Top 11 skills assessment tools to evaluate job applicants

If you work in a hiring team, you know the challenges that come with the recruitment process. Assessing the suitability of large applicant pools for niche roles can be particularly difficult, especially when there are no educational courses or specified degrees available to help determine their qualifications. For example, new coding languages can make it hard to gauge a candidate's expertise based on years of experience.

Sifting through resumes can be an overwhelming task. Fortunately, the use of skills assessment tools can make the process much more manageable. These tools are reliable, affordable, and efficient, helping you quickly identify the best candidates from a large pool of applicants. There are many skills assessment tools on the market, making it difficult for hiring teams to choose the right one. To help you make an informed decision, we have compiled a list of top skills assessment tools to get you started.

What is a skill assessment tool?

A skill assessment tool in HR is a software application or platform designed to assess job applicants' or existing employees' technical and non-technical skills, knowledge, aptitude, and personality traits. The purpose of these tools is to provide a reliable, efficient, and objective way of measuring a candidate's suitability for a job role and to determine their training and development needs. These tools are commonly used in the recruitment process to help HR professionals and hiring managers make informed hiring decisions and improve the accuracy of their talent acquisition strategies.

Top 10 Skill Assessment tools for HR

HireQuotient

We’ve saved the best for the first. Why? Because you deserve the best. Check out HireQuotient’s skill assessment arsenal to access versatile skill assessment tests. The repository includes:

• Legal
• Design
• Accounting
• Real estate
• Production
• Healthcare
• Business analyst
• Sales
• marketing
• Finance
• Human resource
• Pharmaceuticals
• Customer service
• Project management

At HireQuotient, we design assessment tools to meet your unique requirements. We focus on providing solutions that have the greatest possible impact on your recruitment processes. Take our Growth Marketing Manager assessment for example, it measures a candidate's abilities in analytics, interpersonal relationships, math, critical thinking, problem-solving, and other related skills. It aims to significantly reduce the time and cost associated with the hiring process, achieving up to 50% faster time-to-hire and a 61% decrease in cost-to-hire.

Kenexa Prove It!

A comprehensive skills assessment tool that covers a wide range of skills, including software, accounting, and data entry. The Kenexa aptitude assessments evaluate candidates' abilities in three core areas: numerical, verbal, and logical reasoning. The tests are structured to progressively increase in difficulty. The company also offers the Kenexa CAT test, which integrates numerical, verbal, and logical questions into one comprehensive assessment.

Criteria Corp

Criteria Corp is a provider of web-based pre-employment testing services. Their system, HireSelect, offers aptitude tests, personality assessments, and a variety of skill evaluations. They also include cognitive ability tests, personality tests, and job simulation assessments. The Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT) measures a candidate's ability to problem solve, process new information, and think critically. Employers use this test to determine a candidate's cognitive ability, as it has been shown to be a strong predictor of job performance.

SHL

SHL is a leading provider of psychometric assessments that measure a job applicant's diagrammatic, numerical, and verbal reasoning abilities. The tests are used to evaluate the candidate's suitability for the role and are widely used in the UK. With SHL's tests, a candidate's abilities and scores are compared with others in the pool to help recruiters make informed decisions. A score above average increases the likelihood of being hired, and can positively impact the salary offered and career advancement.

Talent Q

The Talent Q tests use an adaptive approach, meaning they adjust to the test-taker's ability. When a correct answer is given, the next question will be more challenging, and if an incorrect answer is given, the next question will be easier. This allows for a more accurate assessment of a candidate's maximum performance level.

Talent Q tests also utilize a blended approach, combining various assessment types to analyze the individual in different ways. These tests are designed to be more challenging than others with complex questions, irrelevant data, and multiple answer options, making it difficult to determine the correct answer. The limited time to complete each test adds to its challenge, making it important for candidates to practice as many tests as possible.

Tests4Geeks

If you are in search of a programmer, Test4Geeks can help you in locating a suitable candidate. It allows you to assess an applicant’s programming abilities. This platform streamlines the hiring process by helping you eliminate unqualified developers from consideration. Simply select a programming exam and send it to each job seeker.

The platform offers tests in various programming languages such as PHP, Java, C#, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, Python, and others. Employers can use these tests as a pre-interview screening tool to narrow down their pool of applicants. On its enterprise plans, the platform allows employers to create customized, branded tests with anonymous options.

Alooba

Alooba is a user-friendly platform that helps hiring teams evaluate job candidates in areas like data science, analytics, and business intelligence. It provides customizable tests that give clear insights into a candidate’s skills, making it easier to find the right fit. By focusing on data-driven results, it takes the guesswork out of recruitment and ensures a more reliable selection process.
Additionally, Alooba integrates smoothly into your existing hiring setup, saving time and effort. It offers a simple way to streamline hiring and improve decision-making, especially for fast-growing companies.

Talentsoft

Talentsoft is a European HR platform offering comprehensive services for talent management, HR administration, and more. Based on the People@Work technology, it offers solutions for recruiting, professional development, HR management, online learning and training. With the ability to create custom content or access readymade course materials, Talentsoft streamlines the hiring process, training, and day-to-day HR tasks, fostering a seamless workplace. They offer a range of skills assessments, including aptitude tests, personality tests, and situational judgment assessments.

