If you’ve made it this far in the hiring process, it means you aced the pre-employment assessment tests and screening. Pre-employment assessment tests and screenings are used by companies to determine if a candidate is qualified for a given position. Understanding the many pre-employment assessment tests available can help you land a position that advances your career goals. This article explains what pre-employment assessment tests are and some examples of pre-employment assessment test questions you might come across. We also added a list of some pe-employment assessment tools that will help an employer to conduct such tests. Let’s dive in!
What Is a Pre-employment Assessment?
A pre-employment assessment is a standardized, objective method of acquiring information about job applicants. Pre-employment assessment tests that have been professionally produced and validated share a similar quality: they provide valuable insights about a candidate’s skills and personality. Pre-employment assessment tests, depending on the nature of the evaluation, can shed light on an applicant’s likely productivity on the job.
The use of pre-employment assessments has increased in recent years as an efficient means of narrowing down massive applicant pools. One study predicts that for every corporate job opening, an astounding 250 resumes are submitted, all because of the Internet’s democratization of the application process. Some job-seekers, dubbed “resume spammers,” mass-distribute their applications online without carefully considering whether or not they actually meet the employer’s needs. Recruiters indicate that more than half of candidates do not meet the minimum prerequisites for the job, which is not unexpected given that applicant spend only 76.7 seconds on average reading each job description. Consequently, most hiring managers lack the time to carefully examine each CV, with reports showing that recruiters spend an average of only 6.25 seconds per resume.
Pre-employment screening tools are also becoming increasingly valuable in today’s competitive job market. Companies of all sizes can better manage a large number of applicants for open positions by including pre-employment assessment tests in the selection process. While technological advancements may be to blame for the uptick in applications, they also offer a solution by making it less of a hassle to incorporate pre-employment assessments into the selection procedure.
Types of Pre-employment Assessment Tests
The following are the types of pre-employment assessment tests:
#1. Job Knowledge Tests
Companies often administer exams designed to gauge your familiarity with the industry and position for which you are seeking. If you’re applying for a managerial accounting position, for instance, you might have to take a test about the company’s internal accounting procedures. A job-specific test is a good way to see if you can put your accounting experience to use in a new role. Improve your chances of passing the test by getting specific information from the recruiting manager and reading the questions carefully.
#2. Cognitive Ability Tests
Questions on a cognitive ability exam are designed to gauge an applicant’s mental fitness for the job at hand. Your responses will help prospective employers gauge your ability to deal with complexities on the job. The General Aptitude Test (GAT) is a popular option for gauging mental prowess since it places equal emphasis on quantitative, verbal, and logical reasoning. You can also get a feel for the kinds of questions and answers you could see on the real exam by taking practice exams.
#3. Integrity Tests
Employers can learn a lot about an applicant’s reliability by giving them an integrity test, which is one of the most objective tests available. The questions are tailored by employers to assess how much moral compass and ethical compass you have on the job. Sincerity can demonstrate your compatibility with the company’s values and your ability to get along with other employees. If you want to impress your potential employer and land the job, you should answer these questions truthfully.
#4. Personality Tests
Employers can learn a lot about whether or not you’ll be a good fit for the company’s culture and whether or not your personality will boost productivity from taking a personality test. The findings of these tests may help potential employers determine if they want to invest in you for the long haul. Learn the structure and questions of various personality tests so you can offer the best version of yourself to prospective employers.
#5. Emotional Intelligence Tests
Relationship skills and emotional literacy are the focus of emotional intelligence assessments. A high level of emotional intelligence demonstrates your ability to understand and calm the frustrations and disappointments of your coworkers. The Berke test is used by some companies to evaluate a candidate’s full spectrum of emotional abilities to determine if they are suitable for the advertised position.
#6. Skills Assessment Tests
Evaluations of both hard and soft skills are included. Employers use these kinds of pre-employment assessment tests as a means of narrowing down their pool of potential candidates. If you’re applying for a job as a public relations coordinator, for instance, the hiring company may give you a typing speed test, a timed writing task, and a proofreading exam to determine how well you compose and edit copy. To move forward in the employment process, you may need to take more tests of your research, presentation, and/or leadership abilities.
#7. Physical Ability Tests
Your physical strength and stamina will be evaluated. They also show whether you have the stamina and strength to be an effective police officer or firefighter. Employers can locate suitable candidates and lower the risk of workplace accidents by including physical competency testing in the hiring process.
Pre-Employment Assessment Test Questions
This section contains some pre-employment assessment test questions you can practice for that upcoming interview of yours. Check them out;
- Can you Tell me something about yourself?
- How did you hear about this position?
- Why did you decide to apply for this position?
