Adopting the right assessment method is critical since hiring decisions are directly dependent on it. Pen and paper tests are the traditional way that recruiters adopt. But that is changing today. Recruitment trends around the world suggest that inclusion of technology can and will drive the next generation of recruitment - Campus Hiring 2.0. Delay in adoption of the right technology has often been the Achilles' heel of Organizations. As recruiters, we find ourselves at the cusp of a phenomenal change in the way recruitment is done. Making the right change is crucial.
What assessment methods do you use, are evaluating, or know about, and how do you feel about those?
I hope this discussion with your valuable inputs can serve as a resource for new as well as seasoned recruiters to discover and learn new methods of assessments. From Mettl, I'll also be sharing some valuable free resources in the form of e-books, videos, and case studies.
From India, Gurgaon
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13What assessment methods do you use, are evaluating, or know about, and how do you feel about those?
I hope this discussion with your valuable inputs can serve as a resource for new as well as seasoned recruiters to discover and learn new methods of assessments. From Mettl, I'll also be sharing some valuable free resources in the form of e-books, videos, and case studies.
From India, Gurgaon
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I frequently use online skill assessments and personality assessments based on the competencies defined for a role. The recruitment done by me ranges from top to bottom, and these customized, easily available assessments with a higher rate of accuracy have reduced my time spent on skill assessments by almost 80-85%. The biggest advantage is that candidates can take these assessments from any place, and they need not take time off from their work to visit the company. Result reports are provided instantly with 100% accuracy, which helps me make better choices (filter) between multiple candidates. In fact, these assessments not only help in the first cut for the right candidate but also assist in making the final decision in case it is difficult to choose between 2-3 shortlisted candidates.
By investing a small amount of money in online web-based proctored assessments, I am able to spend more hours on the recruitment of multiple profiles and making good choices. These days resumes are often misleading about someone's skills and knowledge, so I prefer giving a skill assessment test before the first round of the interview itself. This way, I can call only good candidates who have met the benchmark, saving hours spent on the initial screening with hundreds of candidates. I highly recommend this approach.
From India, Gurgaon
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By investing a small amount of money in online web-based proctored assessments, I am able to spend more hours on the recruitment of multiple profiles and making good choices. These days resumes are often misleading about someone's skills and knowledge, so I prefer giving a skill assessment test before the first round of the interview itself. This way, I can call only good candidates who have met the benchmark, saving hours spent on the initial screening with hundreds of candidates. I highly recommend this approach.
From India, Gurgaon
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As an HR professional handling campus placements, we have identified several vendors for assessments. The best by far is Mettl, I believe. They offer assessments at a very competitive price, which is mentioned on their website. It is easy to administer to small as well as large populations, and the report is generated within minutes. The quality and variety of assessments are really good.
Pen and paper are not feasible today with time and process drivers being constraints.
From India, Mumbai
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Pen and paper are not feasible today with time and process drivers being constraints.
From India, Mumbai
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Hello Amina Shukla, What are the Tests you have used to handle Personality Assessments of candidates — basically Psychometric Tests or something else? Rgds, TS
From India, Hyderabad
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From India, Hyderabad
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Dear Sharan Suresh, I do prefer the competency based recruitment process, and for each job profile a comprehensive written test in place.
From Singapore, Singapore
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From Singapore, Singapore
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Dear Ahmad Shah,
That makes sense. What kind of written tests do you generally use? Are these online-based?
I think what Amina is trying to say is how online assessments help recruiters save time and money without compromising on the efficacy or efficiency of the test. If, for example, you are using a written test to assess the coding skills of a candidate, the same can be done online in much the same way. I don't mean objective MCQs, but proper detailed questions that require candidates to code on the spot and be evaluated automatically. This saves considerable time, from sourcing the questions to evaluation of papers, and also frees up the human resources that are spent on evaluating the answer sheets.
Would love to hear your thoughts on the same.
Thank you.
From India, Gurgaon
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That makes sense. What kind of written tests do you generally use? Are these online-based?
I think what Amina is trying to say is how online assessments help recruiters save time and money without compromising on the efficacy or efficiency of the test. If, for example, you are using a written test to assess the coding skills of a candidate, the same can be done online in much the same way. I don't mean objective MCQs, but proper detailed questions that require candidates to code on the spot and be evaluated automatically. This saves considerable time, from sourcing the questions to evaluation of papers, and also frees up the human resources that are spent on evaluating the answer sheets.