Aon Assessment Solutions

Aon offers online and gamified psychometric tests and personality questionnaires for recruitment and employee development purposes. It offers a range of online assessments, including cognitive ability tests, personality tests, and situational judgment assessments, to help companies evaluate job applicants. Aon offers various aptitude tests for assessments, depending on the job you're applying for. Their core assessments, known as Cut-e Scales, assess numerical, verbal, and logical abilities. They have many sub-tests within each category for better clarity.

Aspiring Minds

The Aspiring Minds Assessment (AMCAT) is an online screening tool utilized by companies, including Amazon, to assess potential candidates. The test is adaptive, meaning the difficulty level of questions is adjusted based on the candidate's responses. The score is a combination of both the number of questions answered correctly and the difficulty of those questions.

iMocha

iMocha skill evaluation tools offer talent acquisition and talent growth solutions to help you build a competent and current workforce for your company. Its talent acquisition program streamlines the hiring process for recruiters through pre-employment assessments, enabling hiring managers to assess job candidates' skills relative to company needs. Additionally, iMocha's Talent Development program enables L&D managers to enhance the abilities of their existing employees through pre and post-training assessments based on competency levels. The pre-training assessments determine current skill level and areas for growth, while the post-training assessments assess the impact and ROI of training.

Challenges of hiring an employee without skill assessment tools

One of the biggest challenges of hiring without a skill assessment tool is the inability to accurately assess a candidate's technical abilities and knowledge. In many industries, especially in niche roles, there may not be any educational courses or specified degrees to gauge a candidate's knowledge and experience. This makes it difficult for HR professionals to determine if a candidate is truly qualified for the job.

Another challenge is the sheer volume of resumes that HR professionals have to review. In today's competitive job market, it is not uncommon for a single job posting to receive over 100 applicants. Sifting through each resume and conducting a thorough interview can be time-consuming and resource-intensive for HR departments.

Moreover, relying solely on interviews to determine a candidate's suitability for a role can lead to subjective and potentially biased results. Interviewers may have different opinions on what makes a candidate a good fit for a role, and their personal biases may affect their judgment.

Why HRs need Skill Assessment Tools

With ever-increasing competition in the job market, HRs are faced with numerous challenges in finding and hiring the right candidates. That is why HRs need skill assessment tools to help them overcome these challenges. Not only can you assess applicants’ qualifications for the job, but you can also gauge their aptitude and cognitive abilities to determine if they fit the company culture.

Here are a few reasons why HRs need skill assessment tools.

To Screen Candidates Efficiently

One of the most significant challenges for HRs is to screen a large number of resumes and find the right candidate who fits the job requirements. This process can be time-consuming, especially when dealing with entry-level positions where there may be a large number of applicants. Skill assessment tools automate the screening process by providing a standardized way to evaluate candidates' skills and abilities. This helps HRs save time and effort while also providing them with a more objective and accurate evaluation of the candidates' skills.

To Ensure Consistency in the Hiring Process

Inconsistency in the hiring process can lead to biased or subjective decisions, which can negatively impact the organization's diversity and inclusivity initiatives. Skill assessment tools provide HRs with a consistent and objective way to evaluate candidates' skills, regardless of their background, ethnicity, or personal traits. This consistency helps to ensure that the hiring process is fair and unbiased, which can improve the quality of hires and employee satisfaction.

To Improve the Quality of Hires

One of the most significant benefits of skill assessment tools is that they help HRs make better hiring decisions. By evaluating the candidate's skills, HRs can determine if they possess the necessary skills and abilities to perform the job. This information can help HRs determine which candidates are more likely to be successful in their roles, reducing the risk of poor hires and reducing the cost of employee turnover.

To Evaluate Employee Development

Skill assessment tools are not just useful for hiring; they can also be used to evaluate employees' development. These tools can provide HRs with insight into an employee's strengths and weaknesses, which can help identify areas where the employee needs to improve. This information can then be used to create customized training and development plans that will help employees improve their skills and grow in their careers.

To Measure the Impact of Training Programs

Finally, skill assessment tools can help HRs measure the impact of their training programs. By conducting pre and post-training assessments, HRs can determine if the training has helped employees improve their skills and knowledge. This information can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training programs and make necessary changes to improve their ROI.

How to integrate a skill assessment tool into your HR department?

Integrating skill assessment tools into the HR department can be a useful strategy to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the recruitment process. Here are the steps to integrate skill assessment tools:

Identify the needs: Identify the skills required for each job position and determine the areas that need to be assessed.

Evaluate the tools: Research and evaluate the various skill assessment tools available in the market and choose the one that best fits your organization's requirements.

Set up the tool: Set up the tool with all the necessary configurations, job profiles, and assessment parameters.

Train HR personnel: Ensure that HR personnel are trained in using the tool and understand how it works.

Integrate with recruitment process: Integrate the tool into your recruitment process and ensure that all candidates are assessed before being selected for an interview.

Measure results: Regularly measure the results of the tool and make necessary adjustments based on the feedback.

Continuously improve: Regularly evaluate the tool and make changes to improve its efficiency and accuracy.

In conclusion, skill assessment tools offer a wide range of benefits to HR professionals, helping them make informed hiring decisions, save time and effort, and enhance the productivity and growth of their company. At HireQuotient we have tools for almost every need. Get on a call with our team to know more.