Let’s take a glance at the key categories of Screening and Assessments and how they are helping make lighter work for hiring teams.
Screening and assessments have increased in popularity with recruitment professionals over the decades. This is largely due to questions and assessments getting more and more sophisticated and reliable as AI evolves.
Certainly, they’ve come a long way since the typing speed tests for admin roles and proficiency tests for driving roles of the last century, (though these types of tests are still used effectively by recruiters with vacancies for these job types).
Nowadays, recruiters are being smart and using tests and questions to qualify-out candidates at the earliest point of their application journey, especially at a time like now with vacancies at a high as they’re quick to implement and save lots of time. At the screening stage, assessments are taking the lead in really helping recruiters get a deeper understanding of their candidates, whether that be Situation Judgement Tests or Psychometric Assessments. These types of tests are really good at determining if a candidate is a good fit from a culture and capability perspective.
Steve Howarth in HireRoads’s Business Development Team summarises the double whammy of using screening and tests to help filter non-starters from highly credible candidates:-
“…saving valuable time is a big plus point. These powerful tools can slash application rates by up to 50% for high volume roles* and give recruiters complete confidence at shortlisting by rigorously testing the competency, culture and capability fit of all candidates – only presenting the candidates for interviews that are the most suited”. He continues, *in fact, we’ve seen some roles have 7,500 applications!”
But how practical and easy are they to manage/control? In reality, unless you have an Applicant Tracking System that’s got a Questions Engine – ie the ability to add different types of questions and assessments as part of your candidate journey, you will struggle. For example, HireRoad comes with literally hundreds of free screening tests at your disposal, with the ability to create your own Killer Questions and Situational Judgement Tests (SJT’s), ensuring that only the right candidates enter the recruitment process and that only the best matches are presented to hiring managers or hiring panels or for interview/phone screen.
Let’s take a glance at the four key categories of screening and tests that are helping make the recruitment process lighter work for hiring teams.
Four Categories of Screening Questions and Assessment Tests for Fast, Effective Recruitment
1. Killer Questions – Entry-level questions requiring a simple Yes or No answer that determines if a candidate meets the minimum requisites for entering the application process or not. With HireRoad, you can create as many as you like as often as you like as this is a self-serve function.
2. Skills-Based Tests – Competency tests that determine if a candidate has the requisite skills for the job or not. This category includes the traditional and longstanding tests we’ve already mentioned earlier in this article, such as typing speed tests for secretarial vacancies, or competency with a sector-specific piece of software, like Sage for accountancy vacancies. HireRoad partners with ISV online for these tests, which you can use without leaving the system.
3. Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) – Weighted questions against your pre-determined scoring criteria that gauge if a candidate is a suitable cultural fit for your business or not. SJTs do their job by gaining insights into how candidates react to people and situations in their workplace. They gain these insights by presenting candidates with your pre-picked multiple-choice questions about various scenarios, and a selection of answers that indicate different personality types. Even more of a bonus for HireRoad customers is that they can create their own SJT’s, at their own pace and as many times as they like as this is a self-served functionality – all included within the cost.
4. Psychometric Assessments – Weighted questions against your pre-determined scoring criteria that gauge if a candidate has the specific character traits you’re looking for or not. Psychometric assessments present candidates with your pre-chosen multiple-choice questions about various workplace scenarios. They differ from SJTs by presenting candidates with a selection of very similar multiple-choice answers that reveal very distinct characteristics. In addition, psychometric assessments are usually timed. This reduces the opportunity for candidates to overthink the answer they suspect you might want to see.
So if your looking for an ATS that is a single source for all your recruitment marketing needs then why not book a demo? Or call us now on 01509 236 434 for an initial informal chat with one of our product experts about your current challenges and goals for the future.