Would love to hear your thoughts on the same.
Thank you.
From India, Gurgaon
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Hello Amina Shukla,
What tests have you used to handle personality assessments of candidates - basically psychometric tests or something else?
Regards,
TS
Hi TAJSATEESH,
For personality assessments, I use customized tests for different roles. For example, for hiring in Sales, there is a test named B2B Sales Potential Assessment, which evaluates a person on workstyles (go-getter / lethargic / effortful), stress management, and written communication based on simulations. On the other hand, for a person in After Sales Support, there is a test to measure B2B/B2C Customer Focus Assessment. For someone in a leadership/strategic/management role, there are specific tests like Managerial/Leadership Potential Test. Another option is to take a Personality Inventory Assessment, which gives an overall type of a person at work.
From India, Gurgaon
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What tests have you used to handle personality assessments of candidates - basically psychometric tests or something else?
Regards,
TS
Hi TAJSATEESH,
For personality assessments, I use customized tests for different roles. For example, for hiring in Sales, there is a test named B2B Sales Potential Assessment, which evaluates a person on workstyles (go-getter / lethargic / effortful), stress management, and written communication based on simulations. On the other hand, for a person in After Sales Support, there is a test to measure B2B/B2C Customer Focus Assessment. For someone in a leadership/strategic/management role, there are specific tests like Managerial/Leadership Potential Test. Another option is to take a Personality Inventory Assessment, which gives an overall type of a person at work.
From India, Gurgaon
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How do you manage assessment in large scale recruitment drive?
Fixed set of questions: The questions asked in the screening rounds are easy to track down as the knowledge base follows a pattern. While answering the question, any candidate can figure out, the definite range of questions and share with his friends, which then dilutes the quality of candidates clearing the tests
For eg: Infosys uses Shakuntala Devi's puzzle for its entrance. Since its a known fact, it makes it lot easier for anyone to practices and crack it.
Managing data: Unless its a virtual test, managing scores and assessment sheets of the candidates who clear it, is a Pre-Mammoth task, during any large to mid-scale recruitment drives.
Generic pattern: The combination of areas including quantitative and comprehensive questions, are both challenging. Often the assessment test are generic , hence doesn’t offer a close fit to the role, for which the candidate has applied. Such as the quantitative capabilities required by an HR Executive is not what is required by a Finance Executive, even though they are both a part of the support functions.
Case study method: Case based assessment has to offer a wide range of problems to find the right job fit. They are best in assessing Employability. Here, the biggest challenge lies with the quality of the assessor. The assessor has to be very clear of the problem statement. The case is often left to comprehension where different analysis drawn remains equally correct , however may not be the accurate answer.
An open book assessment is usually considered for a senior level hiring, were the candidate's capability to gather information and present them as a solution is tested under a pressure situation. The challenge to this kind of an assessment lies in scaling it up. It consumes times and resources , hence apt for a niche hiring.
Behavioural assessments require environment.The response to the question depends directly on how it has been asked. Hence, unless it has been conducted in a lab, where the candidates have been put under observation in an environment that can evoke a clear response for the assessment to stand valid.
Finally the challenge with any online test is supervision. If a candidate understands how many ways is he been watched , he can easily hack it. Hence few declared ways of supervision and few undeclared, can yield the best results
Please share if you had faced any problem while using assessment in both online and offline pattern . Looking forward to brainstorm them with you
From India, Mumbai
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Fixed set of questions: The questions asked in the screening rounds are easy to track down as the knowledge base follows a pattern. While answering the question, any candidate can figure out, the definite range of questions and share with his friends, which then dilutes the quality of candidates clearing the tests
For eg: Infosys uses Shakuntala Devi's puzzle for its entrance. Since its a known fact, it makes it lot easier for anyone to practices and crack it.
Managing data: Unless its a virtual test, managing scores and assessment sheets of the candidates who clear it, is a Pre-Mammoth task, during any large to mid-scale recruitment drives.
Generic pattern: The combination of areas including quantitative and comprehensive questions, are both challenging. Often the assessment test are generic , hence doesn’t offer a close fit to the role, for which the candidate has applied. Such as the quantitative capabilities required by an HR Executive is not what is required by a Finance Executive, even though they are both a part of the support functions.
