Pre-Employment Assessment: Hassle-Free Approach To Hiring

Skimming through gazillions of resumes and nit-picking a certain set of candidates is an archaic evaluation process. Companies are growing in size and are taking their business across nations, eventually requiring additional unparalleled support onboard. As bad recruitment leads to insurmountable problems, thoroughly screening the candidates before the interview becomes indispensable. 

In this blog post, we share the benefits of inculcating a practice that has gratified many top companies in hiring the best player for the open position — we talk about Pre-Employment Testing. 

What is Pre-Employment Assessment?

Pre-employment assessment is a hiring process performed to acquire and access information about the candidates prior to the interview. The testing involves a series of multiple assessment tasks that recruiters or companies use in evaluating potential candidates and filtering out the best possible candidate for their organization. The testing aims to evaluate how suitable or qualified the candidates are to fill in that particular position. 

This candidate screening process has become the new norm. As many top companies across several industries are finding the right pool of talent — Pre-Employment Assessment is a mindful choice that you may also want to pay attention to.

Why incorporate pre-employment assessment?

Pre-employment assessment is widely practiced and an advanced approach to hiring. The tons of benefits and effectiveness in finding the best suitable employee for the position are some of the metrics that define how pre-employment testing impacts the hiring decision. Following are some of the most significant benefits of incorporating this assessment process:

Organized and modernized approach to hiring 

Among the countless benefits of inculcating this approach, screening multiple applicants in quick time has been the most visible one. The significance of having the right minds behind the hiring process does give you an edge over other employers in scrutinizing each applicant — without consuming much time and draining energy.  

Improvement in productivity

Simulation-based pre-employment testing has proven to be effective in offering the highest accuracy when predicting future job performance and productivity of the particular candidate. Recruiters and several organizations are now able to execute real-world scenarios to test the candidate’s confidence, thus helping them draw a conclusion on whether or not that candidate suits the particular position or not.

Alleviating the hiring bias

Pre-employment screening has individuals evaluated based on similar questions, scenarios, and tests. However, instead of having them screened on factors like their background or demographics, the assessment ensures candidates are tested by judging them on their skills and personality traits. This modernistic hiring approach believes in offering a fair chance to all the candidates applying for the job.

Types of pre-employment tests

Employers can utilize several different types of pre-employment tests to shortlist candidates — depending on the type of position. Here are some of the tests they can opt for:

1. Personality Tests

Personality test has been widely acknowledged as the most sought-after type for screening candidates. The test primarily focuses on evaluating the applicant based on their personality traits and how their addition may improve the overall productivity of everyone around. 

The present-day personality traits are categorized into two different categories: Positive and Dark; the former identifies traits that may influence performance, while the latter identifies the negative traits that may harm the safety of other employees and the company work culture.

The results obtained from the tests will help the recruiters learn how candidates react to different workplace scenarios. Moreover, such tests also help employers identify whether or not the individuals show signs of a long-term career with the organization. 

2. Cognitive Ability Tests

Cognitive tests consider the candidates’ problem-solving capacity, verbal ability, and ability to grasp new skills and information. The results help recruiters with data that become imperative in learning about the candidates’ future job performance and productivity. As per a report published in 2005, cognitive ability tests have proven to be effective in predicting job performance instead of other performance metrics. 

3. Skills Tests

Skill assessment tests focus largely on assessing the candidate’s skills relevant to that particular position. Recruiters use such assessment tests by including questions that will help them learn about the candidate’s knowledge while executing on-the-job tasks. For instance, an organization looking for a public relations officer may test the candidate on the quality of content and their ability to proofread beforehand. 

4. Physical Ability Tests

Candidates’ strength and resilience are tested in this assessment phase. The test focuses on the candidates’ physical capability in roles that demand such traits the most — more practiced for firefighters or medical experts. 

Wrapping Up

Having the right pool of talent on board makes tasks easier and plain-sailing. However, structureless hiring can harm your work process, and finding a way out may take some doing. As many large organizations resort to pre-employment assessment, talent hunting was never this easy.