How Using Realistic Job Assessments Can Improve Candidate Experience

Realistic job assessments (RJAs) are a critical tool for companies in today’s economy. By understanding the skills and abilities required for a position, businesses can more accurately identify the best candidates for the job. In addition, using assessments can help improve the overall candidate experience by providing a more objective evaluation of each applicant.

In this article, we will discuss the key benefits of testing candidates using realistic job assessments and how they can improve your company’s candidate experience.

RJAs Help Candidates Learn About the Job, Culture, and Company Before Beginning Work

Did you know that as many as 48% of new hires leave a job because it didn’t live up to expectations? This is often due to a lack of understanding about what the job entails.

RJAs can help to prevent this issue by giving candidates a realistic preview of the job before they begin work. This allows them to get a better sense of the duties, responsibilities, and expectations associated with the role. In addition, it gives them an opportunity to learn more about the company culture and decide if it is a good fit for their personal values and goals.

While most companies make grand promises around their company culture, the reality is often quite different. With an RJA in place, you can give candidates a realistic view of what it’s actually like to work at your company. This can help to attract candidates that are a good fit for your culture and improve the overall employee retention rate.

With 96% of people saying they would prefer to take an assessment that communicated the realities of the role and the organisation as part of the hiring process, it’s clear that job seekers want more transparency.

RJAs offer that transparency and allow candidates to learn about the job, culture, and company before they set foot in the door as employees.

A realistic job assessment also ensures that candidates are making an informed decision about whether or not the job is a good fit.

RJAs Are More Engaging Than Other Assessment Types

With nearly a third of people having left a job because the culture was different to what they expected it to be, it’s more important than ever to ensure that your company culture is a good fit for each new hire.

And when it comes to high volume hiring, engaging each and every candidate is key. However, it’s not always easy to do.

RJAs can help to solve this issue by providing a more informative assessment process. By using RJAs, you can ensure that each candidate is fully informed about the realities of the job before they accept an offer. This helps to create a better candidate experience and improves your company’s overall hiring success rate. In addition, with multiple question types and a highly visual interface, RJAs are more engaging than other assessment formats.

RJAs Are Fairer to Candidates

As many as 48% of all applicants say that testing experience affects how favourably candidates view a potential employer. That said, the most common way companies assess a candidate’s fit is currently through interviews. However, interviews are often subjective and can be biased.

The last thing a potential employee wants is to be treated unfairly because a hiring manager is having a bad day.

RJAs are a more objective way to assess cultural fit. Having a set assessment that each and every candidate completes ensures that everyone is evaluated on the same criteria. This helps to create a fairer hiring process and improve the candidate experience.

With many people suffering from anxiety when going for an interview, it’s important to ensure that the assessment process is as stress-free as possible. RJAs can help to do this by providing a more objective way to assess candidates.

This also means that candidates will be judged on their skill set and ability to do the job rather than having their education or background be a factor in the decision. The ability to respond to real-life potential scenarios is a much better predictor of job performance than a candidate’s ability to talk about their past experiences in an interview.

RJAs Are Quick and Relevant

69% of candidates that go through a negative candidate experience won’t apply to work for the same company again. A negative experience can be defined as anything from feeling disrespected to believing the assessment wasn’t relevant to the role.

It can also mean an experience in which a candidate feels that their time wasn’t respected.

RJAs take 10–25 minutes; this is because they only test the areas that are important in order to do the job well. They are quick and relevant, which in itself is the basis of a great candidate experience. Being able to complete the assessment in a timely manner shows that you respect the candidate’s time.

Relevance is paramount. If the assessment isn’t relevant to the role, the candidate could feel like their time has been wasted. RJAs avoid the (often unrelated) personality-based psychometrics of other assessments. We’ve all been in interviews where non-relevant questions have been asked, and it’s not a great feeling.

If candidates are not able to complete RJAs that simulate real-life job scenarios, this is probably a good thing since it suggests that the company (and role) is not the right fit for them.

This ends up saving the company time and resources in the long run by not hiring someone that wouldn’t have been a good fit for the company culture or the role anyway.

In today’s fast-paced world, speed and relevance are key when ensuring that top talent is hired. RJAs are designed to be quick and relevant, which helps to create a positive candidate experience.

RJAs Make It Easier to Identify Potential Red Flags

Finally, RJAs can help to identify potential red flags.

When a candidate completes an RJA, their responses are compared to the responses of successful employees. This helps to identify any areas in which a candidate may not be a good fit for the role or the company.

For example, if a candidate has a low score in the area of customer service, it may be worth exploring this further during an interview.

Alternatively, if a candidate has a high score in the area of sales but is applying for a customer service role, it may be worth considering if they would be better suited to a sales role instead.

RJAs can help to identify potential red flags and ensure that candidates are placed in roles that are best suited to them.

Conclusion

Using realistic job assessments (RJAs) can improve the candidate experience in a number of ways. RJAs are more objective, engaging, fair, and quicker than other assessment types. Additionally, RJAs ensure that each candidate is fully informed about the job before they accept an offer.

As opposed to traditional assessment methods, RJAs provide a more positive experience for all parties. By using RJAs, hiring managers can improve their company’s hiring success rate while also ensuring that each candidate is treated fairly and given the same opportunity to showcase their skills.

This ensures that in both the short and long term, the company in question will benefit from a pool of top talent that is excited to start working in their new role.

If you want to make use of this new way of hiring and start giving your candidates the positive experience they deserve, consider using realistic job assessments in your hiring process.