Case study method: Case based assessment has to offer a wide range of problems to find the right job fit. They are best in assessing Employability. Here, the biggest challenge lies with the quality of the assessor. The assessor has to be very clear of the problem statement. The case is often left to comprehension where different analysis drawn remains equally correct , however may not be the accurate answer.
An open book assessment is usually considered for a senior level hiring, were the candidate's capability to gather information and present them as a solution is tested under a pressure situation. The challenge to this kind of an assessment lies in scaling it up. It consumes times and resources , hence apt for a niche hiring.
Behavioural assessments require environment.The response to the question depends directly on how it has been asked. Hence, unless it has been conducted in a lab, where the candidates have been put under observation in an environment that can evoke a clear response for the assessment to stand valid.
Finally the challenge with any online test is supervision. If a candidate understands how many ways is he been watched , he can easily hack it. Hence few declared ways of supervision and few undeclared, can yield the best results
Please share if you had faced any problem while using assessment in both online and offline pattern . Looking forward to brainstorm them with you
From India, Mumbai
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About 42% of the votes are in favor of "Pen and paper tests" - I guess we'll have a clearer view once more people vote.
What, according to members, holds companies back from transitioning to an online assessment platform from other traditional methods?
- Is it cost? Does it really cost more than the time spent conducting these tests?
- It seems that one of the barriers (especially for smaller companies) would be the infrastructure required to conduct online tests. Is the infrastructure needed to conduct online tests a primary issue?
- Would it make sense to have some sort of mobile app to quickly assess candidates or even employees?
- Is it the lack of clarity on how a test can be created and conducted using an online platform?
I suppose there would be many questions that the assessment platforms need to address as well:
- Are there ready-made tests, or do I create questions? If they are ready-made, can I customize them?
- If we have remote candidates and multiple candidates taking the test - can we schedule a time and have a live view of the candidates taking the test?
- Do I check the answers manually? Objective-type answers may be easy to score programmatically, but how do I score essay-type answers?
- Is there a way to track candidates via a database of previous test-takers?
Mettl is a sponsor of CiteHR, and we are eager to help them gather more feedback from the HR community.
So please come forward and share your experience, opinions, or anything else you might want to add regarding online assessments.
Regards,
CHR
From India, Gurgaon
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What, according to members, holds companies back from transitioning to an online assessment platform from other traditional methods?
- Is it cost? Does it really cost more than the time spent conducting these tests?
- It seems that one of the barriers (especially for smaller companies) would be the infrastructure required to conduct online tests. Is the infrastructure needed to conduct online tests a primary issue?
- Would it make sense to have some sort of mobile app to quickly assess candidates or even employees?
- Is it the lack of clarity on how a test can be created and conducted using an online platform?
I suppose there would be many questions that the assessment platforms need to address as well:
- Are there ready-made tests, or do I create questions? If they are ready-made, can I customize them?
- If we have remote candidates and multiple candidates taking the test - can we schedule a time and have a live view of the candidates taking the test?
- Do I check the answers manually? Objective-type answers may be easy to score programmatically, but how do I score essay-type answers?
- Is there a way to track candidates via a database of previous test-takers?
Mettl is a sponsor of CiteHR, and we are eager to help them gather more feedback from the HR community.
So please come forward and share your experience, opinions, or anything else you might want to add regarding online assessments.
Regards,
CHR
From India, Gurgaon
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Hi CHR, let me try and answer the queries inline.
- Are there ready-made tests, or do I create questions? If ready-made, can I customize them?
Of course, there are ready-made tests available at Mettl. 'Made' wouldn't be the right term because these tests are specifically crafted for diverse job profiles (sales, marketing, operations, finance, etc.) by experts in these fields. With over 700 question banks like this, Mettl makes the process of test selection a matter of a simple mouse click.
Moreover, these tests can be customized according to the needs of the customer. Questions can be created/uploaded, and customized tests can be published.
Below is a screenshot of tests published by a recruiter:
[img]http://cite.co/sponsor/TestBank.JPG[/img]
- If we have remote candidates and if multiple candidates are taking the test, can we schedule a time and have a live view of the candidates taking the test?
Wider geographical reach is one of the many advantages of a cloud-based assessment solution. Thousands of students can be reached at the same time (or in batches). The tests can be scheduled as well. Below is a screen capture of the scheduling interface - highlighted in yellow.
