4 Pre-Employment Assessment Tools that Improve Hiring

Resumes and interviews aren’t good enough. Hiring professionals need more reliable tools to better measure candidate fit. Pre-employment assessment tools help employers measure candidates’ hard skills, behavioral traits, or cognitive ability before they get to the interview process – saving employers valuable time and money, while reducing the risk of rapid turnover. The benefits of these tools are proven – over 79% of HR professionals say that skills evaluations are just as or more important than traditional hiring criteria.  

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However, not all pre-hire assessments are treated equally. Some platforms help you send out simple, out-of-the-box tests quickly, while others are built for bespoke customization. No matter what role you’re hiring for, here are 4 pre-employment assessment tools that can help you find the right candidate.  

1. Test Customization – Pre-hire assessments are not a one-size fits all approach. Sure, some tests like Excel or Office have widespread application, but they may not test everything needed for a specific job role or company culture. To get the whole picture of a candidate, you need to use custom pre-employment assessment tools that assess multiple different skillsets. Include questions that test Excel, but pair them with questions that measure attention to detail, cognitive ability, or chat simulations to find candidates that better fit your job role and company. For hiring teams looking for their perfect fit and not satisfied with standardized questions, create your own questions from scratch to find the perfect candidate for your organization.  

2. Proctoring – Most employers understand that applicants may lie on their resume (22% according to a recent study), but did you know that 1 in 5 candidates also cheat on pre-hire assessments? To ensure test integrity and ethical candidates, proctoring solutions are essential when running pre-hire assessments. Fortunately for employers, both automatic proctoring tools and live proctoring tools can be added to existing pre-hire tests. Automatic tools measure factors like external monitors, ID uploads, eyes leaving the screen, and access to other devices, whereas live proctoring tools include someone actually watching a candidate take a test in real-time. No matter which method makes sense for your business, proctoring tools can help you identify cheating candidates – leading to more ethical, long-lasting hires.

3. Assessment Experts – Not sure what to ask or how to ask in order to screen for high-quality hires? Expert guidance is key to understanding what makes a good hire. Best-in-class pre-hire assessment companies will have highly trained personnel (like eSkill’s Dedicated Assessment Experts) that can collaborate with you to create a test that leads to positive hires. This team can identify questions that accurately pair with your role, help you administer the tests, analyze the results, and refine tests for future hires. Hiring is a collaborative function – you shouldn’t have to bear the burden all by yourself.  

4. Proven Compliance – Hiring is a task that comes with a lot of scrutiny. Depending on your organization, industry, or job role, there may be regulations and/or compliance guidelines you need to adhere to. Pre-employment assessment tools fall under this category, too. A proven track record of data security or tests backed by I/O psychologists will help ensure your assessments pass critical hiring standards.

Pre-hire assessments are a valuable tool in any hiring managers’ arsenal. But to get the most value, companies need to ensure their pre-hire platforms have critical tools like customization, proctoring, and compliance. With eSkill, you get all of these features and more – helping you find the right candidate for virtually any role.  

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Add eSkill’s pre-employment test platform into your HR workflow today and put together a winning team.