A lot of effort goes into hiring a person, and this is more so if the role requires a peculiar skillset. In such cases, perusal of the resume and one or two rounds of interviews are usually not enough. The employer needs to take the applicants through specific tests that would help assess the candidate for specific skills and behavior.

Additionally, employee assessment might also be required for existing employees. These could be for assessing suitability for giving increased responsibility or for a new role needing different skills. Sometimes, skills or behavior assessments are also called for when an employee is not performing up to the mark.

Why do HR Departments need employee assessment tools?

Whether the tests are done pre-employment or during an employee’s tenure, the biggest advantage for the HR department is that the automated assessment tools help eliminate bias. The results of an employee assessment exercise can help highlight strengths and weaknesses objectively.

Employee assessment can help the human resources department uncover skills that had not yet been used by the employee at the workplace. This is especially useful when an employee is being considered for additional or new responsibilities.

Assessment before hiring an applicant helps the HR team to assess whether the technical skills or behavioral attributes mentioned in the resume are true. It is not so uncommon to find that applicants have overstated or even lied about their capabilities.

The employer might have certain work expectations from a set of employees, and specific assessments help to ascertain the required skillset from the existing resource group. Even if they do not perform too well on those tests, it is an assessment of their current skills and an understanding of any reskilling or upskilling needs.

Standardized employee assessment tools can do away with the need for preparing tests, tasks, or questionnaires every time an assessment is needed. They can be administered and graded in a uniform way which saves a lot of time and effort.

Tools for employee assessment

Let us take a look at the types of assessment tools that are most frequently used, and are essential for human resources departments.

For roles that do not require very advanced educational degrees, basic mental ability tests can help if the employee has the required intellect and cognitive abilities to perform well on her tasks.

Specific skill tests can be administered in person, but more and more employers are opting for online assessment tools for testing such skills so that they can be taken wherever the candidate is located. This is especially useful because several companies have a presence in multiple cities or countries, and online skill assessment does not require either the HR professional or the employee to travel.

Psychometric tests have been used for several years to understand how an employee reacts to certain situations and what thought processes would guide her actions in different situations. Such tests help to understand the personality type of the test-taker, her interests and beliefs, and the values she holds closely.

In the context of professional certifications and education, some employers prefer to administer a test that would assess whether the employee is able to apply the learnings in a real work environment. These tests also provide the advantage of letting HR know in case the person has provided false information about a particular certification.

For situations where more than one possible solution exists, employees need to be able to examine the situation from all points of view and offer a calibrated and nuanced solution. Focus groups are sometimes used to assess how an employee can come up with multiple solutions and also how well she can work with counterviews, as so often happens in a real work situation.

Finally, another common tool is a self-assessment to be done by the candidate or employee about the strengths that are valuable and weaknesses to be worked on.

Advantages of relying on employee assessment tools

Any kind of employee assessment must be impartial for test-takers and convenient for the team that administers the tests. Employee assessment tools fulfill both these requirements.

The results of all assessments can be stored for future retrieval and use. Many assessment tools permit proctoring software to be plugged in so that unfair practices can be stopped. The assessment tools can also be customized so that they can be used for different skillsets and employee expertise levels.

Finally, employee assessment tools provide data-driven results so that the employee is assessed objectively.

Summary

Employee assessment tools provide an easy way to gauge suitability for hiring new employees and also for assessing employee readiness for additional roles. They are used in conjunction with face-to-face interviews to provide better results and should be an indispensable part of the HR arsenal.

About COGBEE

COGBEE is an AI-enabled smart and collaborative candidate screening and interviewing platform. Its intelligent screening mechanism enables talent acquisition teams to comprehensively conduct the entire recruiting process.