What is a skill assessment test for employment?

You’ve decided: “It's time to make a change”, slowly you have convinced your superiors to make use of skill assessment platforms to lighten your workload. Now the most obvious question remains:

Which skill assessment do I pick?

There are those who are even more clueless and would ask, “How to choose the right type of skill assessment test?”

Well, as your friend in need, we do have a quick answer and a long answer as well. Maybe it's your first time here, so, let’s take the longer route to get used to each other.

With SHRM screaming out the success rates of skill-based assessments where 78 percent of HR experts claim that by using evaluations, the hiring quality of their company has increased it would be foolish to not use a skill-assessment platform.

What is the purpose of a skill assessment?

In simple words, Skill assessments test for assessing talents allow you to judge and pre-screen candidates for jobs based on their aptitude for the position.

How to choose the right type of skill assessment test?

There is a basic benchmark that skill assessments should pass especially if you are choosing to stay abreast of the top players. As important as the brand is for any product in the market, there are times when you can get more than you could have asked for. Sometimes, the services offered by one company may suit your company better than another, so there may be some trial and error involved when you start out, however, it's better to start somewhere than stay stuck to the ancient methods of hiring. To help you narrow down your options, we have designed an elaborate guide to make your search easier:

1. Specify your goals

To put it another way, you must have a strategy. What do you wish to get better at? time to hire? personnel churn? Perhaps candidate satisfaction? Determine where the largest obstacles are and how a pre-employment evaluation tool can assist you in overcoming them.

Kevin Sands mentioned in the Blackthorn key that, “It is never the tool that decides. It's the hands and the heart of the one who wields it.” Considering that there are numerous skills assessment tests for employment, each with unique sets of features, and priced for market segments of variable sizes, establishing your goals can help you focus and guide your decision-making. Based on this requirement you will know exactly what to look for. This leads to the next point.

2. Research your topic

A simple but important step. Read case studies and client testimonials, request a demo, compare the pre-employment evaluation tools while researching suppliers. This will offer you a better understanding of what each of them actually accomplishes and how they might assist you in attaining your objectives. Ask a colleague who is already using the technology at another company about their experience. After conducting a thorough initial investigation, narrow down your options.

3. Verify the accuracy of the evaluations.

The tool's data source is the subject of this discussion. Every data source may not be scientifically verified, and if it isn't, your results won't improve and you run the risk of adding extra bias to your pre-selection procedure.

It is imperative to find out how the assessments your potential tool supplier uses are validated. Are they based on a method that has been approved by science, and if yes, what is it?

4. Take the tool's adaptability into account

How simple is it to modify the online examination? Are you able to add or cut each component separately yourself? Does it give you the option to brand the evaluation process with the colors, logo, and other components of your business?

With the help of the data the software collects, you'll learn new things about how to enhance your procedure. Therefore, it's crucial that you have the option to quickly adjust the evaluation.

Other things to think about in this situation are the number of candidates the tool can manage and whether you can use various standards and assessments for various positions.

Do you stop thinking about talent assessments after a successful hire?

5. Identify necessary and desirable traits

You can choose which features are a must-have for you based on your strategy and which ones are merely great to have.

Consider the case where applicant experience is your main concern. Do you employ remote workers? If so, a platform with a robust capability for video interviews would be the best option for you. **Here are a few of those features you can look out for in a skill-assessment platform.**

Customization and Question-Creation Capability

A flexible and adaptable pre-employment testing software platform that meets everyone's needs is absolutely necessary. Depending on the competency framework that a particular position necessitates, you may have to create and customize a set of questions. So, having a platform that tests a wide range of aspects can be quite handy. However, some of you may find that intimidating a candidate by plonking a stash of questions would scare them away as well so, keep the test’s duration and number of questions to the optimum range. The point being, choose a platform that enables firms to either select a custom-built test from its extensive library or assist them in creating their own test by using standardized questions or offering the possibility to add new topics. Make sure the pre-employment testing software vendors have SMEs that can assist you in tailoring your questionnaire in accordance with competency and sub-competency criteria.

Multiple Pre-employment Testing Methods

A reputable assessment vendor offers a wide range of pre-employment assessment tools that effectively meet your worries about assessing job prospects' behavior, personality, aptitude, and competence. The different types of skill assessments provide you with the potential to curate the most optimised option for the position you are hiring for.

Simulators to Test Real-world Skills

Virtual simulations are very useful for testing job candidates' practical abilities, which can't always be determined in a face-to-face interview. New employees' ability to handle difficult workplace challenges, identify patterns in incomplete data, and develop creative solutions depends on their practical expertise. So, keep an eye out for pre-employment evaluation tools with built-in simulators.

Seamless User Experience

Hiring managers may arrange interviews and assessment rounds while keeping tabs on the candidates' progress on a single dashboard with the help of a superb pre-employment testing software that allows all conversations to be held on a single platform. But immediately after the clock starts running for the test to begin, if the candidate faces many glitches, you are adding on to the pressure of a person trying to prove their best to be a part of your company. Even for you, dealing with a glitchy UI is bound to frustrate you further, so, test out how seamless the platform is before it's integrated into your workflow. A seamlessly integrable platform reduces the length of a recruitment cycle by automating the screening, scheduling, assessment, and selection processes. With the help of virtual and pre-recorded video interviews, recruiting is made simple by a cutting-edge pre-employment testing program. For HRs, hiring managers, and candidates, good pre-employment testing software is incredibly user-friendly, intuitive, and understandable. They facilitate data-driven, unbiased, quicker, and easier recruitment and selection processes. The candidates can take the test by clicking on the test link, but the human resources department can schedule interviews, give reminders, and set surveys.

Latest proctoring tools

Pre-employment examinations can be administered from anywhere in the world thanks to highly developed pre-employment assessment systems that contain cutting-edge proctoring tools capabilities. Artificial intelligence is used in online proctoring technology to identify any instances of impersonation or other unethical behavior that test-takers might use to cheat their way into the desired candidate pool.

24-hour support

One of the most crucial criteria when choosing pre-employment exam software is customer assistance. Some assistance and direction are required to help businesses that are transitioning from traditional face-to-face interviews or pen-and-paper evaluations understand the online platform. Giving clients round-the-clock service would give them trust and confidence in the product offered. Although service providers are required to help their customers at all times, few really do.

No, even after you've made a job offer, the results of your skills assessment may still be useful.

Treat your employees right, so they won't use your internet to search for a new job.

– Mark Zuckerberg

6. Re-assess and adjust your assessments over time

The results of the new hire's assessment can be used to direct training or to design a plan for their learning and growth, especially in areas where they may have gaps.

Update your assessment for that function when your organization and the role change. You might learn about a different skill that you wish you had tested for, or you might determine that your organization has enough talent in a particular area that the expertise is no longer necessary for the position.

Your organization is dynamic, thus neither should your talent evaluations so it's best you get on a 15-minute call with our experts at HireQuotient. This brings me to the short answer to the question. All you have to do is sip on your favorite beverage and tell us all your hiring-related worries, we at HireQuotient specialize in creating consistent hiring solutions that push the best candidates to the front.