One of the quickest ways of predicting how new employees will perform in a role is by giving structured assessments. These assessments provide insight into the expertise and experience of potential employees. Additionally, they can also help reveal personality traits and work ethics. These help recruiters determine if a potential employee will fit into the company's culture.

An interview tool is a software solution that administers assessment tests to candidates to determine their core competencies. Interview tools can also automate the process of grading performance and ranking candidates based on their scores.

This makes it easier for HR managers and recruiters to get a general overview of the potential hires. With an excellent interview tool, recruiters can upload multiple assessments for different roles or stages of the hiring process and receive instant feedback.

Assessment Tool Helps Recruiters Grade Tests Such As

Work Samples

A common way of testing interview candidates is by asking them to work on a small sample of what they'll be dealing with while at the company. This short project or task should be closely related to their chosen role. Work samples are highly effective ways of determining candidates with the best potential. This is because they show the candidates' performance in the role they are applying for. Note, however, that work sample tasks should not be too tedious, as it might give candidates the implication that they are working for free. And this might lead to a negative opinion of the company. Instead, keep tasks straightforward and focused on a small aspect of the job.

Examples of a work sample assessment include asking a developer to write a few lines of code or asking a data analyst to work on a brief spreadsheet.

Aptitude Tests

Probably the most popular assessment test type, online aptitude testing aim to find out how candidates solve problems in different contexts. Also known as psychometric tests, they make it easier to assess specific skills that are difficult to measure or observe in other interview formats.

Aptitude tests typically include quizzes on verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, logic, language, and situational judgment. The broad scope of aptitude tests helps give an extensive depth into candidates' abilities and skills. This makes it easier to judge potential employees fairly, accurately, and unbiasedly.

Widely acknowledged for their efficiency, many companies use aptitude tests worldwide to predict how candidates perform on the job.

Structured Interviews

Today, companies and recruiters are leaning towards less structured, informal interviews. However, increasing evidence suggests that structured interviews are more reliable and effective. Research shows that structured interviews can be twice as effective in predicting job performance. In structured interviews, recruiters ask every candidate the same questions through pre-recorded video clips or pre-saved questionnaires. Candidates record their responses at their convenient times and send them back for recruiters to watch and assess.

Structured interviews have been criticized as less personalized than unstructured ones. However, they have proven to be more effective. They help recruiters save more time on assessments and provide a fair, impartial way to compare candidates. Some platforms also offer AI screening tools that scan facial expressions and voice tones to help interviewers conduct a more nuanced assessment.

Personality Tests

It's essential to have highly qualified and skilled individuals coming into your team. However, it is also crucial to hire candidates who are a good fit for your company's culture and philosophy. Personality tests give employers a general idea of a potential employee's demeanor. Understanding these crucial personality traits allows recruiters to determine if they would thrive in the team or not.

Personality tests make it easier for recruiters to hire people who are more compatible with the company and open roles. Generally, personality tests may not be enough to determine the best candidates. Still, when used together with other assessment types such as video interviews and aptitude tests, they can be excellent tools for spotting the right candidates.

Several excellent tools help recruiters determine the best candidates through online assessments. One of these, from the 500apps suite, is NinjaInterview. NinjaInterview is an all-in-one interview tool that makes it easy to assess candidates through multiple formats. NinjaInterview is a powerful tool with extensive support. It ensures that the hiring process for you is a simpler and more efficient one.

How it Works

NinjaInterview is a multi-format interview tool, that allows recruiters to collect candidate data in different formats and rank these candidates based on performance. Recruiters can create assessments and add candidates to varying roles with its position management function. This allows businesses to carry out multiple interviews from one centralized place.

Via the dashboard, recruiters can get a general overview of the best-performing candidates at any given time. They can also view the profile of each candidate, including experience, test scores, and skills. NinjaInterviews also allows recruiters to create custom asynchronous assessment tests. Questions can be a short text, long text, multiple-choice, or Boolean. It also supports video and audio recording and allows recruiters to set a time limit on candidates' answers.

