Tips for Employers and Job Candidates on Pre-Hire Assessments

I recently responded to the following questions posted anonymously from someone in transition. I thought it might be helpful to both employers and job candidates. These were the questions.

1. How beneficial are assessments to the hiring process?
2. Is pre-employment testing becoming the norm?
3. How do people in transition prepare for these tests?
4. Does it block candidates who may be seeking new opportunities (career change)?

1. If the employer is using an assessment that is truly valid for hiring, then the assessment can help both employer and candidate to see if you are a good fit for the job. Assessments that measure only personality are probably not the best indicator for hiring. Assessments that measure cognitive, personality, honesty and integrity, and interests, give the best overall picture for a good fit. As a candidate you want to make sure that you will be happy in your new position and as an employer, you want the candidate to be happy and a good performer for your company. Hiring someone who is a good fit will ultimately reduce turnover. A conservative calculation for cost of turnover is 20% of the salary for a job.

2. Yes. This is the norm. Over 80% of companies use assessments. Over 90% of all top performing companies use assessments.

3. You really should not need to prepare. There are sites that will tell people how to “fool” these tests or how to answer questions, but if the assessment is a good one, it is measuring how you learn, your personality traits, honesty, and what you like to do (interests). A good assessment can measure someone who is trying to fool the test. There are no right or wrong answers (except the cognitive piece). Don’t base your answers on how you think the employer wants you to answer. Just answer truthfully. Current assessments benefit both parties. Not only is the employer looking for a candidate who will fit their job and culture, but as a candidate, you should want to know if you would be happy working for a particular company in a particular job. I always went into an interview thinking I was interviewing them as much as they were interviewing me.

4. I am not aware of any that block someone because of a career change. In fact, if you have been unhappy in your current career, it is likely because you weren’t a good fit in that particular job in that particular company. An assessment can help you see if you are a good fit.

Happy hunting and don’t sweat an assessment! You probably won’t know which assessment you will be taking anyway, but regardless, you should not need to prepare. Finally, the assessment is only one piece of many factors used in a hiring decision.