- What are your biggest strengths?
- What is your biggest weakness?
- What do you know about this company/organization?
- Why should we hire you?
- What are your salary requirements?
- What are you looking for in a new position?
- Are you considering other positions in other companies?
- What is the professional achievement you’re most proud of?
- Why did you decide to leave your previous/current job?
- How do you feel about working weekends or late hours?
- How would your boss or coworkers describe you?
- Do you have any serious medical conditions?
- Are you a team player?
- Are you a risk-taker?
- How do you deal with pressure or stressful situations?
- Do you prefer hard work or smart work?
- How quickly do you adapt to new technology?
- Do you have any interests outside of work?
- What do you think our company/organization could do better?
- Give an example of how you have handled a challenge in the workplace before.
- Give an example of when you showed leadership qualities.
How to Answer Pre- Employment Assessment Test Questions
The following are ways to answer pre-employment assessment test questions:
- Ask the employer to give you an idea of what to expect
- Visualize the information in the question
- Underline the keywords in the assessment question
- Do readings before you respond
- Answering questions in the reverse order
- Use the elimination process
- Take personality tests online
Pre-Employment Assessment Tools
Candidates and applicants may be asked to complete pre-employment or pre-hire assessment tests as part of the hiring process. Therefore, companies and recruiters use a variety of methods to formulate the inquiry. Pre-hire or pre-employment assessments are common names for these resources. More and more businesses are conducting functional assessments of potential new hires using pre-employment assessment tools and pre-hire assessment software. Pre-employment assessment tools are the best way for businesses to ensure they hire the right person the first time around.
The following are some of the available pre-employment assessment tools:
#1. iMocha
With its cutting-edge digital proctoring features, iMocha is an all-inclusive AI-driven skills testing platform. Talent Analytics, which are based on employees’ abilities, allow businesses to make well-informed personnel choices. One of the best pre-employment evaluation tools, iMocha provides businesses with a bias-free answer for making more timely, well-qualified hires.
iMocha’s Talent Analytics is used by Fortune 500 companies, Hexaware, Altran, and Capgemini, among others, to address their talent issues. It provides solutions for a wide range of sectors, including IT, coding, accounting, cybersecurity risk management, data science, and more, thanks to its library of over 2,500 pre-employment examinations based on specific abilities.
#2. Harver
Harver is an impartial pre-employment assessment testing platform that has been certified to help employers make more informed hiring decisions. Bad hires can be avoided with the help of this tool’s thorough study of the position, as well as its customizable scoring and tracking of hiring parameters.
#3. HackerRank
HackerRank is one of the most popular pre-employment assessment tools for positions in the IT and programming industries. The software system makes an effort to spot hidden talents within a candidate’s application. You can see how well a candidate does in each important area thanks to in-depth research and reporting. You can learn a lot about a candidate’s potential for success in the position and within the company culture from these reports.
#4. eSkill
In order to help your company find and hire the most qualified candidates, eSkill offers a pre-employment assessment test and video interviewing tools. Assigning a candidate a job-related assessment that can be tailored to their needs will help ensure that the results are reliable and accurate.
#5. Mettl
Among the many cloud-based assessment tools available today, Mercer Mettl stands out for its innovative talent evaluation and coding assessment capabilities. Select from a battery of tests measuring intelligence, coding prowess, personality, conduct, and English proficiency with the help of the talent evaluation module.
Database developers, DevOps engineers, full-stack programmers, and data scientists may all take advantage of the over a hundred thousand questions and sophisticated role-based simulations. The tests are now given in 26 different languages and used in 80 different nations.
#6. Modern Hire
If you’re looking for a centralized platform that can help you find the best applicants and streamline the hiring process, look no further than Modern Hire. The greatest possible performance predictions may be made on the Modern Hire platform thanks to the integration of established scientific methods and cutting-edge AI technology. In the same vein, revamp your selection procedure.
#7. Vervoe
Vervoe uses pre-employment assessment tests to forecast a candidate’s performance on the job. The system includes more than 300 customizable assessment templates made specifically for industry leaders. Recruiters also have the option of adding their own questions to the exams. The testing firm asserts that this will allow for more rapid hiring and lower employee turnover.
Customer service, retail, advertising, healthcare, and call center staffing are just some of the businesses that can benefit from the platform.
#8. OutMatch
OutMatch is human resources software that helps businesses gain insight into their talent pool to make better hiring decisions. They use Taleo Business Edition and recorded interviews. Therefore, the use of telephone interviews is effective and facilitates the rapid introduction to even more candidates.