Additionally, NinjaInterview's automated system grades each candidate's performance in real-time, adding the scores to their candidate profiles. Also, recruiters can view video answers on the go, improving convenience. NinjaInterview makes it easier for recruiters to determine the best candidates by automating the assessment process, enabling companies to get better recruits.

How Can it Be Used to Two-fold Your Interview Process?

Here are a few ways that using NinjaInterview can help you gain better results in your interviews:

Online Assessments Reduce Overhead

Holding physical interviews can cause the costs of interviews to increase significantly. Physical interviews require HR staff to spend more work hours meeting with each candidate and more amounts on related logistics. With online assessments, overhead costs are drastically reduced with no loss in productivity.

Video Interviews Eliminate Scheduling Problems

Physical interviews come with the problem of choosing a suitable time for recruiters and candidates to meet. With asynchronous video interviews on NinjaInterview, recruiters can avoid this problem. You can ask your candidates to record their answers. HR managers can review them on the go or whenever convenient.

Automated Grading Provides Real-time Data

NinjaInterview provides real-time data on each candidate, ensuring that recruiters are always updated on the status of each application. Recruiters can view the results of standardized tests immediately and examine other candidate information on the go. This provides improved connections with candidates.

Custom Assessments Help Select the Best Candidate

NinjaInterview helps HR managers implement custom assessment strategies for each role. With aptitude and personality tests, video interviews, and candidate profiling, HR teams can better determine the best candidates.

Pros and Cons of Using an Interview Assessment Tool

Here are some of the pros and cons of the assessment tool:

PROS

Interview Assessments Reveal Core Competencies

A significant advantage of skills assessments is showing how much the candidate knows about the given role. Candidates receive the tests, provide their answers and receive grades based on their performance. This is crucial for narrowing the candidate pool to competent individuals.

Interview Assessment Tools Are Unbiased

Human interviewers tend to have inherent biases that they bring to physical interviews. Interview assessment tools help remove factors like race, religion, and ethnicity from the picture, providing a fairer assessment of candidates.

Interview Assessment Tools Are Cost-effective

Generally, physical interviews cost more than online ones. Costs include travel reimbursements for multiple candidates, lunch, and more. With online interviews, all an HR manager has to pay for is the online platform, saving hundreds to thousands of dollars in costs.

Interview Assessment Tools Are Faster

Interview assessment tools are also better at time-saving than physical methods. AI-powered screening tools and standardized assessment tests help screen out, unqualified candidates. This helps to prevent HR teams from wasting time with unpromising prospects.

CONS

Some Test Results May Not Be Reliable

Although test results are generally a great way to objectively examine a candidate's skills, other factors can affect the scores. Poor network connection, slow response times, and educational gaps can jeopardize a candidate's ability to perform well on a standardized test. Additionally, popular questions can be searched online, reducing the reliability of some results.

Some Tests May Not Be Valid

Valid tests can determine which candidates are best for a role. However, some assessment tests fall short of this mark by asking irrelevant or outdated questions.

Assessment Tools Cannot Test Certain Attributes

Assessment tests are great, but they are not all. An online test cannot detect certain qualities, no matter how smart. Traits like honesty, teamwork, and people skills are difficult to assess online and may be missed by online tests.

How to Make the Most Out of an Interview Assessment Tool

To make the most of your assessment tool, it's good to ensure that all tests suit the specific role for which you're scouting talent. Create updated test questions that show competencies in relevant skills, so that you're getting the very best talent on your team. Also, ensure that everyone on the HR team is on board with using the tool to improve the workflow. Your team can maximize the assessments to get the best talent.

Conclusion

Interview assessment tests allow companies to hire top talent faster and more efficiently. With the right interview tool, you're better positioned to choose the best talent for your growing team.