How to Choose the Right Pre-Employment Assessment Tool?

Recruitment technology enhances the efficiency, fairness, and data-driven nature of the talent management process. Not just for recruiters, but it makes the application process enjoyable for applicants too. Pre-employment assessment tool is a prime example of technology making a positive impact on recruitment. As technology continues to advance, pre-employment assessment tools have become popular.

Besides, these tools are a staple in the candidate selection process. Yet, choosing the right pre-employment assessment tool is a challenging task. The decision should be carefully made by considering various factors.

In this article, we’ll walk you through the factors you need to consider before choosing a pre-employment recruiting tool. But first, let’s have a look at the definition of a pre-employment tool.

What is a pre-employment assessment tool?

An online pre-employment test is a tool to test a candidate’s suitability for a specific role. The test has the ability to assess various candidate skills. These skills may include technical skills, communication skills, and analytical reasoning. It may also calculate behavioral attitudes, personality traits, and more.

Currently, 82% of companies use some form of assessment tool while the hiring process. This eliminates the need for recruiters to follow up with each candidate personally. Thereby, it saves time and ensures that more candidates take the test – best for volume hiring as well. Pre-employment tests also help in identifying unsuitable candidates early on. This allows recruiters to focus on quality hiring only.

Importance of a pre-employment assessment tool

Now, you have a clear understanding of pre-employment assessment tools. Head below to the importance of using pre-employment assessment software in your hiring.

The benefits include:

Increased efficiency

Efficiency in recruitment refers to reducing the time spent on repetitive manual tasks. Automated scheduling of interviews and answering routine candidate questions might help. It decreases the overall time to hire.

Generally, 80% of candidates are not a suitable fit for the organization. By focusing on the top 20% of candidates, recruiters can hire top performers in no time.

Improved fairness

Bias is an inherent aspect of being human. But when it comes to hiring top talent, it’s important to cut its impact as much as possible. Overlooking a great candidate simply due to unconscious bias is not ideal.

A pre-employment assessment tool eliminates this problem. The automated resume screening and skill assessment tests drop all kinds of biases. The tools collect data based on their responses and actions. Next, it analyzes data consistently for each candidate. This reduces the influence of bias in the decision-making process. You’ll have fair and quick employee onboarding.

Data-driven insights

Data-driven hiring involves utilizing data to streamline the entire hiring strategy. Thereby, eliminating subjective decision-making. The benefits of data-driven hiring are:

Improved hire quality
Decreased time to hire
Less cost per hire

70% of hiring managers believe that to achieve a greater long-term business impact. You can build a motivated workforce with increased employee engagement, retention, and satisfaction.

Data-driven practices include:

Automated resume screening

It verifies and evaluates the historical data provided by job seekers. This includes their educational qualifications, work experience, and licenses, to ensure accuracy.

Skills assessment

It evaluates a candidate’s skills, competencies, personality traits, and work preferences. The final scores were obtained from tests and exams.

Job interviews

It assesses an individual’s responses to questions about their work experience.

These tools help you incorporate all this data into the pre-selection recruitment phase. Upon completion of the assessment, the results are presented to the hiring team. It is important to share this data in an easy-to-understand format. This makes fast hiring decisions.

Enhancing candidate experience

The recruitment process is a reflection of what candidates can expect from the organization if they are hired. A well-designed, modern pre-employment assessment tool can present the company story. And it leaves a positive impression on applicants.

The assessment provides a glimpse into the work culture of the company. This can enhance the candidate experience as well. Many pre-employment assessment platforms give special attention to candidate follow-up. This sounds helpful as it keeps them updated on the hiring status and other concerns. Also, candidates can share their feedback and opinion on the selection process.

Makes the hiring process easy and quick

Another advantage of using this tool is that it can make the application process quick and easy. It does this by eliminating manual tasks like physical interviews and routine questions. You can think of video screening interviews. The streamlined interview process saves time for both the recruiters and candidates. The result? It can help to increase the overall efficiency of the recruitment process.

Factors to consider when choosing a pre-employment assessment tool

When selecting a pre-employment assessment tool, there are several key factors to consider. To ensure that you choose the right tool for your organization, here are a few essential steps.

Read to the end and make yourself enlightened in your decision-making process:

Does it meet your company’s objectives?

To use a pre-employment assessment tool, it’s important to have a clear plan in place. Identify the areas you want to improve. Whether it is for reducing time to hire, employee turnover, or improving candidate satisfaction. This step is the biggest challenge that helps you smoothen the rest of the process. Got plan? You can now analyze how a pre-employment assessment tool can help you. There are many pre-employment tools available in the market. With pre-defined objectives, you can streamline your search and choose the right one.