#9. Criteria Corp
The testing platform provided by Criteria Corp can be scaled to accommodate any size of business. This system employs standard computer-based examinations to gauge psychometric competencies including one’s character, IQ, emotional maturity, and preparedness for the workforce. Their staff of psychologists created the game-based testing component. One alternative to traditional tests is the use of game-based pre-employment testing tools like Criteria Corp, which provide candidates with an engaging and interactive experience. The candidate’s experience is enhanced by this, increasing the likelihood that they will continue their application.
#10. Pymetrics
For each customer, Pymetrics creates a profile of the ideal candidate for the job. It offers AIs for spotting potential employees and gauging how they’ll do on the job based on a wide variety of factors. They also use ethical AI technologies to assist businesses in better comprehending their staff.
#11. DoSelect
DoSelect provides coder assessment tools to assist businesses to find and employ the best candidates. DoSelect’s ready-to-use library includes over 5,000 ready questions across 25+ coding languages, data science, database, automation, aptitude, and many more technologies; recruiters may develop language-specific exams within minutes to evaluate various prospects.
How To Use Pre-Employment Assessment Tools?
Recruiters and companies benefit from pre-employment assessment tools since they are able to find more qualified and deserving candidates. It also helps you save money, time, and other valuable assets. It creates a systematized method of hiring. That’s a simple solution. But keep in mind that there are restrictions imposed by the instruments themselves.
- Make a test, or sort the questions in the survey, in accordance with the needs of the open position.
- Determine the optimal question-to-time ratio for your evaluation.
- Different types of questions are separated into their own levels, such as aptitude questions and grammatical problems.
- First, please supply the sample question (“The aware candidate”) for the exam.
- Include both voluntary and required inquiries.
Reasons Why You Should Use Pre-employment Assessment Tools
The following are the reasons why you should use pre-employment assessment tools:
#1. Lied about Skills/Qualification
Approximately one-third of applicants, according to one study about qualifications, exaggerated their experience and qualifications on their resumes. Thus, the pre-employment test informs businesses about the underlying characteristics of resumes.
#2. More Satisfied Hiring Manager
Managers are 36% happier with their hiring decisions when employing pre-employment tests, according to the report.
#3. Lower Turnover Rate
Pre-employment assessment strategies have been shown to reduce employee turnover by 39% for businesses and organizations that use them during the application process.
#4. Decrease the Cost and Time, Per Hire
Pre-employment assessment has been shown to cut down on expenses and speed up the hiring process for 33% of businesses. Boost the effectiveness of your recruitment efforts. This is owing to the fact that pre-testing and assessments resulted in the elimination of more than half of the applicants.
Why Do Employers Use Pre-employment Assessment Testing?
The following are reasons why employers use pre-employment assessment testing:
#1. To Accelerate the Hiring Process
If a company receives a large number of resumes, the hiring manager may utilize a standardized exam to swiftly restrict the pool of candidates to consider.
#2. To Test an Applicant’s Skills
In order to ensure that their new hires have the necessary abilities for the position, several companies conduct pre-employment assessment tests. If you’re applying for a job as a copywriter, for instance, the company conducting the interview may provide you with a writing sample to evaluate whether or not your talents are up to par. By demonstrating the applicant’s ability to put their knowledge into practice, a skills exam can help employers reduce employee turnover.
#3. To Increase the Quality of Interviews
Employers can tailor their interview questions to your unique set of abilities and experience if they have enough information about you from the test.
How Do I Pass a Pre-employment Assessment Test?
- Research the Job Role.
- Identify the Industry and Domain.
- Speak to the Hiring Team.
- Use Mock Pre-Employment Tests.
- Check System Requirements.
- Stay Calm.
- Be Aware of Job Context in Your Answers.
- Read Questions Carefully.
Can I Still Get Hired if I Failed the Assessment?
Yes, you are still able to secure the job. If you didn’t do well on the test, your best bet is to ask for a lesser position, then work your way up through education and experience. Many middle and upper-level managers got their start in the workforce as cashiers or cleaners.
What Should Be Avoided in Pre-Assessment Tests?
- Beginning on a Bad Note.
- Wasting Instructional Time.
- Creating Management Challenges for Teachers.
- Taking Too Much Time to Analyze.
Final Thoughts
It is important to remember that pre-employment assessment tests are just one piece of the puzzle when assessing a candidate for a job. Other factors to consider include the candidate’s resume, interview performance, previous work experience, educational background, and any other pertinent information. The best use of pre-employment assessment testing is at the beginning of the selection process when unqualified individuals are eliminated. However, in the end, businesses that utilize tests are basing their judgments on a variety of criteria, of which tests should be just one. Tests are meant to supplement and modernize the current hiring procedure rather than replace it entirely.
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