As an HR professional, you aim to hire top candidates for all your open jobs. However, you have undoubtedly learned this is easier said than done-especially during these past few years.
Organizations are finding it challenging to recruit qualified candidates because there is a shortage of applicants with in-demand skills. Many companies’ hiring needs have changed because they have upgraded their technology or implemented digital transformation solutions. Many applicants’ skills have not kept pace with these changes, and the result is a sizable skills gap.
A Korn Ferry report shows a worldwide talent shortage of more than 85 million people, a number roughly equivalent to the population of Germany. The problem has become so serious that 71% of CEOs say a skills shortage will be their biggest business challenge for the foreseeable future. So, if you feel like you are searching for a needle in a haystack while hiring, you are not alone.
Many organizations have implemented a pre-hire assessment solution like the industry-leading eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM to make it easier to recruit top candidates.
How Many Types of Career Assessments Are There?
If you ask industry experts how many types of employment tests there are, you will hear different answers. Some insist there are 12 different employment tests and offer the following list:
Other subject matter experts say there are three types of tests to evaluate candidates for potential employment—skills tests, cognitive tests, and behavioral assessments, which incorporate the 12 types described above. For instance, verbal and numerical reasoning, foreign language, and coding tests are types of skills tests. Personality tests are a type of behavioral assessment. Situational judgment and logical reasoning tests are types of cognitive assessments. It all depends on who you ask.
What Are 4 Types of Tests That Employers Can Utilize?
If your business is new to pre-hire assessments, you would probably ask us what types of employment tests work best and if certain types of aptitude tests work better than others. If so, we would tell you that, in our opinion, there are four types of employment tests — skills tests, cognitive tests, simulations, and behavioral assessments. When used in tandem, they help you thoroughly evaluate applicants’ job-related skills and determine which candidates are the best fit for a job and your company culture.
Skills tests show you whether an employee has the skills needed to do a job. For example, if you need a data entry clerk with advanced MS Excel® abilities and good speed and accuracy, including a typing test and asking questions that pertain to advanced Excel features will show you which applicants understand these functions and are proficient at using them.
Cognitive tests evaluate candidates’ ability to think, reason, solve problems, and learn new material. HR professionals say they are essential when filling managerial positions and hiring employees who must think on their feet and make important decisions quickly, such as an emergency room administrator for a hospital or a 911 dispatcher. They also use them to recruit for jobs where the employee will work in a dynamic environment and be required to quickly absorb new information, like a cyber security manager or a database network administrator.
Simulations replicate situations candidates will encounter on the job. Therefore, they are a great indicator in identifying top applicants. For example, if you are recruiting applicants for a customer service representative position and need someone with excellent computer skills, basic math skills, and good multitasking abilities, you can include computer and multitasking simulations in your skills test and ask applicants to solve common math problems.
Behavioral assessments help you evaluate a candidate’s personality and behavioral traits so you can see how well they will assimilate into your corporate culture. In other words, behavioral assessments are not designed to be diagnostic. They simply show you whether a potential new hire is likely to thrive in your organization and succeed on the job.
How to Use Pre-Hire Assessments in Recruiting Strategies
In today’s competitive hiring environment, you need to capitalize on every opportunity to hire the best employees, which means implementing a leading assessment solution like the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM so you have access to different types of career assessments to improve hiring outcomes. These are some goals and objectives you should set while planning your recruiting strategy:
What Are Some Job Assessment Examples?
If you implement a leading assessment solution like the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM, you gain access to a library containing hundreds of validated skills tests. If you ask yourself, “What is an example of an assessment test,” these are some examples.
For Customer Service and Sales Roles:
For Finance and Accounting Roles:
For Healthcare Roles:
For IT and Technical Roles:
For Marketing and Communications Roles:
What Kind of Questions Are on An Assessment Test?
Since studies show that 80% of applicants lie on their resumes and during interviews, more and more HR teams rely on assessment results to make hiring decisions. However, assessments are only effective if they contain questions that show you which candidates have the required skills and experience for the job.
For example, if you are hiring a financial analyst for a job that requires extensive use of macros and pivot tables, your MS Excel® pre-hire assessment should include questions and simulations that enable candidates to demonstrate they know how to set up and use these tools.
If you are hiring customer service representatives responsible for dealing with incorrect or lost orders, your pre-hire assessment must include questions and simulations that help you identify good problem solvers who will not get rattled when dealing with angry customers.
This is an example of what can happen if a pre-hire assessment does not include questions that provide the information you need to make informed decisions:
Emily, the HR manager for a semiconductor fabrication facility, needed to fill a maintenance technician position. The person would be responsible for maintaining and repairing machinery essential to production. So, candidates needed to have extensive experience with these machines. She posted the job, and many promising applicants responded. She sent all the candidates a pre-hire assessment to complete, and Ian emerged as the top candidate.
His assessment score was among the highest. His resume listed the right skills and experience. She got good feedback from Alex, the hiring manager, and references from former managers and colleagues were excellent. Emily offered Ian the job, and he accepted.
Once Ian came on board, the problems began. He knew little about the company’s machinery and could not maintain it well or make repairs quickly and efficiently. This caused downtime on several production lines, which resulted in delays and missed deadlines.
Ian’s pre-hire assessment results were excellent. However, the test only included general questions about machinery and equipment maintenance. There were no specific questions about the company’s types of machines and equipment. If Emily had included these questions in her pre-hire assessment, the results would have shown that Ian only had a basic understanding of the machinery he would be working on, and he would not have been offered the job.
Getting Started with Online Assessment Tests for Jobs
When you use an employment assessment solution like the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM, you take the guesswork out of hiring and reduce recruiting costs and time-to-hire. Many eSkill clients have reduced hiring costs by 70% and decreased time-to-hire by 60%.
Are you ready to learn how employment assessments can help streamline hiring throughout your organization? Contact us to request a demo.