[img]http://cite.co/sponsor/AccessTime.JPG[/img]
And yes, Mettl provides online invigilation (proctoring) on two levels - browser proctoring prevents candidates from browsing away from the test window and webcam proctoring that gives you a live feed (or screenshots) of the candidate taking the test. Please check the video at the bottom to get a better idea.
- Do I check the answers manually? Objective type answers may be easy to score programmatically, but how do I score essay-type answers?
Broadly speaking, Mettl has two types of questions - Knowledge-based (aptitude, MCQs, essay type questions, etc.) and Performance Based (Coding questions, Code projects, etc.). Of these, all the question types except essay type are evaluated automatically through our platform. Essay type questions are largely subjective in nature and hence require human evaluation. Even Code projects (of significant use for hiring to tech positions) are evaluated by the platform itself.
This lowers the use of precious technical human resources in evaluation and also decreases the time taken to conduct and evaluate a test for a few hundred students.
- Is there any way to track candidates via a data bank of previous test-takers?
Yes, each recruiter will have an account on Mettl. From this account, the recruiter can create and publish tests and schedule them for his candidates. Once the candidate takes a test, his results appear in the candidate bank that can be accessed by the recruiter. Below is the interface of the candidate bank, where candidates can be filtered according to email id, total score, sectional score, etc. The recruiter can also download individual reports of candidates or a consolidated report of candidates as an Excel file.
Below is a screenshot of the candidate bank available to the recruiter:
[img]http://cite.co/sponsor/CandidateBankBlur.jpg[/img]
It would be interesting to know what recruiters feel about such technology. Looking forward to an enlightening discussion.
Right below is a simple 2-minute video on how Mettl uses cloud technology to create an easy and efficient assessment solution for recruiters hiring for any profile.
From India, Gurgaon
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- Are there ready-made tests, or do I create questions? If ready-made, can I customize them?
Of course, there are ready-made tests available at Mettl. 'Made' wouldn't be the right term because these tests are specifically crafted for diverse job profiles (sales, marketing, operations, finance, etc.) by experts in these fields. With over 700 question banks like this, Mettl makes the process of test selection a matter of a simple mouse click.
Moreover, these tests can be customized according to the needs of the customer. Questions can be created/uploaded, and customized tests can be published.
Below is a screenshot of tests published by a recruiter:
[img]http://cite.co/sponsor/TestBank.JPG[/img]
- If we have remote candidates and if multiple candidates are taking the test, can we schedule a time and have a live view of the candidates taking the test?
Wider geographical reach is one of the many advantages of a cloud-based assessment solution. Thousands of students can be reached at the same time (or in batches). The tests can be scheduled as well. Below is a screen capture of the scheduling interface - highlighted in yellow.
[img]http://cite.co/sponsor/AccessTime.JPG[/img]
And yes, Mettl provides online invigilation (proctoring) on two levels - browser proctoring prevents candidates from browsing away from the test window and webcam proctoring that gives you a live feed (or screenshots) of the candidate taking the test. Please check the video at the bottom to get a better idea.
- Do I check the answers manually? Objective type answers may be easy to score programmatically, but how do I score essay-type answers?
Broadly speaking, Mettl has two types of questions - Knowledge-based (aptitude, MCQs, essay type questions, etc.) and Performance Based (Coding questions, Code projects, etc.). Of these, all the question types except essay type are evaluated automatically through our platform. Essay type questions are largely subjective in nature and hence require human evaluation. Even Code projects (of significant use for hiring to tech positions) are evaluated by the platform itself.
This lowers the use of precious technical human resources in evaluation and also decreases the time taken to conduct and evaluate a test for a few hundred students.
- Is there any way to track candidates via a data bank of previous test-takers?
Yes, each recruiter will have an account on Mettl. From this account, the recruiter can create and publish tests and schedule them for his candidates. Once the candidate takes a test, his results appear in the candidate bank that can be accessed by the recruiter. Below is the interface of the candidate bank, where candidates can be filtered according to email id, total score, sectional score, etc. The recruiter can also download individual reports of candidates or a consolidated report of candidates as an Excel file.
Below is a screenshot of the candidate bank available to the recruiter:
[img]http://cite.co/sponsor/CandidateBankBlur.jpg[/img]
It would be interesting to know what recruiters feel about such technology. Looking forward to an enlightening discussion.
Right below is a simple 2-minute video on how Mettl uses cloud technology to create an easy and efficient assessment solution for recruiters hiring for any profile.
From India, Gurgaon
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