Pre-Employment Testing Online – The new Trend in HR | #hrmanagement #hrexecutive

Throughout the post-9/11 era, American law enforcement agencies have stepped up their efforts to screen applicants based on their characteristics, behaviors, and job compatibility. These tests have encouraged and improved dedication and integrity amongst law enforcement applicants. If you lie – you get caught. Sadly, the private sector has failed to engage in such detailed pre-employment investigations in the past. That’s why lying on CVs is a normalized practice. However, over the last decade, leading companies have started to understand the efficiency of pre-hire assessments.

What the Industry Leaders Are Doing

Leading companies seek predictive accuracy in their recruitment processes. The best way of achieving that is doing more than standard employee screening processes. Sure, consecutive personal interviews are good tools to measure an applicant’s aptitude and compatibility. But, these processes aren’t as scientifically validated or reliable as they need to be. However, pre-employment testing processes are changing all that.

In a recent study, almost 82% of the country’s leading firms reported using some form of pre-employment testing in the past five years. Some companies created job simulations (54% of the companies that participated in the test), while others tested whether the candidates’ work culture ethics matched theirs (51%). However, these assessment tactics were only being used in the past for testing executive-level positions. Now, companies that have tasted success with these tests are using them to recruit the finest entry-level applicants.

What Happens in Pre-Employment Assessments?

Most pre-employment tests initially focus on the candidates’ personal traits. Is the candidate suitable as per the organizational culture? That’s the first answer these assessment tools provide. However, any basic interview session can do the same. So, the latest pre-employment assessments also test the applicants’

• Cognitive Abilities – Irrespective of the job’s nature, certain basic cognitive abilities like problem solving or mathematical capacities are vital. Hence, these tests subtly test whether the candidate is cognitively talented.
• Soft Skills – In professions like sales, non-technical qualities like efficient communication or on the spot problem-solving skills are vital. Pre-employment tests for such candidates are designed to test integrity, client interaction skills, and other soft skills.  
• Hard Skills – If an accountant isn’t proficient at using the latest accounting software tools, they won’t fit into the work culture. That’s why pre-employment tests for ‘hard jobs’ are designed to test the applicants’ efficiency in hard skills (typing, technological capabilities, number crunching, etc.)
• Job-Specific Tests – These sections of pre-employment tests are where things get interesting. Assume a candidate has passed all the evaluations mentioned above. Is he or she ‘employable’? Not if they can’t pass the job-specific tests! Be it a specific accounting test or an application development exercise – the latest pre-employment tests contain sections that are dedicated to testing whether an applicant is fit for the specific requirements of the job in question.

Third-party testing companies provide detailed job-specific tests for all kinds of professions. From call center jobs to business intelligence positions to engineering jobs – industry experts develop these tests and often mirror the tests that the applicant must have passed while achieving his or her certifications.

How Different Fields are Benefiting – A Use Case

In a recent study looking into the effectiveness of pre-employment tests in the Human Resource Management (HRM) industry, it was revealed that organizations were spending tremendous sums of money competing for top candidates. Between 2016-2017 the use of online pre-employment tests grew in the sector by 114%. These careful talent assessments provided leading HRM companies with –

• Increased productivity. Instead of spending 40 minutes per interview, recruiters were able to screen over two-hundred applications every day.
• Cost savings. On average, it takes over forty days for HRM companies to fill new positions. With online testing, that time was rapidly reduced, and HRM firms could grow at much faster rates.
• No biases. Traditional interview processes aren’t just marred by lying applicants; these unstructured interview processes are also filled with biases. With pre-employment tests, there are no biases or unfair treatments.

Pre-employment tests helped leading HRM firms save efforts, time, and expenses in their recruitment processes!

Why Smaller Companies Need to Follow

Only large-scale companies like Google or Etsy can engage in pre-employment testing processes because they have many resources, right? Wrong! Smaller companies have started investing in pre-employment testing online agencies that streamline the recruitment process and significantly increase the chances of securing the right candidates. Smaller companies must stop relying on expensive interview rounds and partner with agencies that help them create online pre-employment tests that test applicants’ basic and job-specific skills.

• Third-party pre-employment test providers are specialists and have established systems to create a variety of tests for different high and entry-level positions.
• Companies don’t have to handle tons of data or costs doing their own background screening. Their applicants’ data is safe with the third-party pre-employment agency.
• These agencies are well-versed with recruitment and employment laws. They collect all the info hiring firms need to make the right recruitment decisions in the safest way possible.

Some of the leading pre-employment test providers are also using artificial intelligence to score answers to different types of questions on tests. These providers are finally leveling the playing field for large-scale and small-scale companies when it comes to recruiting the best talents!

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash