Guide to Pre-Employment Assessments
Guide to Pre-Employment Assessments
Pre-Employment Assessments for different hiring requirements
Navigating the pre-hire assessments market is tricky. Most company websites don’t really tell you what they actually do. So we’ve done the research and compiled a list of various assessment types and vendors to help you find the right provider.
High volume, role-specific hiring
If you’re hiring 50+ people every year into the same type of role then ThriveMap is ideal for you. We create personalised, Realistic Job Assessments that authentically communicate what it’s like to work within a specific role in your organisation.
Assessments for low volume hiring
Research suggests that Realistic Job Assessments are better all-round; they’re more predictive, candidates prefer them and they’re more likely to reduce failed hires, but they’re not always suitable for low volume hiring for three main reasons.
Practicality
Customisation takes time and effort, which is often impractical for low volume hiring, since you may have dozens of different types of roles and only hire a handful of people into each.
Cost
If you’re hiring large volumes of candidates, then the cost savings from reducing attrition are significant, but for low volumes, those cost savings aren’t there, and that makes ready-to-use assessments a more attractive option.
Validity
If candidate volumes are really low then a customised assessment won’t capture enough data to confirm it’s accurately measuring the right things. Pre-written assessments are mostly pre-validated, so they don’t rely on your own data to validate them. The downside, of course, is that they’re generic, and not measuring your specific role requirements.
Assessments for non-role-specific hiring
You might want an assessment that you can use for every role. For example, you might want to measure fit with organisational values, a basic level of competence or general cognitive ability. If that sounds like your requirement, then off-the-shelf solutions may be better suited for these reasons:
Universality
You can select assessments that are appropriate for entry-level and senior hires. By ensuring your pre-employment assessments don’t mention any specific roles or context, you can send them to all levels of candidates.
Benchmarking
When you’re using a pre-employment assessment across multiple roles and seniority levels, it’s hard to know what a good and bad score is. By choosing an off-the-shelf solution, you should also receive their own candidate benchmarking, and you can use that as a reference point to assess your candidates.
Off-the-shelf pre-hire assessment types
Here are some of the different pre-written assessment types you can purchase.
Technical skills tests
Pre-written assessments for testing hard skills required to do the job. These are great for testing IT skills for web developer, software engineer roles in particular.
Situational judgement tests (SJTs)
SJTs test behaviour in generic, work-related, situations. They are typically more predictive than behavioural or personality tests, but won’t be customised to your particular role requirements or work environment.
Cognitive ability tests
These are standard testing instruments designed to measure cognitive functions such as learning and reasoning abilities. They have been proven to improve hiring decisions when used alongside structured interviews.
Behavioural / Personality tests
These are non-contextual assessments that aim to measure personality traits or general behaviours. Assessment questions are asked outside of any context or environment and not usually directly related to the job. There is no evidence that using them in recruitment will improve hiring outcomes.
Alternative pre-employment assessment vendors
Here’s a list of well-respected vendors that provide off-the-shelf pre-employment assessments
If you have any suggestions for other providers that we can add to this list, then please get in touch by emailing us at [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.
Pre-Employment Assessments for different hiring requirements
Navigating the pre-hire assessments market is tricky. Most company websites don’t really tell you what they actually do. So we’ve done the research and compiled a list of various assessment types and vendors to help you find the right provider.
High volume, role-specific hiring
If you’re hiring 50+ people every year into the same type of role then ThriveMap is ideal for you. We create personalised, Realistic Job Assessments that authentically communicate what it’s like to work within a specific role in your organisation.
Assessments and low volume hiring
Research suggests that Realistic Job Assessments are better all-round; they’re more predictive, candidates prefer them and they’re more likely to reduce failed hires, but they’re not always suitable for low volume hiring for three main reasons.
Practicality
Customisation takes time and effort, which is often impractical for low volume hiring, since you may have dozens of different types of roles and only hire a handful of people into each.
Cost
If you’re hiring large volumes of candidates, then the cost savings from reducing attrition are significant, but for low volumes, those cost savings aren’t there, and that makes ready-to-use assessments a more attractive option.
Validity
If candidate volumes are really low then a customised assessment won’t capture enough data to confirm it’s accurately measuring the right things. Pre-written assessments are mostly pre-validated, so they don’t rely on your own data to validate them. The downside, of course, is that they’re generic, and not measuring your specific role requirements.
Assessments for non-role-specific hiring
You might want an assessment that you can use for every role. For example, you might want to measure fit with organisational values, a basic level of competence or general cognitive ability. If that sounds like your requirement, then off-the-shelf solutions may be better suited for these reasons:
Universality
You can select assessments that are appropriate for entry-level and senior hires. By ensuring your pre-employment assessments don’t mention any specific roles or context, you can send them to all levels of candidates.
Benchmarking
If you’re only hiring one type of role and you have lots of candidates, then it’s easy to compare your candidates with each other. However, when you’re using an assessment across multiple roles, it’s hard to know what a good and bad score is. By choosing off-the-shelf solutions, you should also receive their own benchmarking, and you can use that as a reference to assess your candidates.
Off-the-shelf assessment types
So, if you’re not hiring high volumes into a single role, then an off-the-shelf solution is probably the right choice for you. Here are some of the different pre-written assessment types and some suggested vendors to check out.
Technical skills tests
Pre-written assessments for testing hard skills required to do the job. These are great for testing IT skills for web developer, software engineer roles in particular.
Situational judgement tests (SJTs)
SJTs test behaviour in generic, work-related, situations. They are typically more predictive than behavioural or personality tests, but won’t be customised to your particular role requirements or work environment.
Cognitive ability tests
These are standard testing instruments designed to measure cognitive functions such as learning and reasoning abilities. They have been proven to improve hiring decisions when used alongside structured interviews.
Behavioural / personality tests
These are non-contextual assessments that aim to measure personality traits or general behaviours. Assessment questions are asked outside of any context or environment and not usually directly related to the job. There is no evidence that using them in recruitment will improve hiring outcomes.
Alternative pre-employment assessment vendors
Here’s a list of well-respected vendors that provide off-the-shelf pre-employment assessments
ROI Calculator
We believe technology should only be used if it demonstrates a clear ROI.
We’ve built a free, easy-to-use calculator to help you work out how much failed hires are costing you each year.
About ThriveMap
Personalised pre-employment assessments for volume hiring.
If you’re hiring 50+ people every year into the same type of role, then our assessments can save you time and money, and maximise your post-hire performance.
ROI Calculator
We believe technology should only be used if it demonstrates a clear ROI.
We’ve built a free, easy-to-use calculator to help you work out how much failed hires are costing you each year.
About ThriveMap
Personalised pre-employment assessments for volume hiring.
If you’re hiring 50+ people every year into the same type of role, then our assessments can save you time and money, and maximise your post-hire performance.