Hiring can be a mess. You receive a lot of applications for every open role; you need to coordinate with other stakeholders to ensure a collaborative hiring process internally, the hiring managers need to communicate with candidates and set up interviews and skill assessments.

 

All this creates headaches for companies, and even after the lengthy and complex process has ended, most organizations still aren’t happy with the results:

• The hiring practices are outdated and it takes too long to attract, assess, hire, and onboard good talent
• Without proper data, companies are at risk of expensive mis-hires
• The cost ratio of hiring new people is expensive
• Fresh hires leave the company soon after being hired and onboarded

 

These are just some of the pains and risks companies face in their recruitment practices; however, there’s actually one solution that is known to fix all of those problems; online assessments.

 

However, there are good and bad ways of implementing online assessments. So in this article, we’ll go over everything you need to know about online assessments to ensure a successful, lean, and headache-free hiring process.

 

Firstly, let’s start with defining what online assessments actually are.

 

What are online assessments?

Online assessments are remote tests that are given to your candidates before you hire them.

 

Using online assessments will allow any business to assess candidates’ required skills to see how they match the company’s needs and standards.

 

Using online assessments in your hiring process can help you avoid many pitfalls, such as:

 

• The unconscious bias of the recruiter
• Relying on the ‘gut feeling’ of a recruiter
• Not assessing the right skills
• Not assessing the skills thoroughly and accurately

 

All of these problems can be avoided by using online assessments. And on top of that, you might save several thousands of dollars of productivity per new employee by doing so.

 

These are some of the reasons online assessments should be a part of your hiring process, but not all online assessments are made equal.

 

To understand the vast category of online assessments, we’ll define various terms that you need to understand before heading further:

 

• Work sample tests – Work sample tests give the candidate small tasks that mimic the work they’ll be doing in the role they’re applying for. It’s a direct performance measurement for the job and these tests predict job performance in the best way.
• Cognitive Tests – Cognitive tests measure the mental function of candidates for a variety of skills, situations, and problems. Problem-solving, decision-making, attention to detail, and critical thinking tests; all of these fall under cognitive tests, which have decisive correct and incorrect answers.
• Personality tests – Personality tests, unlike cognitive tests, don’t have right or wrong answers. They function as a self-reporting scale, where the candidates grade themselves low or high on certain behavioral aspects. Companies provide personality tests to check for preferred working and learning styles, as well as general company compatibility.

 

What are the top 6 benefits of online assessments?

Online assessments can be the difference between a successful and unsuccessful hiring process. Make sure you choose the right work sample tests and ensure that you have a successful hiring process. Here are the top 6 benefits you’ll see from implementing work samples tests, ensuring a headache-free and successful hiring process:

• Reduce the chance of a mis-hire – When you’re hiring a candidate for any role in your company, you’ll want to make sure that you pick the right candidate every time. With skills assessments, you’ll be able to see and assess work samples, eliminating the risk of false positives in your hiring process and reducing the chance of a mis-hire.
• Find the needle in the haystack – With the right online assessment, you can quickly spotlight top talent and find that needle in the haystack with ease. In order to help you find the right person, you can provide your candidates with an online skills test, and through the test results, you will find the right person.
• Remove bias from the process – Did you know that 96% of recruiters believe that unconscious bias is a problem that impacts the hiring process? With online assessments, you won’t have to rely on the “gut feeling” of your hiring manager; you will have clear and bias-free data to base your decisions on.
• Reduced the cost per hire – Online assessments drastically reduce the cost of hiring an employee. When you don’t have to worry about rehiring and onboarding new employees, you can focus on being productive, getting the job done, and growing your business.
• Predicts future job performance – Did you know that online tests are the single greatest predictor of job performance? So no matter how good the candidate’s resume is or how well educated they are, you should give them a work sample test to see how they would do in the position. The test results will give you more reliable data on how they will perform than their education level or their resume.
• Saves time – Last but not least, using online assessments will save your hiring managers an enormous amount of time. With online assessments, they won’t have to assess every single candidate manually, but they will look at their test results and quickly identify the top talent of their applicants. This will save them a lot of time and help them focus on things that matter in the recruitment process— the people.

 

How do online assessments help with the recruiting process?

Online assessments can work wonders in your hiring process and provide a clear and standardized way to analyze the skills of your candidates.

 

An online assessment needs to be written by subject matter experts and has to ensure that it assesses the candidates in a bias-free way. It’s not just about getting the best software developer; you will have to work with that person day in and day out. So you want to hire the person who you can enjoy spending time with and someone who shares the same professional values as you do.

 

Enter work sample tests

Work sample tests are assessments that require a candidate to do a task that simulates the tasks they would be doing if they’re hired; simply put, you can see them “do the job before they get the job.”

 

This not only provides you with a realistic understanding of their capabilities but also drastically lowers the chance of a miss-hire in your recruitment process.

 

With Canditech’s all-in-one assessment platform, you can evaluate your candidates by providing them with a work sample test. It’s fast, easy, and reliable.

 

Google has been implementing work sample tests since 2013 and they have been doing them the Google way. The Foobar challenge was one example, where Google invited applicants to complete a hidden online challenge to assess skills. The first part was to locate the challenge itself and then successfully solve it to become a Googler.

 

But it’s not only tech giants who implement work sample tests in their recruitment processes. Companies in various industries use work sample tests to assess plumbers, construction workers, managers, drivers, salespeople, programmers, etc.

 

So when you’re hiring a candidate for any of your positions, regardless of the industry, you should use a work sample test to see how they will do the job before they get the job.

 

Why you should use Canditech’s online assessments

When looking for the right platform to use for your online skill assessment, you must make sure that you choose the right software. Canditech is an award-winning platform that allows you to build your own work sample test with ease. With Canditech, you can:

• Use only one platform for all your hiring needs
• Give your candidates both technical skills and soft skills assessments
• Create new assessments quickly and easily
• Completely customize your assessments
• Brand your assessments to provide a better user experience for your candidates
• Canditech technology allows seamless integrations with a variety of applicant tracking systems (ATS)

 

In today’s market, it’s essential that you provide a great candidate experience. If you want to hire top talent, you need to provide the top candidate experience through all stages of your hiring process.

 

With Canditech’s platform, you can do just that. The better the experience, the better the ROI of your hiring process and with Canditech, you won’t have to worry about hiccups in your hiring process.

 

Conclusion

Online assessment can make or break your recruitment process. Don’t leave it to chance by relying on resumes alone, or simple and invalid testing methods; use Canditech and ensure that you hire the best possible candidates in your hiring process.