Types of Employment Assessments Used by Human Resource Departments

In today's competitive job markets, interviews do not suffice anymore. So, what's the best way to assess candidates? Using different types of employment assessments! Not convinced enough? Well, utilizing pre-employment assessment during the hiring procedure has become a global trend nowadays, says the latest demographics.

Yes, 70% of businesses use some form of pre-employment assessment. And this number includes fortune companies or large enterprises and mid-small size businesses too.

The pre-employment test has an efficient and data-driven hiring approach like no other way. Companies can set skill benchmarking, stay competitive by building a skilled workforce, assess candidates more efficaciously for remote jobs, and more.

Different types of employee assessments assist recruiters/ HRs in predicting a candidate's job performance based on various job roles. For example, recruiters can use iMocha's Software Developer's test, which evaluates technical skills and aptitude tests, to predict skills like problem-solving, team collaboration, and communication to assess how well the candidate will communicate with the team and clients.

Read on to learn about different types of employment assessments and their efficiency in improving your hiring procedure.

Types of Employment Assessment Used by Human Resources

1. Learning Agility

A learning agility test helps recruiters evaluate and acknowledge candidates' potential to learn new skill sets, tactics, and strategies. As the market gets more competitive, organizations often need to pivot the flow and strategy of work. That's why candidates must be agile enough to adapt to the needs of the respective industry as per the organization's requirements.

Try iMocha's Learning agility test to assess prospects' agility skills such as mental, learning, and adaptation agility.

2. Digital Readiness

In this fast-paced digitalized work era, digital readiness is one of the top considerations for every employer. The prospects must be ready and willing to undergo any digital transformation to become an IT asset for the company. So, to determine the candidate's level of readiness to transition into a digitalized workflow, the hiring manager must put candidates through a reliable digital readiness assessment.

3. Language Proficiency Test

Effective coordination through the right communication skills is one of the top priorities for each employer. The language proficiency test is conducted by putting candidates through various language-based assessments such as verbal communication, reading comprehension reasoning, writing abilities, grammatical aspect, and more.

Many pre-employment assessment tools are available in the market to assess language proficiency, one of the most efficient being iMocha. iMocha offers a patent AI-EnglishPro tool to evaluate candidates' reading, writing, listening, and speaking business communication skills.

This AI-driven feature aids recruiters in saving up to 60% of hiring time by eliminating all the manual efforts. Recruiters can use AI-EnglishPro detailed and insightful analytics for LSRW (Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing) assessments to make an informed, more logical decision. They also offer a unique categorization of vocabulary based on CEFR levels.

4. Background checks

Background checks are conducted to ensure that candidates are genuine about their education and work history and to look for any potential warning signs that they might not be a good fit for the position.

Under specific laws and regulations, background check is conducted by either employer or third-party screening services such as Accurate, InforMart, Checkr, GoodHire, etc.

5. Job knowledge test

Employers administer job knowledge tests to determine a candidate's knowledge of the position they are seeking. Employers can find individuals with the skills and knowledge needed to do the job well with this kind of examination.

Job knowledge evaluations can be conducted orally, in writing, through practical tasks, or interviews. These evaluations can cover various job-related issues, such as technical and non-technical skills, such as communication, aptitude, problem-solving, understanding of the industry, and other competencies pertinent to the role.

Job knowledge tests can be conducted via recruiting tools such as iMocha, DevSkiller, eSkill, and other relevant tools available in the market. If you need clarification about choosing one, try iMocha. iMocha offers 2500+ skills in its content library that covers an array of skills such as Domain, Next-Gen, IT, communication, and other relevant skills.

You can assess candidates in 2500+ skills using a single platform. Alongside, iMocha's analytical, insightful reports will assist you in making data-backed decisions.

6. Work sample tests

Work sample tests (WSTs) are high-fidelity assessment approaches that simulate environments that resemble the key difficulties and circumstances encountered on the job. For instance, candidates for the role of Data Scientist might be asked to resolve a data-structure problem. This assessment makes it more difficult for candidates to falsify their level of job expertise, which helps to strengthen the link between test scores and job performance.

7. Personality Test

A personality test is a questionnaire that job candidates fill out to assist recruiters in finding personality traits that are pertinent and valuable. It evaluated a candidate's personality on various fronts, including social skills, communication, stress management, and time management.

One of the most well-known pre-employment personality tests is the Caliper Profile. This 180-question multiple-choice exam assesses 23 essential personality traits, including assertiveness, leadership potential, and time management. By minimizing discrimination based on gender, religion, geography, and other similar criteria, personality tests improve HR's capacity to make decisions for the candidate and the organization.

8. Behavioral Assessment

LinkedIn research found that 92% of HR experts agreed that a candidate's soft skills are at least as significant as their technical aptitude, if not more so. That's why prioritizing soft skills as much as technical skills is a real need.

So, how would you assess a candidate's soft skills? By utilizing behavioral assessments during recruitment. Conducting a behavioral assessment during hiring involves interviewing job candidates to ascertain their appropriateness for the position and the corporate culture.

Some frequently used pre-hiring behavioral assessment includes:

• Caliper Profile
• Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)
• DiSC Behavioral Inventory
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• SHL Occupational Personality Questionaire

The score of behavioral tests is compared with the job analysis to measure a candidate's job relevancy. It measures factors like grit, stability, integrity, and honesty since these are the foremost traits required to succeed in any job.

In short, these assessments aim to find if applicants have the required cultural fitment and personality attributes for the position.

9. Drug Test

As an employer of a reputed firm, you want to hire a healthy employee rather than someone who consumes drugs and other banned substances. That's why incorporating drug test screening in your hiring procedure is a must-step. Employers can make safe and informed hiring decisions by administering drug tests during the hiring process.

Regular substance users can risk becoming inebriated at work, upsetting their coworkers, decreasing productivity, and having other adverse effects on the organization. Employer drug testing aids in preventing such hires and fostering a secure workplace culture.

Here a few mainly used drug tests during recruitment

• Testing Urine
• Testing Saliva
• Testing Hair Follicles

Conclusion

47% of organizations have boosted their productivity significantly by using a pre-employment assessment, says the latest demographics. Every organization, from large enterprises to Mid-size to Small-size companies, uses pre-employment assessments to cut hiring time by up to 50% and 34% early retention rate.

In today's market, various types of employee assessments are available that can efficiently fulfill job requirements for applicants and employers. Visit iMocha's comprehensive and ever-innovative skill assessment portal, which features AI-powered tools, including AI-LogicBox and AI-EnglishPro, to shorten the hiring cycle, insightful reports, and more.

FAQs

1. What is the most popular employment assessment given?

The most popular employment assessments include cognitive ability assessments, such as verbal, numerical, problem-solving, logical reasoning, etc. However, these assessments could vary depending on the organization and industry-specific to the job role.

2. Are employment tests efficient?

The efficiency of such employment tests depends on the provider of assessments, to be more precise, pre-employment tools. Well-established and recognized pre-employment tools such as iMocha, DevSkiller, Mettl, etc., provide a rigorously researched and efficient assessment that is prepared by many SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) to offer the most reliable and valid results. Read on to know more about top 15 Pre-employment assessment tools.

3. Do employment tests help the recruiter save time?

Certainly, hiring managers can half of the hiring time using various types of hiring assessments. They can quickly sort through a vast pool of applicants to find the best candidate to succeed in the position. This can speed up the hiring process and enable recruiters to concentrate their efforts and time on the most qualified applicants. Read on to know more about benefits of choosing right employment assessment tool.