Assessment tools, such as simulated projects, aptitude skill assessments and aptitude tests can all help to highlight the best possible candidates during the recruitment process. This will be a great relief to companies around the world given the massive talent shortages occurring globally. According to ManpowerGroup, 77% of employers are reporting difficulty in filling roles, with another source reporting one in eight organisations are having recruitment problems.
Modern businesses need to make the most of any and all tools available that will help to refine the talent pool, weed out ill-suited candidates and find you that needle in the haystack – the perfect employee for your vacancy.
Talent assessment tools can help by narrowing the field while eliminating recruitment bias and providing scientifically-based data to support your hiring decisions. But what are the best talent assessments tools to use? Let’s check out 7 talent assessment tools that can provide the best value for recruitment and retention.
1. Structured interviews
Many businesses choose to use recruitment software that creates and structured interview questions – each candidate will be asked the same assessment questions in the same order, which makes it much easier to compare and rate answers, while providing a consistent approach to interviewing and evaluating candidates.
2. Numerical skills
It goes without saying that some roles, including engineers, financial analysts and developers, require a certain level of mathematical ability to perform the job well. However most jobs require a base level of mathematical knowledge, with one source suggesting that nearly 90% of jobs need basic maths skills. With this in mind, numerical skills tests can provide invaluable information about your potential candidates.
Numerical skills tests often include numerical computation questions, numerical estimation questions, data interpretation questions and numerical reasoning.
3. Cognitive assessments
Cognitive assessments can effectively test qualities that are really important to many employers, but which are hard to traditionally test for, including error spotting, logic skills and attention to detail, while also focusing on information processing and short-term memory retention.
4. Blind CV scoring
Recruiters are human, and as such, they’re subject to human biases, whether or not they are even conscious of them. Hiring managers and recruiters might unconsciously focus on names, ages or gender, or they might be influenced by the Halo Effect if they discover a given candidate has gone to the same university as them, for example. Blind CV scoring creates a fair, standardised process for sorting through CVs, turning the hiring process into more of a science than an art by using focus questions and allowing you to pinpoint specific skills that will predict future job performance.
5. Work samples or presentations
Businesses today often ask candidates to set some time aside to perform a relevant task or create a presentation. This allows managers to assess candidate skills and abilities, and it also gives a great insight into problem-solving skills and creativity, along with their ability to work independently.
6. Asynchronous interviews
An asynchronous interview is a pre-recorded interview where the candidate is given a series of interview questions to prepare for. They then record their answers in front of a camera, and the video is then submitted for consideration. This approach has a number of benefits – it allows candidates and employers to do things at their own pace, at a time that suits them, and it also gives interviewers a chance to review the footage as many times as they need to get a good overall picture of the candidate.
7. Job simulation tests
This tool differs from work samples as they are done in real time. Candidates are given job-related tasks or game-based assessments, and employers can observe how the candidate handles a given situation – this can include role playing, or an interviewer might ask a candidate a question to test their coding skills, for example. The test needs to be carried out in the allotted time, meaning hiring managers get a good insight into how the employee might react under pressure.
To find the right candidate, you will likely need to use a combination of the techniques above. Finding just the right candidate can be difficult, and keeping hold of them can be even tricker, but businesses who refine their recruitment process using the right tools are able to attract and retain top performers who will stick with them and provide real value for years to come.
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