In the current job market, resumes and academic qualifications still continue to be the primary criteria for shortlisting candidates. However, a paradigm shift towards skills-based hiring is underway, with approximately 82% of companies leveraging skills assessment tests to qualify candidates.
These tests vary in nature and provide actionable, critical insights on candidates that go beyond what their resumes reveal. Furthermore, skills assessment tests play a pivotal part in ensuring that the hiring process aligns with the company’s strategic goals and cultural ethos.
In this article, we will explore the various types of skills assessment tests and their practical use in the recruitment process.
Popular skills assessment tests
1. Role-specific tests
Role-specific tests are assessments used by recruiters to measure a candidate’s proficiency in the specific skills and knowledge needed for a particular job.
Let’s say you’re hiring a campaign manager for a fast-growing e-commerce brand. During the initial screening call, the candidate confidently highlights his digital marketing expertise and presents a resume that lends credence to his claims.Â
As a recruiter, how can you determine if the candidate can create campaigns that deliver the intended results?
This is where Testlify’s role-specific tests come into play. These expertly designed assessments covering 500+ roles are perfect for accurately measuring how well candidates can perform tasks tied to their job responsibilities.
2. Language tests
Language tests is a formal assessment test used to evaluate a person’s ability to understand and communicate in a particular language.
For instance, if you’re hiring for a customer service role at a multinational company that requires proficiency in English and Spanish, how do you validate those language skills?
Relying solely on self-declared fluency can result in mismatched expectations, communication gaps, and a poor customer experience, not to mention the added costs of retraining or replacing underqualified hires. This is where language proficiency assessments come in.Â
Testlify’s language tests are useful for assessing the language proficiency & communication skills of candidates, particularly when the role demands them to interact with customers all over the world on a daily basis.
Furthermore with the growing demand for global hiring needs, Testlify provides multilingual capabilities, enabling organizations to evaluate candidates’ proficiency in multiple languages.
3. Programming tests
Programming tests are challenging assessments which are used to assess a candidate’s programming skills, problem-solving abilities, and technical knowledge.
Testlify’s programming tests can be used to accurately assess the candidate’s coding abilities, often through well-defined challenges that simulate real dev tasks.Â
The platform supports 45+ programming languages and features a built-in live coding editor where candidates can write, run, and debug code in real time during the test.
Test submissions are typically auto-graded, with the option for manual review at the end of the assessment.
4. Software skills tests
A software skills test is a standardized assessment designed to measure an individual’s knowledge and proficiency in specific software-related areas.
Testlify offers a comprehensive suite of software skills tests designed to evaluate candidates’ proficiency with various tools and software applications. These assessments are part of Testlify’s extensive test library, which includes over 3,000 tests covering a wide range of skills and job roles .
Some of the key software skills tests available on Testlify include:
- Microsoft Office Suite: Assessments for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to evaluate document formatting, data analysis, and presentation creation skills.
- Google Workspace: Tests for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to measure proficiency in cloud-based document creation and collaboration.
- Basic Computer Skills: Evaluates essential computer competencies, including operating systems, email, internet navigation, and presentation software
- Programming Languages: Tests for various programming languages such as C#, R, and others to assess coding and software development skills .
- Software Engineering: Assessments focusing on software engineering principles and practices to evaluate candidates’ understanding of software development methodologies.
These tests are designed to simulate on the job tasks, providing a practical assessment of candidates’ abilities. Furthermore, Testlify’s also allows for customization of assessments, enabling employers to tailor tests to specific job requirements.
For a complete list of available software skills tests, you can visit Testlify’s test library
5. Psychometric tests
Psychometric tests refers to objective assessment tools designed to measure various aspects of an individual’s cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, and behavioral style.
When hiring for leadership roles, soft skills such as decision-making, leadership, and stress management are just as important as technical skills. Â
Testlify’s psychometric tests help employers understand a candidate’s aptitude, skills, and overall suitability for a particular role or environment. These tests help reveal traits that are difficult to observe in resumes and traditional interviewsÂ
For assessing leadership capabilities, Testlify’s DISC Personality test is one of the most popular psychometric tests that can get the job done. It measures an individual’s behavioral traits, focusing on four key areas: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness.
In addition to the DISC Personality test, Testlify also offers a variety of other psychometric tests:
- SMART personality test: Focuses on assessing emotional intelligence and decision-making styles, helping recruiters gauge how candidates approach problem-solving and adapt to different situations.
- Cultural Fit Test: Helps measure how well a candidate’s values, behaviors, and working style align with the organization’s culture, ensuring long-term compatibility
- Big five inventory (BFI): Evaluates the five major dimensions of personality—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—giving employers insights into a candidate’s overall personality traits.
- Big five personality test: A deeper dive into the Big Five model, offering a more comprehensive analysis of a candidate’s personality characteristics and how they might align with specific roles.
- Enneagram test: This test categorizes personality types into nine distinct categories, providing a unique perspective on how candidates think, feel, and behave in different environments.
- PicOCEAN personality test: It is a unique, picture-based personality assessment test that helps evaluate a candidate’s workplace personality and behavior, focusing on the needs of your work environment.
