Pre Employment Assessment: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

A pre-employment test is considered a practical approach towards hiring a candidate for a particular job role. These tests give a clear insight into the candidate’s skills and expertise to recruiters, which help them make informed decisions.

There are different pre-employment tests, including personality tests, skills tests, cognitive tests, language tests, etc.

Each type differs from others. For example, in a skill assessment test, recruiters assess whether the candidate has desired skills and experience or not. Whereas in personality tests, they measure the base behavioral characteristics of the candidates to each specific job’s performance requirements.

That said, all tests have their positive and negative aspects – and they are far from perfect. To figure out whether you must include a pre-employment assessment in your recruiting process, here we will discuss the pros and cons to give you a clear idea of these tests.

Higher Quality Candidates

Undoubtedly, investing in a pre-employment test will give you a high return on investments than a traditional or unstructured interview. Conducting a pre-employment test gives recruiters a clear insight into whether the candidate is the right fit for the culture or not. More than 40% of recruiters say that they are more satisfied with their hiring decisions after leveraging the power of pre-employment tests.

Time Saving Approach

It might be challenging for recruiters to handle hundreds and thousands of applications at once for a particular job vacancy in a traditional interview. However, recruiters can save time assessing and scheduling an interview for candidates when pre-employment tests come into play.

These tests are meant to streamline the hiring process as it provides precise data to recruiters about with whom to proceed for the next interview round. As a result, it helps recruiters not waste time interviewing those who didn’t pass the pre-employment test.

More Objective

When recruiters and hiring managers are involved in making hiring decisions, there’s subjectivity involved most often. But pre-employment assessments eliminate this subjectivity and offer more accurate data.

These tests are the same for everyone, unlike if recruitment professionals are screening candidates. Even if screeners follow a structured interview process, things like tone and pace can affect the outcome. Additionally, these tests allow for the results to be quantified. If you were to require interviewers to quantify their assessment of the candidates, there would be too much bias to evaluate them reasonably.

Slow Down The Recruitment Process

For recruiters who are in a hurry to fill a position, a pre-employment test will be an issue. Assessments in the hiring process mean another step before work starts. However, when you outsource the process, this will ease the stress it puts on your timeline.

In short, pre-employment assessments return higher-quality hires, but there is a cost associated with executing the testing. So, it comes down to whether it’s right for your company or not. For technical roles, it is great; for others, you may decide it’s not. Most importantly, ensure that the test you are conducting is legal, fair, and authorized.

Lying Candidates

Another disadvantage of pre-employment testing is how easily it can be faked. You can ask several questions to the candidates, but it won’t change the fact that some people are experts in faking answers.

However, it doesn’t happen in every case, but people always try to cover themselves with the best light they can, especially in the corporate world. For example, if you ask a candidate to rate your social skills, very few of them will place themselves as introverts or anti-social.

May Violate Federal And State Laws

All pre-employment tests are subject to federal and state law. Your tests must satisfy Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP) needs before being executed.

The biggest issue with pre-employment tests is the execution. No matter what type of test it is, careful designing is essential to their effectiveness and screening capabilities. What often causes these tests to be less effective is that they fail to consolidate the knowledge of IT and humans.

The recruiting process has changed entirely in the past few years, and even big companies have embraced pre-employment assessments to catch the right talent. Here we will discuss what these companies do to ensure they get the most out of their workforce.

First of all, the pre-employment test process identifies a disconnection in the existing recruitment process that has affected their productivity. Once identified, they may create a standardized process to incorporate the missing aspects in the hiring process. It helps organizations to find the talent with the right skills, abilities, and experience.

After proper implementation, constant monitoring of its effectiveness, results, and adoption is necessary. The organization should keep updated records of employee profiles, test results, and job performance reports. This provides a strong reference point during the monitoring exercise.

Moreover, these assessments should be free of any legal liability that may lose the company’s reputation, resources, and workforce.

When a pre-employment assessment is conducted in the right manner, it can offer many benefits to recruiters and organizations. The primary aim of these tests is to streamline the hiring process and help recruiters find the right talent for their organization.

That said, humans create these assessments, and they are not perfect overall. There will always be positive and negative sides to these tests.

Now you have a complete picture of pre-employment assessments, and it’s up to you on how to implement them correctly. Use these tests with other assessment methods and choose tests that are well-researched for efficacy and authenticity.