5 Main Ways of Assessing Job Applicants

taking online assessment

Share This Post

5 MIN READ

The recruitment process involves screening several applicants to determine whether they are a great fit for your company or not. Doing so allows you to make sure that all of your employees are qualified enough to accomplish the tasks assigned to them and complete the job that you are paying them to do.

Screening applicants thoroughly during the recruitment process also helps you reduce your organization’s employee turnover rate. This becomes possible because the assessment done in the recruitment process allows you to learn about a talent’s work-related competencies and how they can adapt to and complement your company’s core values. Therefore, through the recruitment process, you can weed out individuals whom you think do not have what it takes to thrive in your organization.

But how do you make sure that your applicants have the qualifications that you are looking for? The best way of addressing this problem is by having an established way of assessing job applicants as they go through the recruitment process.

How to Assess Job Applicants

The recruitment process has several steps. Make the most of each one by using them to assess talents who applied to your company.

handing a resume

Resume Review

This part of the recruitment process comes right after gathering applicants from several sources. Now that you have a pool of talents, it is time to screen each one and determine if they have the qualifications to work in your company.

To start, you must review the resume of every talent who submitted their application. Scan through their qualifications and determine if they meet the basic requirements for the open position in your organization. This may include their years of experience, educational attainment, certificates, and hard skills.

Every applicant who fails to pass your resume review should not be considered in the latter steps of your recruitment process. This will allow you to narrow down your choices and make your tasks manageable as you go through the recruitment process. But remember that since it is the first part of your assessment in the recruitment process, you may still have many applicants left after the initial screening.

Skills and Talent Testing

One of the most important things you should learn about a candidate is their competencies related to the job opening in your organization. You should know if they have the right skills and knowledge to fulfill the duties and responsibilities involved in a certain position. After all, you would not hire someone who has never handled a vehicle as your driver, right? The best way to assess if a candidate has the hard skills that you are looking for is by having them go through pre-employment skills testing. Taking advantage of this type of assessment will allow you to have a much better idea of an applicant’s competencies. Additionally, this type of pre-employment testing service will provide you with data regarding a candidate’s:
  • Financial data comprehension
  • Technological-mechanical understanding
  • Logical reason competency
  • Process comprehension
Learning about a talent’s performance in each of these topics can be beneficial to companies depending on their specializations. For example, if you are hiring for an engineering firm, you will prioritize individuals who have a high technological-mechanical understanding and great process comprehension. These skills will help them complete technical tasks easier and thrive in an engineering field much better than others.

Personality Testing

Aside from an individual’s technical skills, you should also learn about their behavioral patterns. Doing so will help you assess if their personality fits seamlessly into the description of the job they applied to. For example, if an individual is applying for a job as a manager, they should have the soft skills and emotional intelligence to relate to their team members and help them resolve issues professionally.

Learning about a talent’s personality will also help you assess if they are a good culture fit for your organization. This is important because ensuring that all your employees can adapt to your company’s culture can help you maintain a peaceful workplace and avoid any conflicts between team members.

The best way to learn about a candidate’s behavior is by providing a personality test for job applicants. Assessing job candidates using this test will help you translate their characteristics into objective and valuable data. Then, your recruitment team can use the generated reports to impartially assess each applicant’s personality and determine if they are the right person for the role.

Integrity Testing

assessing a candidate

Another assessment in the recruitment process that you should give to your applicants is the pre-employment integrity test. This type of assessment can help protect your organization from fraudulent individuals who may harm your company’s image and progress.

With an integrity test, you can assess a job applicant’s character based on the following criteria:

  • Trustworthiness
  • Rules compliance
  • Non-aggressive attitude
  • Accountability
  • Candor

Knowing that a candidate has passed all the aspects assessed in the integrity tests will help you have peace of mind. This is also beneficial for businesses that are in certain industries, including the following:

  • BPOs: All BPO companies prioritize data security and integrity to protect the information of their clients. That is why they focus on hiring individuals who are honest and trustworthy.
  • Banks: Banks handle a lot of money daily, which is why they implement anti-money laundering and anti-corruption policies. They also prioritize hiring reliable individuals to keep their clients’ assets safe.
  • Logistics Companies: People who handle your deliveries should be trustworthy to ensure that your package arrives safely at your door. That is why logistics companies also benefit from using integrity tests in assessing their candidates.

Interview

job interview

After having your job applicants complete the personality and integrity tests, you should learn more about them through an interview. You can use this opportunity to find out about what the applicant knows regarding the industry and how they applied their knowledge in their previous jobs. Interviews are also a great time to clarify any information in their resume and ask them for more details regarding their work experience.

 

Then, you can ask some questions that will help you determine where their aptitudes lie and how they see themselves growing and developing in the future. Additionally, you can use this opportunity to further assess their cultural fit.

 

At the end of the interview, you should have a clear idea about what the applicant can bring to your organization. You should also have a sense of how your company can further develop the candidate’s underused skills and make them a more productive member of your organization.

Background Check

Once you have the final list of candidates that you want to hire, you should conduct a background check on each one. This pre-employment assessment allows you to verify an applicant’s:

  • Identity
  • Credentials
  • Criminal records
  • Financial history
  • Employment history

Screening the background of applicants before you hire them will help you determine if the details that they have provided during the recruitment process are true. It also helps you ensure that you are not hiring a fraudulent individual who may harm your business.

Start Assessing Job Candidates the Right Way

Learning the right way of how to assess job applicants can be greatly beneficial for your organization. Assessing talents correctly will allow you to find the most qualified individual for an open position in your company. In time, you will reap the benefits of hiring the right candidate for the position by enjoying a more successful business.