The ultimate guide to pre-employment assessment software

Hiring a new employee takes a lot of information-gathering. The problem with gleaning candidate insights the traditional way - through resumes and interviews - is that hiring managers and recruiters often don’t get the ‘full picture’. Research shows that 46% of resumes contain lies, and interviews aren’t an overly good indicator of job performance. 

That’s when pre-employment assessments walk in and save the day. They introduce an element of objectivity into the hiring process by providing reliable indicators of:

• Job knowledge. Determine whether a candidate has the correct degree of knowledge on a specific subject to perform well in the role.
• Personality. Assess a candidate’s personal qualities, e.g. are they extroverted or introverted?
• Culture fit. Compare a candidate’s preferred organisational culture with your organisational values - and see whether they align. 
• Soft skills. The non-technical skills needed to perform a job like teamwork, problem-solving and good communication
• Situational judgement. Present candidates with different scenarios they might experience on the job, and assess how well they handle certain situations in the workplace. 

Your software should save you time and improve your hires 

High-volume recruiters and hiring managers generally spend too much time assessing candidates, only to make hiring mistakes that negatively impact on business performance. One survey found that on average, companies can lose $15,000 per year per ‘bad’ hire. Multiply that over the thousands of people you may hire per year and the costs add up fast. 

Pre-employment assessments solve these problems: they reduce the time hiring managers spend on reading resumes and conducting interviews, reducing the cost involved in hiring and providing data that increases the quality of hiring decisions. These benefits are compounded when you factor in reduced turnover and better workforce productivity. 

Here’s what good software should do for you:

• Improve quality of hire

When used effectively, pre-employment assessments help organisations hire the best candidates for both the role and the organisation. This means a better quality of hire long-term.

• Streamline recruitment process

For organisations with a high turnover rate, driving efficiency in the recruitment process is a must. With the right pre-employment assessment software (more on this later), it's easier for recruiters to gather more information about more candidates faster. 

• Eliminate unconscious bias

Hiring managers must overcome hiring bias (conscious or unconscious) to support a diversified workforce, and pre-employment assessments help eliminate that worry by narrowing candidates based on skills, behaviour and traits - rather than background or demographic. 

• Improve candidate experience

The hiring process is about more than just finding the right candidate, it’s also about ensuring that any applicants who engage with your business have a good experience too. They might not be the best fit for a specific role, but they might be people you can approach in future to fill a different position. 

69% of candidates who had a negative experience would rarely or never apply again. Pre-employment assessments enhance the candidates’ experience by making sure they end up in jobs that are best for them too. 

Choosing the right pre-employment assessment software

Like selecting candidates, you want to make sure you choose the best-fit pre-employment assessment solution for your organisation. 

Here are some questions you should be asking 

• Can you customise the assessments? Are they preset or can they be customised? Figure out which pre-employment assessments you need and look for a system that supports a variety of styles. 
• Will it integrate with other systems? How will the software work with the rest of your process? The best tools will seamlessly integrate with your other systems, eliminating any manual processes that take up time. 
• Can it automate candidate communications? Does it have the functionality to help you build a better candidate experience? Simply keeping in touch with candidates - even unsuccessful ones - can be a dramatic improvement on traditional hiring processes. 

Top pre-employment assessment systems 

Here are our top picks from the pre-employment software market today:

Weirdly

• Point of difference. Fun, simple and values-based assessments for high-volume hiring 
• Types of assessments. Can be customised to suit role types and cultures based on a bank of pre-validated questions
• Suitable for a variety of industries and roles - especially high-volume companies 
• Integrations. Seamlessly integrates with your Applicant Tracking System, like Smart Recruiter, Greenhouse and bunch of others. 

Vervoe

• Point of difference. Assesses all candidates at the top of the hiring funnel - helps you hire based on merit, not background 
• Types of assessments. Not customisable, but based on real-world scenarios from real jobs 
• Suitable for a variety of industries and roles
• Integrations. Seamlessly integrates with Greenhouse, Zapier and your Applicant Tracking System (additional option).

Codility

• Point of difference. Specialises in helping businesses build top engineering teams.
• Types of assessments. Expansive code assessment library that can be customised 
• Suitable for technical roles in engineering firms 
• Integrations. Seamlessly integrates with Slack, Lever, Workable, Jobvite, SmartRecruiters, Greenhouse and others.  

Pymetrics

• Point of difference. Assesses the cognitive and behavioural traits of candidates based on existing employees
• Types of assessments. Assessment benchmarks results against your employees
• Suitable for a variety of industries and roles - particularly finance and retail.
• Integrations. Self-service API integration 

HackerRank

• Point of difference. Market-leading technical interview platform to identify and hire developers 
• Types of assessments. Thousands of off-the-shelf assessments as well as live code interviews and competitions 
• Suitable for technical developer roles
• Integrations. Seamlessly integrates with Breezy, Greenhouse, Jobvite, Taleo, Workday and more.

Mettl

• Point of difference. Assessments for recruitment, certification and training 
• Types of assessments. Off-the-shelf psychometric and aptitude tests and personality profiler
• Suitable for a variety of industries and roles - particularly IT and finance.
• Integrations. API integration available

Talview

• Point of difference. End-to-end, AI-powered hiring solution including chatbot, coding tests, essay assessments and video interviews
• Types of assessments. Both preset and customisable assessments 
• Suitable for a variety of industries and roles - particularly manufacturing and retail.
• Integrations. Seamlessly integrates with Talo, Greenhouse, SmartRecruiters and more.

Evaluate with consistency, hire with confidence

A robust hiring process that incorporates pre-employment assessments will ultimately deliver a better quality of hire. This means recruiters and hiring managers spend less time shuffling through stacks of resumes and ensures that the right candidates are placed in the best-fit roles. Further optimise that process by integrating pre-employment assessment software, and you’ll also have the tools you need to build a better candidate experience.

Ready to make better hiring decisions? Book a demo with Weirdly today.