Hiring assessments: Why you should use them for new hires

Hiring assessments have grown more popular than ever, solidifying themselves as one of the most common ways to learn more about job candidates. Offering hiring assessments to prospective hires can involve various steps, such as sending out small test projects to complete, asking candidates to fill out personality tests, and giving ability assessments for jobs that require specialized skills. Here's a closer look at hiring assessments and why you should use them when recruiting new employees, including some of the top types of assessments to try.

What are hiring assessments?

A hiring assessment, or pre-employment test, is an evaluation that hiring teams give to candidates to gauge how well they'll perform in a particular role. These assessments can cover many different areas, including a candidate's skills, personality, and familiarity with the job's expectations and functions. When you send a recruiting test to prospective employees, you'll get to see firsthand how they approach different situations, such as challenges they might face in the role or hypothetical scenarios that test their professionalism, integrity, and patience.

It's important to ensure your hiring assessments are free of bias and have predictive validity, which is verification that the tests measure characteristics and knowledge that relate directly to the open role. This will help ensure you give all the best candidates for the job proper consideration. Assessments for recruitment that don't take these factors into account can cause you to turn away excellent, qualified candidates that you might have otherwise hired.

Why you should use candidate assessments when hiring new employees

There are several reasons why it's beneficial to use hiring assessments to evaluate candidates, such as the chance to get a comprehensive view of a person's skills and personality. This can inform you about how well they'll perform in the new role, as well as how they'll fit in with their coworkers.

Another reason to use assessments is that they can provide a second chance for candidates who might not have showcased their experience fully in their resumes or interviews. In these cases, an extremely qualified candidate may reveal themselves to have outstanding skills, which can lead to hiring someone great that you may have passed on otherwise.

In many cases, using recruiting assessments will also make your hiring process easier and faster, especially when you use automated software. There are many types of recruitment tools and candidate evaluation software programs designed to simplify the process of sending and reviewing these assessments. For example, Aspiring Minds offers several types of recruiting tests, including job simulations, cognitive ability tests, and personality assessments. Similarly, Berke measures candidates' intelligence and personalities and allows hiring managers to build profiles that showcase the traits they want, which they can compare with candidates' answers.

"When you send a recruiting test to prospective employees, you'll get to see firsthand how they approach different situations, such as challenges they might face in the role or hypothetical situations that test their professionalism, integrity, and patience."

Types of hiring assessments to try

Here are some of the most effective types of candidate assessments to implement at your workplace, including examples for each type:

Skills assessments

One of the most common types of hiring assessments is skills testing. This lets you evaluate a candidate's skills as they relate to the job they're applying for, and it most often involves sending out a short project or piece of work for the candidate to complete. By giving candidates the chance to showcase their skills, you can determine how effectively they'll complete their job duties if hired, which will help you make informed hiring decisions. One example of this is sending a piece of copy for a candidate to edit after they apply for a job as an editor.

However, when conducting skills assessments, it's important to think about the do's and don'ts of test projects. This is because some skills tests can take too much time or effort for a candidate, which makes them feel like they're completing unpaid work. To avoid this, take extra care in ensuring your skills assessments are concise, creative, and direct, while still being comprehensive enough to gauge the skills that relate directly to the open job.

Personality tests

Another type of recruitment assessment test is a personality test. These assessments are great for hiring teams that prioritize culture fit when evaluating new hires, as you can use the results of a personality test to learn about a candidate's goals, values, and habits. For instance, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment can reveal how a person succeeds and behaves, including details about whether they're introverted or extroverted and whether they usually follow logic or their feelings.

Physical ability assessments

Some jobs require specialized skills, such as being able to lift heavy objects or stand on your feet for extended periods. In cases like these, employers can ask candidates to take physical ability assessments to verify that they're able to complete the job duties for the position they want.

For example, a hiring manager at a construction company might ask candidates to complete assessments that test their balance, strength, and manual dexterity to ensure they can remain safe while on a job site. A common way to conduct these assessments is to ask candidates to get a physical examination and submit proof.

Job knowledge assessments

Job knowledge assessments are also popular, as they allow managers to evaluate a candidate's technical expertise in their field. These assessments can take a variety of forms, such as asking candidates how they'd respond to hypothetical job scenarios and quizzing candidates about basics and best practices in their field. For example, an accounting firm might ask candidates to define and explain some of the basic terms and processes in accounting.

Cognitive ability tests

Another option for recruitment testing is a cognitive ability test, which is often valuable for companies that hire for positions in sales, marketing, and management. These assessments evaluate different aspects of a candidate's thought process, such as how they solve problems, whether they have a strong memory, and how they use logical reasoning. One example of a cognitive ability assessment is an IQ test. This appraises a candidate's ability to answer questions thoughtfully and quickly, providing a quantifiable result in the form of a numerical score.

Integrity tests

Integrity tests can also help companies evaluate how well a candidate will fit in with their culture, as they cover key topics such as a candidate's values and natural instincts in tough situations. For example, an overt integrity test might ask candidates to describe how they'd react if they noticed another employee stealing.

There are covert integrity tests as well, which usually provide a variety of options for candidates to choose from that describe their personal characteristics. For instance, a covert integrity test may ask a candidate to rate whether they agree, strongly agree, or disagree with a statement like, "I always follow the rules outlined in the company handbook."

By using recruiting assessments to evaluate potential new hires, you'll have a better idea about how well they'll fit in at your organization, especially when conducting personality and emotional intelligence tests. Assessing candidates in various areas can also reveal how effectively they'll succeed in the open role, as you can learn about their skills and knowledge of the job. Try one or more of these recruitment assessment tests at your organization to better your chances of making a great new hire, every time.