Navigating Pre-Employment Assessments

You may have noticed employers using pre-employment skills or personality assessments during the job application process. Why do employers use assessments, what role do they play, and how should you approach them?

Assessments from the Perspective of the Employer

At its most basic, a pre-employment assessment is used to gauge and predict a candidate’s personality, skills, and inclinations and help determine fit for the job or the company.

While Human Resources professionals would love to carefully go through each resume and meet each candidate in person, that is not a realistic expectation. In today’s market, a single job posting receives hundreds or thousands of applicants, and so many employers use technological tools to cut through the piles of applications. For better or worse, assessments often play an important role in the process.

Here are some reasons employers have stepped up their use of assessments to cut through the stacks of candidates:

• Assessments save time for everybody. During the hiring process, everyone involved on the employer side of the equation wants to save time and money by streamlining the process by determining fit. The candidate whose assessments determine they have the essential skills and traits will catapult to the top of the pile, letting recruiters focus on those individuals first.
• Assessments help the recruiter and hiring manager decide if a candidate is a good fit earlier in the process. Every company has its own way of determining “fit,” whether its personality traits or work history. A targeted assessment can help identify individuals who meet their unique culture.
• Assessments show how you deal with pressure. Most assessments are timed. Do not underestimate the power of that little clock counting down to zero while you try and remember an arcane formula in Excel. Job pressures are going to be more significant and more complex; for example, if you can't answer a question in an assessment within two minutes, maybe you can't meet the specific demands of the position.
• Assessments test your attention to detail. The clock is ticking, but if you don't take the time to read and understand the question, you may answer a whole series of questions wrong (just as a random example not based on personal experience). Read all instructions with care.

Assessments have drawbacks, too:

• Assessments are no substitute for human interaction. After the past year, this should already be on your mind. People are social animals who feed off each other's energy, professional settings included. No matter how many data points you can scrape together about a person, they're still just data points. 
•  People are not necessarily what their survey says. Assessments do not provide a complete picture of a person and may miss the value, skills, experience, background, or subtleties a potential candidate may bring to a position. For example, an assessment may determine that someone has introverted tendencies, but they might still be able to do well in a job for an extrovert – such as sales – by mastering interpersonal skills. People are complex, and you can’t predict with full accuracy what type of assessment results will translate well to a specific role.
• The survey's application is only as good as the end-users training. After you click the "Submit" button, then what happens? Somebody on the other end receives your results. Depending on the type of assessment, or other unknown factors, there is no guarantee that the person received the proper training to understand and apply the assessment's results.

As a candidate, how do you deal with these assessments?

Let's answer the obvious question – yes, if asked, you must complete any assessment the employer requires as part of the application process. Assessments are not optional (if you want the job), and there are a lot of them – Enneagram, Attention to Detail, Working with Data, Time Management, Verbal Reasoning, Excel, JavaScript, Technical SEO, Microsoft Word, HTML5, and many others.

Here are some tips for approaching your Assessments:

• When taking assessments, budget the time and place for them. These things aren't easy. You should be free from distractions and interruptions.
• Be honest in how you answer the questions.
• Even if you draw a blank, don't leave a blank. It would be best if you answered every question. 
• You will never figure out the psychology behind the questions of a behavioral or personality type of assessment. Do not try to out-think the questions. Be the same person on paper as you are in person.