As an HR professional recruiting talented developers, you know the financial and other risks of a bad recruitment. It’s not just advertising costs and wasted time. The cost of hiring unsuitable tech candidates for a job opening can set companies back a long way and damage employees’ performance. The marketplace is certainly competitive and for roles requiring experienced or highly qualified developers, it’s important to get it right. It’s possible to make better hiring decisions with the right tests, tools and screening alongside the interview. Performance measuring online technical assessment and employment testing tools are the future of recruiting.
Confusion reigns about what a recruitment screening test system is, how they work, benefits, or where to start. If you too are confused, let us help you.
Why you need a technical assessment tool
Confused about online employment testing tools and screening, and how each helps with recruiting a tech candidate? Don’t know where or how to start applying them in your developer hiring process or performance measuring? Or even which platform is best for recruiters?
Such a test helps evaluate and narrow down a pool of candidates by using assessments and metrics, leading to better talent hiring decisions, based on skills rather than just on a resume or an interview.
The question you are probably asking is “Do these online performance screening and tech recruiting tools work for hiring new employees?”.
Evidence suggests that use of a screening platform can help narrow down a candidate list for your recruitment strategy and each job opening. One 2015 study demonstrated a hiring company was 36% more likely to feel satisfied with their new employees. The same study revealed 71% of the Best-in-Class companies routinely use employment testing tools and recruitment software to complement their interview process. As time has gone by, the highest performing companies have expanded the use of such tools. Utilising talent assessment tools helps them make better hiring decisions.
A “real world” assessment
Pre hire assessment and employment testing helps recruiters predict job performance under genuine tech working conditions. Simulations or lines of questioning and measurement as close to the real situation as possible is far more relevant. You can learn to make better hiring decisions for developers with a clearer view of how a candidate is likely to perform on the job.
Accurate, scientific data
A good online technical talent assessment tool and recruiting test system is a better screening method than unreliable CVs and interviews. Hiring managers and HR professionals are far less likely to make mis-led or biased decisions or allow people and personal issues to cloud their judgement.
More interesting for the candidate
As talent assessment tools and performance tests are still not standard recruiting practice (although they’re on the rise!), companies that do use screening when hiring candidates stick in the memory. If such a test is fun or interesting, it will create a favorable attitude in the mind of the candidate. This increases the likelihood that a good tech candidate will accept your job offer. Indeed, in today’s tight tech talent market, maximum candidate experience is everything and a smooth screening process will put the odds in your favor. What’s more, if you’re really looking to sign the deal: gamified technical assessments are the way forward (that’s why CodinGame have made them a reality!).
Reduced candidate time to hire
Taking too long to hire is one of main reasons companies miss out on top talent. The risks of a slow hire are limitless and have been discussed in recruitment repeatedly. Technical assessment helps not just better hiring decisions, but faster decisions as the data is clear and it’s easy to compare a maximum of candidates.
What you need to know before choosing a technical assessment tool
The types of tests available to help you make better hiring decisions
Not every recruiting pre-hire skills assessment tool or test is the same or apply to each job, even when looking for developers. Before searching, learn all you need to know about your business’ or the department’s technical assessment and needs, not just performance and recruitment requirements.
Not every method offers recruiters with all relevant information to a potential job hire. Hiring assessment tools may use slightly different methods and techniques like hypothetical scenarios, multiple choice questions, and measured performance. They aim to achieve the same thing – to help you learn about a candidate’s performance, identify the suitable, and determine skill set alongside the interview.
The range of online talent assessment tests available include:Integrity assessments: test standards of professional ethics in hypothetical or actual scenarios to determine whether they have the right mindset to consider for recruitment
Skill assessment tests: essential to recruitment, these tests examine developer tech knowledge and coding skills. Between otherwise equal candidates for a job, breadth of knowledge could be the deciding factor. Assess what they know and how they apply that knowledge a real-life problem. What unique skills and problem-solving capabilities could they bring to your business?
