

The final stage is assessing the results of the candidates and determining their strengths and weaknesses. This will help in the easy shortlisting of the candidate pool. Eventually, the team can sit together and analyze the assessment framework and pattern that was used to find the areas of improvement or make any adjustments.

How to Find the Right Talent Assessment Test for Evaluation?

The combination of assessments chosen has a great impact on the hiring process as well as the type of candidates you hire for the role. Filtering out the right person from the candidate pool can only be achieved with the right grouping of different tests that evaluate different aspects of the candidates. So, how to successfully find the right mix of candidates? Here are some important steps to follow. 

1. Do extensive research on the different types of talent assessments
2. Select the type of assessment that is right for the role and the business
3. Conduct the assessment
4. Review the results

Remember that the right grouping of the assessments must be based on the role, the hiring process, and the personality traits that you are expecting the candidate to possess. 

Best Practices for Leveraging Talent Assessment Tests

To exploit the maximum potential of the assessment test and to efficiently and meaningfully conduct the recruiting process, here are some of the best practices that can be followed.

• Reduce the weightage on screening resumes and focus more on an approach that would combine resume scanning, an online assessment test, and followed by interviews. This will make the process more comprehensive, reliable, and objective. 
• Implement talent assessment tests at the early stages of the recruiting process. 
• Guide and help the candidates to prepare for the tests.
• Always choose the right software and the appropriate set of types of tests to gather the maximum data on the candidates. 
• Combine talent assessment tests with well-defined and structured interviews to filter fine applicants. 

Why must you choose SkillRobo’s Talent Assessment Test?

SkillRobo is an online pre-employment assessment tool that is potent with high-quality assessment tests for numerous job roles. The platform holds the ability to precisely strain out the right candidates for the different roles. This is achieved by offering in-built and customizable templates for the assessment tests, covering 100+ industries. SkillRobo’s vivid features let the recruiters have measurable control over the entire hiring process. As a talent assessment software, it provides the benefit of conducting the test professionally and error-free. The following are some of the important features that our platform offers:

• Customizable and in-built test templates
• Space to create own tests
• Diverse skills tests across different industries
• Automatic and instant test reports
• Seamless integration with third-party applications
• Easy conduction of the recruiting process 
• AI-powered bot to assist the testing process

To Conclude

Using a talent assessment test is one of the most relevant and reliable methods of carrying out the hiring process. The necessary abilities and talent of the applicants are rightfully scanned and measured with the right tools provided by a skillful talent assessment tool. If you are looking for a hire who has the capability to add value to the organization’s needs and culture, then SkillRobo would be the right choice you can make to find that candidate. It provides the right space for organizations to find skilled and capable employees for their business development. To explore what more SkillRobo can offer, sign up now!

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is a skill assessment test?
   Skills assessment test is an approach to evaluating the skills and abilities of the employees or applicants for a job role in an organization. More than the knowledge or what the candidate knows, it majorly focuses on how well they can perform and fulfill the various tasks and responsibilities of the role.
2. What are the alternatives to skills assessment tests?
   There are many alternatives to skills assessment tests. If the employers are not satisfied or clear with the assessments that have been conducted, they can opt for job simulation, writing samples, on-the-spot presentations, problem sets, etc. are good alternatives that can give insights into the different capabilities of the candidates.
3. Why do organizations opt for skills assessment tests?
   The primary aim is to measure the skills and talent of the candidates or the employees in a streamlined and efficient fashion, with zero limitations. These tests help organizations find the right candidate for the job role and who can improve the productivity of the team.
4. Can skills assessment tests be used for existing employees?
   Skill assessment tests can be used only for hiring new employees, but they can be also used for evaluating the current employees as well. This helps in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the employees. Proper training and appraisal can be given to the employees based on the report.