What Are Pre-Employment Tests And What Are Its Types?

Pre-employment exam assessment as the name suggests is a kind of standardized test used to evaluate candidates during the hiring process. These tests are professionally developed by experts to judge a candidate on various criteria including a psychological evaluation. They are extremely efficient and help the employer to gain insight on the capabilities of the candidates and the skills required for the particular position.

The pre-employment tests have increasing become various popular with the multi-national employers. This is because human evaluation no matter how correct, is unable to determine the informal abilities of an employee. The internet has several websites through which job seekers apply for jobs. On an average en employer receives over 250 applicants just for one position. Some job seekers send resumes as cold emails to several employers irrespective of qualification and position. They are known as, resume spammers and most emails received via this method are considered spams. This is because the job seekers have no respect for the job position and do not even possess 40% skills required for such a position. They simply try their luck at getting a job, thus undermining the actual ones, who are qualified for the job. These can also be scammers with the intention of stealing confidential information from the company.

Employers conduct pre employment test which can be of varied types. Broadly we can classify these tests into three categories.

Aptitude Tests

Aptitude tests are used to analyze critical thinking capacity, problem solving abilities and the ability to learn and absorb new information. This type of test trigger the applicant’s intelligence and brainpower. According to a report by LinkedIn, the most important skills that employers look for are problem solving skills and the ability to learn new information. These contribute to 60-65% of an interview process. Aptitude tests are used for medium to high level job positions, where problem solving is involved. Cognitive aptitude tests are also conducted by many employers because of its accuracy in candidate selection.

Personality Tests

Personality tests are very popular among HR professionals. They are used to answer certain specific questions by the employer. They question are – is the candidate right for this role? Does he possess the behavioral traits that are required for this job? This differs from aptitude test because there are no right or wrong answer. It is simply a perspective which states whether a candidate is ideal for a certain role. This test focuses on the personal development of an individual and the behavioral tendencies of the candidate.

The most prominent model used for this test is the Big Five or the Five Factor Model. This model states that there are five dimensions of human personality; Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Openness to Experience and Stress Tolerance. This is an improved model from the personality types as set by Cal Jung. His model stated two major types; extroverts and the introverts. He said that all personalities are revolved around these two major types. The Big Five further developed this concept and split it into 5 types.

The Big Five are efficient in the hiring process because they can identify the factors on which a job performance is based. Conscientiousness; this measures if an applicant is reliable, organized and persistent for the job role. Agreeableness; this will evaluate if a candidate agrees to all situations presented to him. It is not a good trait to always agree on situations. Rather an ideal candidate must know when to say no. Extraversion; this measures a person’s enthusiasms. A person with high extraversion scores is called the life of the party. Openness to Experience ; this evaluates how well a person is open to new ideas and innovation, which are necessary for a company’s growth as well as personal development. Stress Tolerance; a candidate must be able to cope under stressful situation. Stress is a part of job life and an ability to handle pressure is appreciated.

Integrity Tests

Integrity tests are a part of personality sector of a pre employment test, which assesses a candidate’s honesty and loyalty. These help employers manage risks within the organization. The last thing anyone would want is a disloyal employee who is involved in fraud and leaking company information. They are used to assess the Counter-productive Work Behavior or CWB. CWB are used to assess behaviors like drug use, absenteeism, procrastination, theft and fraud cases, safety violation and non-compliance. These tests are used mainly at the entry level hiring process, when there are risks of a new employee joining the management. As a part of the integrity test, an employer may also check your background information mentioned in the resume. They may contact early employers or educational institutions to validate a degree.

Skill Tests

Skill tests are there to evaluate the skills required for a job. Verbal skills, communication skills, math skills, computer science and many such skills are generally asked in an interview. These skills are usually picked by an individual during their school or college education. Based on these skills, an individual would be actively involved in the job role.

In an interview you might be asked an evaluation of the General Skill Tests which focuses on basic criteria like typing skills, basic calculations, ability to work well on the computer and more. They are focused on entry level candidates. An advanced skill tests would require tests on advanced software. For example bank jobs would require skill on software related to banking jobs. These are not designed to determine the long term performance of an individual, but just to assess whether they will be able to work with skills at hand.

Conclusion

All pre-employment tests are conducted in combination of all the above. Together they form the ideal parameters of a candidate’s job performance. This maximizes the effectiveness of pre-employment test. Any employer can perfect their hiring process and select the right candidate through such tests. By doing so, an employer can reduce wastage of time in interviewing all applicants and increase productivity and efficiency in the HR department.