Introduction  

Pre-employment assessments are essential in choosing the right person for your company's open role. This step in the hiring process helps recruiters evaluate the candidate's skills, abilities, and cultural fit beyond what is gathered in an initial interview. 

Your organization's HR department would conduct relevant tests for the assessment stage. However, if you're working with a recruitment agency like Q2 HR Solutions, the agency will handle pre-employment assessments alongside other recruitment steps for you. 

Still, it’s important to understand how these assessments work, especially if you are a business owner, manager, or HR lead. Your industry expertise and goals for hiring are valuable information that can help providers tailor their pre-employment assessment services to your requirements.

 

Read on to learn more about pre-employment assessments, from how they work to how they help improve the quality of your hires.

 

What Is a Pre-Employment Assessment?  

The pre-employment assessment stage is where the recruiters administer a series of tests to choose candidates based on their abilities and skills. Usually, the assessment involves combining cognitive, communication, personality, and role-specific skills tests and any test that may be necessary to gauge how qualified the candidate is.

The structure will also vary depending on the job position you're trying to fill. For instance, an assessment for a software developer may include a mix of problem-solving tests and technical exams to gauge the applicant's cognitive abilities and role-specific skills.

It's worth noting that pre-employment assessments are designed to accommodate your company-specific requirements. So, if you have a particular candidate persona in mind, inform your service provider. The third-party recruiters will factor in that preference when developing their assessment structure, as they want to ensure that the candidate they choose is a culture fit.

 

Ways Pre-Employment Assessments Help You Find the Best Candidates  

Interviewing promising candidates is just the tip of the iceberg in choosing the best fit for your organization's open role. Many may claim during the initial call that they can do Y and Z, but it's when you test their skills that the unqualified are flushed out, leaving those with real potential.

Hiring a third party for pre-employment assessments can help your company in the following ways:

Identifies Qualified Candidates Faster

Pre-employment assessments help filter candidates, leaving only those equipped with the necessary skills to perform the role. As such, it's usual for hiring agencies to give a skills test in the early stages of the process to narrow down the candidates faster.

Naturally, you'd want someone who has some level of expertise, especially if it's a technical or specialist position. For such needs, a role-specific exam may effectively reveal qualified ones. Meanwhile, C-Suite roles may require more thorough testing; measuring behavioral and organizational capabilities may help identify promising applicants.

Keeps the Candidate Selection Objective  

Since pre-employment assessments are standardized, they promote an objective selection process, reducing bias related to educational background, socioeconomic status, or other factors that have nothing to do with the type of test they're taking. This objective approach ensures that a candidate will qualify for the next round based on merit related to their test performance.

While pre-employment assessments focus on skills and abilities, background checks are also important in the recruitment process. As this phase is more complex, it's saved for candidates who are already given a conditional offer; essentially, the ones who have passed the pre-employment assessments, including interviews, with flying colors.

Measures Potential Success in the Role   

Pre-hire assessments help predict how a candidate will perform once given the job position. Provided, of course, that your service provider gives tests that reflect the tasks associated with the role. 

Sample assessments that effectively measure a candidate's success are skills tests and simulation tests. These types of assessments may help the vetting team see how the candidate will handle tasks, resolve problems, and react to situations related to the job.

Determines the Candidate's Company Alignment  

Some tests also measure how well the candidate aligns with your company's culture and values. Personality and behavioral tests are designed to reveal qualities such as working style, interpersonal skills, and mindset. Learning about these aspects helps the hiring team assess whether the potential employee can mesh well with the existing organization. Finding a perfect culture fit also reduces the company's turnover rate. 

These tests are usually combined with skills and role-specific exams to create a whole picture of the candidate as an employee and team member. They balance the company's need for competent and cooperative employees, minimizing the possibility of new hires derailing the harmony within the organization.

Motivates Applicants To Showcase Their Strengths  

Top-performing candidates often view assessments and tests as an opportunity to demonstrate their skills and competencies. While they may have mentioned their skills and capabilities during interviews, it's during the assessments that they are able to back up their words with results. The objective nature of the tests, where candidates are evaluated based on a standard scoring system, motivates serious applicants to excel. 

This setup encourages high-potential candidates to perform their best, as they know that success in the assessments increases their chances of landing the role.

 

Reach Out to Q2 HR Solutions To Handle Your Pre-Employment Assessment Needs  

Third-party hiring companies like Q2 HR Solutions can help you handle the entire recruitment process, including pre-employment testing. Our end-to-end solutions involve using standardized assessment tools to ensure you'll have the right people with the skills and personality perfect for the role. Our dedicated experts, moreover, have extensive knowledge in various industries, making them credible in vetting potential top performers. 

If you're a company in the BPO, IT, financial services, or manufacturing sector, our seasoned HR professionals who have experience with the said industries are equipped with the knowledge and insight to help you hire a perfect fit. Reach out to us today and learn more about how we can assist you. 

 

Conclusion  

To fast-track your recruitment process, one thing you can do is hire a third-party HR team that will do everything for you, including providing pre-employment assessment services. This stage of the process, testing candidates based on hard and soft skills, cognitive abilities, and role-specific capabilities, is crucial to finding the perfect fit for your company's vacant positions. The objective nature of such assessments prevents candidate bias and measures the true potential of the applicant to thrive in the position. 

At Q2 HR Solutions, we deliver quality results with our end-to-end recruitment solutions, with pre-employment assessments being a crucial part of our process. Talk to us today, and let us help you find your next star employee.