Today there is a tonne of candidate assessment tools in the market and in recent years they’ve become a necessity for many HR professionals. Every provider is trying to bring something fresh and unique to the table, but how can you make the right choice? And do you even need a candidate assessment tool at all? The truth is that it depends directly on your company needs.
So, let’s have a look whether you need one and what possible good that can come out of it.
The use of candidate assessment tools
A properly designed and wisely chosen tool will increase the effectiveness of your Human Resource department. All pre-employment assessment tools are made with a common goal to improve your organizations hiring process through prediction of candidates future behaviour. You just have to make the right pick. Here are the features they all have in common:
- Improving the quality of the hires you make
- Have a positive impact on your employees’ retention, performance and engagement
- Providing evidence-based information
- Helping to make non-biased hiring decisions
What kinds of candidate assessments tools are there?
#Personality Tests
These tests aim to understand what a person is like and how they are likely to behave. The most robust of these tests are based around the ‘Big Five’ personality traits: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism.
#Reasoning Tests (Abstract/Logical or Mechanical)
These tests assess a candidate’s ability to comprehend information & trends or how things work technically. Basically, it’s the ‘purest’ test of ability to solve problems effectively or manage new situations. While the mechanical ones test purely the technical abilities necessary for a specific position.
#Numerical Tests
These tests assess a candidate’s ability to understand and manipulate numerical data. Candidates usually have to deal with graphs, tables, number sequences and text.
#Emotional Intelligence Tests
Measure the ability to identify one’s emotions, and being comfortable with emotional expression, emotional situations and/or people who are emotional. These tests are often applied to assess candidates for positions that require human interaction.
#SJT – Situational Judgement Tests
These tests are designed to understand how a candidate might actually behave in the potential workplace. This is the method we are using in Owiwi. For instance, whether he or she is a good team player, what’s their level of resilience, adaptability, integrity and etc. The assessment usually presents candidates with a hypothetical scenario, relevant to their desired job, asking them to choose what they feel is the most optimal behaviour.
Choosing the right tool for your company
Besides the validity of an assessment method, there are other important points you should consider when picking candidates’ assessment tool.
#Decide what will you test the candidates on
First, decide whether you will test your candidates for intelligence, their personality or their competencies. The majority of employers are now choosing to test candidate the soft skills except for specific positions that require technical skills.
Check also what soft skills the tool offers to evaluate. For instance, in Owiwi we test 8 Soft Skills: Adaptability, Flexibility, Resilience, Decision-Making, Accountability, Teamwork, Learning Agility and work ethics. Moreover, you are able to choose only the specific skills you need to test according to your company needs or positions.
#Science behind the assessment method
You should definitely find out what scientific model your choice of tool is based on. Basically, what’s the scientific background and is it supported through research. In Owiwi, we provide all our users with a manual that gives a clear picture of all the processes involved in the construction of our psychometric tool.
#Provide an appealing & engaging candidate experience
You should provide the best possible candidate experience starting from the very first interaction of your recruitment process. Basically, your pre-employment testing shouldn’t be lengthy, boring or uninspiring. You should pursue to turn your candidates into your brand ambassadors without making an effort. It’s an effective way to build a strong employer brand. There is no need to work harder…just smarter 😉
Owiwi users constantly provide positive feedback:
#Check the quality of the reports
If you get a poor, unstructured or vague report, without a clear picture of a candidates potential, there is no reason to apply it in your recruitment process. Invest time into researching and getting the most out of free trials before you make that final decision. The best thing to do is to have a quick chat with the provider in order to get a full briefing of the tool.
The Owiwi recruiter report provides advanced insights into candidates’ profile, based on the assessment results, including in-depth candidate results description, scores of every soft skill compared to norms of a specific field, the characteristics the candidate is prone to project, suggested interview questions adjusted to the candidate’s profile, and finally the definitions of the soft skills being evaluated. If thats not enough we also provide developmental areas in case you want to engage in training and development initiatives.
#Ask about technical integration
In case you are an ATS provider make sure that the tool you chose integrates with your system, it will simply make your life easier. In Owiwi we provide seamless and fast platform integration with any ATS provider.
Why choose Owiwi?
Let’s have a closer look at the benefits that Owiwi brings into the recruitment process.
Recently, our Scientific Team published a paper on Cambridge University Press, to support the validity of the method we use. Our study has shown that the assessments incorporating game elements predict academic job performance. In short, the paper proves that Owiwi tool greatly helps organizations to make better hires. See yourself, read our Science paper free of charge.
Summing up…
Pre-employment assessment tools can help to provide a clearer image of a candidate profile and measure their skills in a more objective way. As a result, they bring solid, evidence-based hiring decisions and the recruiter is able to identify when there is a cultural fit. Smarter hiring decisions can save money, time, as well as reduce turnover.