Candidate mental ability assessments: are they a logical or emotional tech problem solver? How do they learn? Under certain circumstances the right-left brain issue is important
Personality tests: Determining their personality type, the most famous being the Myers-Briggs Test. Introverts and extroverts may perform different by task and in each job role
Situational judgment assessments: using actual or simulated scenarios to assess soft skills and how a candidate would react under certain circumstances. How do they handle job stress?
Each test is designed to help recruiters improve their candidates’ selection process, and helps in better hiring decisions, screening candidates based on coding skills rather than relying solely on resumes or interview performance.
How and where to look for a technical assessment tool
Now you have decided – this is what should come next
The first place you would look for employment testing solutions for hiring better candidates is a search engine. Google will present you with a number of different candidate screening solutions.
Also, software review sites aimed at recruiters are a reliable place to start. These reviews are written by users, for users, and designed to help you make better hiring decisions. They provide the most thorough assessment of the software with practical tips on use and a balanced view of both the positive and negative aspects of each. Similarly, sites such as YouTube and Vimeo are worth checking out for video reviews.
For a more hands-on view, and one from regular users, online recruiting groups are always a great place for reviews. Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites have dedicated groups where you can talk to people in your industry and other HR professionals who hire and work with developers. Social media is about supportive communities and connection, so why not take advantage of that?
If you are concerned (as many are) about the impartiality of online reviews, then you could turn to recruitment technology thought leaders. These are impartial people or organisations with a professional view of the industry and developer hiring which they learn through years of experience.
Customer testimonials are always a useful source when researching a recruiting platform, especially when they appear on independent and reputable sites, for example Google reviews, trade magazines, industry community sites.
Do you subscribe to online HR, developer, or recruiters communities on Slack? It’s where professional people hang out and learn from each other. They exist mostly for networking and finding clients, but in such a supportive community, everyone is willing to impart their own wisdom and experiences – good and bad – and even reviews.
Trade shows are a great place to get first-hand information from the recruitment tech provider. You may also see the assessment software package in action and try it out for yourself. No reviews could ever beat using the platform first-hand.
If your aim is better hiring decisions for your company’s team of developers, research is the key to finding the right employment testing and technical assessment tools for your new employees’ needs.
What to look for in a technical assessment tool
Before committing to any available employment assessment tools, there are some important considerations. HR professionals and recruiters know it’s vital to choose the right people. Online skills assessments and other such tools are designed to help you make better decisions, but not all are equal. So much depends on homework at your end first.
The first step for any HR professional or business leader looking to apply employment testing tools for better hiring decisions is to define your intended outcome. To measure skills and experience? Aptitude? Ability to learn? Decide which are essentials and which are nice bonuses, and search platform offers by those attributes.
Don’t ignore your IT infrastructure or the department who will have to administer it. In this age of scalability and online software as a service, it’s unlikely you will have many problems integrating some of the most popular and best-known employment testing tools, but it’s worth ensuring integration.
Flexibility should also be among the top considerations when selecting a talent assessment tool. Consider the ease with which you or any primary user may alter the assessment process or the outputs. Can you add or remove individual components to make it more relevant to the business or to alter it quickly and easily when departments have different requirements from the same platform?
You should also consider the candidate’s user experience. Are they likely to find the platform useful in ascertaining whether the role or business is right for them? If the assessment system is not challenging enough or asks irrelevant questions, you could potentially lose out on a great developer for the company. They could become competitor employees instead.
Finally, it helps to list some of your test and assessment red flags. Are the limitations of each system actively counterproductive to what you are trying to achieve (i.e. better hiring decisions)?
Conclusion
Getting the right developer is essential, especially as STEM is currently experiencing skills shortages. That is why companies turn to pre-employment testing and technical assessment tools – to help them make better hiring decisions and save time. A good platform allows companies to look at quantifiable scientific data, and helps them assess a candidate, their skills, knowledge and training, and their thought process under simulated working conditions.
As you research and assess various candidate test options, take advantage of free usage periods such as a 7-day free trial or a 30-day free trial. These are designed to help you decide whether that software is suitable for your business.