Is it offering all essential and desirable features?

Different pre-employment assessment tools have varying degrees of features and capabilities. Some only offer the basic functionalities such as candidate tracking, resume screening, and skill assessments. On the flipside, others provide a more comprehensive range of options such as candidate communication, interview scheduling, feedback collection, and more. There are some new-age pre-employment assessment tools like Metahire.ai which offers both. They often go beyond the fundamental features, ensuring that the hiring process is fast, streamlined, and optimized.

Additionally, such advanced tools may offer other value-loaded features as well:

Robotic Video Screening – analyzing the video resumes of candidates to identify patterns in the applicant’s speech and body language to determine their level of confidence and communication skills.

Resume reporting – using data analysis and machine learning to evaluate the resumes based on candidate’s work history, education, skills, and experience to generate a report on their suitability for the job.

Candidate follow-ups – using communication channels like Email and WhatsApp to keep job applicants informed and engaged throughout the hiring process. This function involves sending personalized messages to candidates to update them on the status of their application, request additional information or schedule interviews.

Realistic Job Preview – providing candidates with an accurate and realistic view of the job they are applying for. This function can involve a range of methods such as video tours, shadowing opportunities, and informational interviews with current employees.

You will need specific features that are unique to your organization. So, it’s crucial to create a list of desired features that you want in a pre-employment assessment tool before choosing one. This helps organizations identify the pre-employment tool that best suits their recruitment needs

When planning to use a pre-employment assessment tool, it’s crucial to have a clear idea of your objectives. This will help you determine which features are essential and which are just added benefits. For instance, if your main concern is job posting and candidate tracking, you may opt for an applicant tracking system (ATS). This type of system is designed to provide a convenient way to store, sort and track job applicants. Moreover, it automates several recruitment tasks such as resume screening, scheduling interviews and live chat support for candidates. Additionally, you may also want to consider skill assessment functionality, robotic process automation, video screening interview, realistic job preview for candidates, resume reporting and candidate follow-ups as potential features to enhance your recruitment process.

Is it user-friendly?

A positive user experience is key for pre-employment testing software. It should be seamless for both candidates and employers. Evaluate factors such as:

User-friendly interface
Easy interaction
Simple item bank management
A clean dashboard with analytics and visualizations.

It all boils down to the fact that customizing the user experience can attract better talent.

Can it be a scalable and automated solution to rely on?

Scalability and Automation are key factors to consider in pre-employment testing software. Choosing the right software is crucial when dealing with high candidate volumes. A single job posting can attract over 250 applicants. So, the software must handle a heavy workload without sacrificing assessment quality.

Consider its automation capabilities as well. The technologies like AI, machine learning, and RPA can automate repetitive tasks. When evaluating scalability and automation, consider the following questions:

Does the software offer Automated Item Generation (AIG)?
How many candidates can it handle?
Can it support candidates from various locations worldwide?

Does it integrate well with your current HR tools?

When choosing technology, it should simplify your work, not add complexity. Before selecting a new technology, check its compatibility with your current systems. For example, if you are using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) already, consider if and how the pre-employment assessment tool integrates with the ATS. It’s important to determine if you can manage the integration yourself. Sometimes, it may need a provider to handle it, and if so, how long the integration process typically takes?

What does it cost you?

When choosing a pre-employment assessment tool, it’s important to consider the cost too. This factor is significant as it ensures the tool aligns with your company’s budget. Its potential benefits include reduced time to hire, increased hiring efficiency and better returns. Avoid tools with suspiciously low prices, as they may not deliver the desired results. Investing in a quality tool will pay off in the long run.

Is its customer service available 24/7?

A top-performing software should have a comprehensive support system. A good assessment tool is accessible 24/7. When evaluating customer and technical support, consider the following questions:

What support channels are available?
How responsive is the support?
How helpful is the FAQ/resources page?
Do they have dedicated managers to assist in maximizing the benefits of the tests?

Give Metahire.ai a shot today!

Adopting top-notch recruitment technology is becoming increasingly important. The reason behind this is that it helps businesses to attract and keep talent. Metahire.ai is an effective solution to streamline the hiring process. Its automated resume screening, auto-matching algorithm for finding the best-fit candidate, and live chat support features make it stand out among others. Implementing a pre-employment assessment tool like this can improve the selection process.

This leads to increased team productivity, employee satisfaction, and reduced turnover. Thus, it positively impacts the company’s objectives. Above all, Metahire.ai has all the features one should check before selecting the pre-employment assessment tool.