Companies have embraced pre-employment assessments and several other screening processes, such as coding assessments, take-home challenges, etc. It is one of the best ways to determine whether the candidate is the right fit for the organization among the vast talent pool.

Most recruiters often judge candidates based on their resumes. According to HR Dive, these resumes are wordy, and more than 30% of resumes contain lies. Hiring a candidate based on a resume can cost the business a lot and affect the business’s overall productivity.

To overcome this problem, it is always better to conduct a pre-employment test to assess who is fit for its requirements. It will not only help save time and money but also grab the right talent for the organization. Companies also use other types of pre-employment tests such as cognitive ability tests and skill assessments which have helped companies retain new hires.

Pre-employment testing is one of the best ways to predict job performance and the right fit for the company. It consists of tests and questionnaires to assess candidate’s technical skills, soft skills, problem-solving skills, and others.

All tests have their advantages, but they are far from perfect. However, most recruiters still doubt whether to include pre-employment testing in recruiting process or not.

To make things clear, here are 7 answers to the most frequently asked questions about pre-employment testing.

#1. Are these tests better than other forms of screening?

Conducting unstructured interviews, hiring based on CVs, and pre-interview calls will get the wrong person hired and impact the business’s overall productivity. This is because most recruiters judge candidates based on their wordy resumes rather than their skills.

All tests work differently, and if they’re well-structured, they can help recruiters make quick and thoughtful hiring decisions. Pre-employment assessments offer several benefits to recruiters and organizations. It is a cost-effective and time-saving approach towards hiring the right talent for your organization.

#2. Can I use the same assessment for every candidate?

In an unstructured interview, recruiters often ask different questions to different candidates for the same job role. However, it leads to no consent on how to rate candidate’s answers.

But this is definitely not the case with pre-employment assessments. They are standardized, and the same questions are asked to every candidate.

For example, suppose if a company is looking for web developers. In that case, in coding assessments, all the same, web development-related questions are being asked to every candidate. It becomes easier for recruiters to judge candidates based on their answers.

#3. Is pre-employment a time saving approach?

Let’s face it: As a recruiter, you will get hundreds and thousands of applications for each job vacancy you post. So, it becomes challenging to assess all the candidates and schedule interviews for them. And candidates are impatient – if they’re not informed about the interview date, they will move on to other opportunities. As a result, you will miss out on opportunities to hire the right talent.

This issue can be resolved when pre-employment assessments come into play. With these tests, you can evaluate 100+ candidates at once, and it becomes easy for you to schedule an interview date based on the test results. This is a best practice to avoid losing time interviewing candidates who don’t deserve a particular job profile.

#4. How does it help recruiters?

Most recruiters hire candidates based on their gut feeling. They think that the candidate will excel in his performance in a particular job role. But this gut feeling isn’t always worth it and can lead to unconscious bias.

On the other hand, structured interviews give a clear insight into the candidate’s skills and help recruiters make an informed decision. They give recruiters a reason to reject a candidate instead of solely relying on intuition.

#5. Are these tests strictly job related?

Unless you’re using structured interviews, it’s easy to walk from job-related criteria when interviewing candidates. But, tests can be designed to focus only on what really matters for a particular job role.

However, it depends on which type of test you conduct. Many tests are unable to predict job performance, and organizations must avoid conducting it.

#6. Does it help to increase employee retention?

Along with hiring the right candidate, recruiters need to retain talent and reduce turnover. With coding assessments and other tests, you can screen candidates more efficiently for aptitude and personality and assess whether a candidate is a right fit for the culture or not.

There are several factors to consider while assessing a candidate: communication skills, time-management skills, problem-solving skills, overall ambition, honesty, motivation, etc. However, evaluating these skills in an old-school face-to-face interview can be challenging for recruiters.

Pre-employment assessments can also reduce costs per hiring and training by providing recruiters with data that will help them to hire the right person for the position.

#7. Pre-employment assessments increase legal defensibility. Is it true?

The short answer is – YES! These tests can increase the legal defensibility of the hiring process when implemented in the right manner. Recruiters have to follow some guidelines as in any other hiring process (including resumes, interviews, etc.)

Pre-employment guidelines state that these tests are legal to use as long as they are job-related. They have additional legal defensibility that they provide recruiters with objective, scientifically validated predictors of success in a job, in opposition to other hiring methods.

It offers an opportunity to organizations to defend their hiring procedures if someone questions their hiring process legality.

Using well-designed pre-employment can help recruiters to streamline the hiring process and catch the right talent. It adds objectivity to the recruiting process and makes the hiring process free of biases and misunderstandings.

No matter what the size is, it is crucial to continuously monitor the use of pre-employment tests, support legal compliance, and increase productivity. That said, we hope that some doubts related to pre-employment have been busted with the above questions and answers.