Each of these tests is designed to help employers make informed decisions by assessing candidates’ personality traits, cognitive abilities, and emotional intelligence in a more objective manner.
6. Cognitive ability tests
Cognitive ability tests are assessments designed to assess an individual’s mental capabilities, including problem-solving, logical reasoning, and numerical ability
Testlify’s cognitive ability tests are ideal for accurately assessing a candidate’s intellectual capacity, showcasing how they reason, solve problems, and process new information.
Our pre-employment cognitive ability tests are created by subject matter experts and our system is rigorously tested to minimize bias and deliver reliable results. Here are some of the prominent cognitive ability tests available on our platform:
Numerical reasoning test: Evaluates a candidate’s capability to solve tasks that require the interpretation of numbers, including identifying numerical patterns, tables, charts, graphs, and diagrams.
Critical & independent thinking test: Candidates who can solve problems independently and find new solutions to complex challenges are invaluable to any organization. Our critical thinking test evaluates candidates’ abilities to solve three-part problems using deductive reasoning.
Spatial intelligence test: This test evaluates key spatial skills essential for various industries, assessing abilities in mental rotation, perception, pattern recognition, navigation, and spatial problem-solving.
Problem-solving test: This test evaluates candidates’ ability to analyze information, think critically, and develop innovative solutions swiftly, even under pressure. It’s designed to identify individuals who can transform challenges into opportunities.
Verbal reasoning test: Verbal reasoning tests help assess candidates ability to understand and reason with written information. This test applies to everything you do in the workplace from reading articles, and writing reports to creating presentations and facilitating knowledge transfer.
With Testlify, you reduce the risk of expensive hiring mistakes and gain the clarity needed to choose leaders who are built to succeed in high stakes environments.Â
7. Situational judgment tests
A situational judgment test (SJT) is a type of assessment that is used to evaluate the decision making skills of candidates through on-the-job task simulations, presenting real-world workplace dilemmas.
For instance, if you’re hiring for the role of a project coordinator, how can you assess their ability to resolve team conflicts before they’re on the job?
Testlify’s situational judgment tests (SJT) helps you go beyond resumes by simulating on the job challenges and prompting candidates to commit to a definitive course of action..
Observing how candidates tackle such situations will give you valuable insights about their critical thinking capabilities, emotional intelligence and leadership style.
8. Typing tests
A typing test refers to an assessment tool used for measuring an individual’s ability to accurately input information using a keyboard within a specified time frame.Â
As simple as typing tests are, choosing the right typing test is more than just measuring words per minute; it’s about ensuring the test is tailored to your industry and serves as a useful tool to identify the right candidates.
Testlify’s typing tests are highly customizable and can be personalized for specific job roles, like that of a medical transcriptionist or a legal secretary. The tests can be customized to require candidates to use industry-specific terminology and formatting commonly used in their respective fields.
9. Coding tests
Coding tests are assessment tests designed to evaluate a candidate’s programming skills, problem-solving abilities, and knowledge of coding languages.
When evaluating candidates for roles such as web developer or software engineer, you need to ensure that the candidate’s coding abilities align with the role’s technical requirements.
Testlify’s coding tests are useful for challenging the candidate to solve coding problems in real-time using specific programming languages.Â
With comprehensive reporting capabilities & AI-powered proctoring, recruiters can accurately analyze candidate performance and make informed hiring decisions.Â
10. CEFR tests
CEFR tests are standardized assessments tests useful for measuring language proficiency across six levels (A1-C2), developed by the Council of Europe.
Testlify allows recruiters to quickly send the English CEFR Test to prospective candidates and save precious recruitment time by avoiding unnecessary interviews.Â
Unlike other language tests, this does not assign a score to a candidate unless they have reached a certain level of proficiency. This allows you to accurately assess the language proficiency of the candidate in question.
11. Engineering tests
Engineering tests refer to assessment tests designed to assess a candidate’s technical knowledge, problem-solving abilities, and expertise in specific engineering fields.
Testlify’s engineering tests help you filter out surface-level applicants and confidently identify candidates with the technical skills and problem-solving ability to succeed from day one.
Whether it’s coding challenges, circuit design simulations, or algorithmic problem-solving, Testlify offers a comprehensive range of assessments tailored to different engineering specialties, empowering you to hire the right candidates.
12. Process knowledge tests
Process knowledge tests, also known as PKTs, are evaluation tests designed to assess an individual’s understanding of job-related procedures, facts, and tools. It can be used both for evaluating the knowledge of existing employees and as a pre-hire assessment.
Testlify’s process knowledge tests can be instrumental for evaluating your workforce’s understanding of specific business processes, methodologies, and systems.Â
To get started, simply upload your SOP document, and the system will analyze its contents to generate custom questions relating to your existing processes, including multiple-choice quizzes, short-answer and essay style questions.
Ultimately, this leads to the creation of a workforce that is both knowledgeable and continuously improving, contributing to overall organizational success.
Final Thoughts
Skills assessment tests enable recruiters to evaluate candidates based on demonstrated abilities rather than the weight of their resumes alone. By incorporating various types of tests in your recruitment process, ranging from programming to psychometric evaluations, recruiters can make informed hiring decisions.
