Are you stuck in the wrong job?

As the battle for talent wages on, two-fifths of job-seekers are being hired into new roles only to discover they have the wrong soft skills for the job, and over half (53%) are leaving companies because their personality or work style didn’t fit. So say the results of new research commissioned by HireVue, provider of the most comprehensive AI-driven talent assessment suite and video interviewing solutions, which sought to examine the current state of pre-hire assessments and the impact they are having on talent acquisition.

With 53% of those who had left for this reason saying the format of the hiring process had prevented them from discovering the mismatch earlier, the research – which questioned over 2,500 job-seekers across Europe and the US – revealed that companies’ current approach to pre-hire assessments leaves much to be desired. This offers recruitment professionals a golden opportunity to deliver a more positive experience and better match candidates’ innate skills and abilities to the roles they are trying to fill.

Further key findings from the research include:

• Question of confidence: While four-fifths (82%) of candidates are confident in their ability to articulate their soft skills and personality traits in an interview, many doubt that pre-hire assessments can showcase these important attributes. Of those who have taken a pre-hire assessment, or have some understanding of what such tests entail, over a third question their ability to measure personality traits (37%) or soft skills (35%). A worrying 41% are also less than certain that pre-hire assessments can gauge potential.
• Fulfilling their potential: Over four in ten (43%) candidates see potential as extremely important or critical to employers when hiring – more so than prior experience, academic achievements, or soft skills. Three quarters (76%) of respondents also stated that they would prefer to be judged on their potential versus their previous experience.