12 Pre-Employment Tests For 2023
12 Pre-Employment Tests For 2023
pre-employment
tests that streamline
recruitment and
selection
welcome to brighter
Contents
1. Introduction
3. Conclusion
Different types of pre-employment tests have revolutionized the way hiring is being conducted globally.
Traditionally, human resource managers have relied on telephonic and face-to-face interviews to fill vacancies.
However, this approach has proven to be flawed, eventually, with an increase in the number of bad hires and
early attrition rates. Additionally, the incompetence of bad hires costs an organization in multiple ways. When
CareerBuilder asked how a bad hire affected its business in the last year, employers cited less productivity (37
percent), lost time to recruit and train another worker (32 percent) and compromised quality of work (31 percent).
74%
The desire or the immediate need to fill a role quickly
74 percent of companies that
is one of the greatest threats to making a good quality made a poor hire lost an average
hire, but choosing the wrong person to simply get a of US$14,900 per poor hire.
replacement is risky and may cost the business dearly.
It is always better to leave a role unfilled and undertake
the recruitment process again, even at the cost of
potentially acute short-term operational problems,
than to make a poor choice and run the risk of causing
acute, long-term operational problems.
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The different types of
selection tests
The different types of selection tests are:
1. Personality test
The rise of personality testing in the twentieth century was a response to an increase in the number of office
workers. HRs started using it to maximize employee potential. One of the most effective types of pre-employment
tests, personality tests are used to evaluate the human personality to make the right hiring decisions. They are
designed to identify workplace patterns, relevant characteristics and traits and reflect how people may respond to
different situations. These types of pre-employment testing help build self-awareness and facilitate team building.
i) Bright side
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i) Bright side
The bright side of human personality comprises positive personality traits that are easily noticeable
and help in honing on-the-job performance. The bright side is based on the Big Five Personality
Traits using which Mercer | Mettl has categorized them into behavioral competencies and
workplace-specific behaviors.
The bright side of human personality is based on a Big Five Personality Traits of the Five-Factor Model:
Openness
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Opportunism
Self-obsession
Insensitivity
Temperamental
Impulsiveness
Thrill-seeking
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2. Behavioral assessment
A behavioral assessment measures the behavioral competencies of individuals in a simulated work environment.
These types of pre-employment testing require individuals to demonstrate behavioral competencies in one or more
activities relevant to their job roles and resemble actual organizational situations. Candidates are presented with
a series of real work-related scenarios with possible courses of action. They have to select either the best option or
rank the possible actions based on their effectiveness.
Behavioral assessment tools can be easily customized for all job levels and use cases. These types of pre-
employment testing are created on behavioral competencies, further classified into sub-competencies. In
addition to hiring top talent, behavioral assessments are used to strategize coaching plans, ideal for recruiting and
identifying prospects who could be groomed into future leaders.
Such assessments make hiring for entry levels an easy process. These tests are designed to work in conjunction with
skill assessment tests to address all the essential aspects of screening.
For every job role, employers take specific behavior traits into account. Even though there is an overlap between job
roles and behavior traits in some cases, assessments are ideally suited for precise competency mapping. The idea
behind measuring behavioral competencies is to ensure that candidates whose behavior systems appear aligned
with the company’s culture are suited best for the job role.
Weeding out hassles occurring due to the exponential rise in the cost from screening candidates until the
onboarding has been an area of focus for companies, why behavioral and personality tests are conducted online.
This way, applicants can take the test in a user-friendly environment, and the assessor can get full candidate
performance reports, thus ensuring a faster selection of a culturally-fit candidate.
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Behavioral assessments can be divided into the following types of pre-employment tests:
Role-plays
Put the candidates within a business constraint
where they are asked to play a specific role.
Case presentations
Assess candidates’ confidence and
communication skills in front of an audience.
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According to Mercer | Mettl’s Assessing Cognitive
Competencies at Work, the correlation between
cognitive intelligence and work performance is at least
51% and can go as high as 84%. High intelligence is an
indicator of success on the job, measured based on
evaluating the performance on tasks similar to those
encountered on the job.
We use a personality
assessment and pre-
employment aptitude test
for many of our positions
and we find them effective
in so that they give us
jumping-off points to ask
deeper questions during the
interview process.
Lauren Torregrossa
Media Relations Manager, CareerPlug
4. Coding tests
These types of pre-employment testing evaluate the
individual’s ability to code effectively. Candidates are
assessed on various languages and technologies such
as AngularJS, Bootstrap, PL/SQL, Unix shell, Spring
Framework, etc. Talent acquisition experts prefer coding
tests to filter the best techies. Sharing how they ask
all software engineering candidates to respond to a
coding prompt, MTEQ Talent Acquisition and Employee
Engagement Associate Director Chelsea Stearns says,
“This is highly effective in determining which applicants
possess the required problem-solving skills to be
successful on the job.”
Lauren Torregrossa
Media Relations Manager, CareerPlug
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Use our front-end, back-end and fullstack simulators, among others, to conduct
high-quality coding assessments
Front-end simulator
Back-end simulator
Database simulator
5. Role-based tests
These types of pre-employment cognitive tests are curated as per job functions and job roles. The competency
frameworks in each vary accordingly. They test the expertise job prospects possess in their domain. The three vital
aspects that help onboard a quality talent, with the perfect balance of required skill sets, are domain expertise,
behavioral attributes and aptitude. These three types of pre-employment testing are the building blocks of a role-
based competency framework.
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Critical competencies required to hire an area sales manager
Attention to Problem
detail solving
Numerical
Cognitive reasoning
Verbal Critical
ability thinking
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Functional assessment types of pre-employment testing cater to diverse industries and functions. Some of the job
functions that these types of employment tests encompass are:
Keeping this in mind, Mercer | Mettl subject matter experts have designed the Remote Work Assessment to assist
organizations in understanding the behavioral competencies required to succeed in a remote work environment.
The assessment is a means to help managers and leaders get a deeper insight into the remote workers’ strengths
and areas of improvement and growth. It helps in the recruitment and selection of candidates by determining their
standing on the competencies required to work effectively in remote settings.
7. High-potential identification
Employees are the principal driving force of organizational growth. Individual employee development is
intrinsically linked to organizational growth and, therefore, is a significant concern for human resource
professionals. With the need to continually evolve in times of rapid transformation and limited resources,
organizations are looking inwards to tap into the job prospect’s potential via high-potential (Hi-po)
identification.
Cognitive skills and an exceptional aptitude, when developed in the right manner, increase the chances of
present and future success at work.
67% Our internal report High-Potential Identification Survey 2022 revealed that 67 percent
of respondents chose problem-solving, critical decision making, business acumen, etc.,
as the accurate indicators of high-potential in prospects.
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8. Learning agility
Since present-day organizations are becoming more
complex and dynamic due to increasingly turbulent and
fast-changing business, learning agility or mental agility
has become one of the most desired competencies for the
recruits as well as existing employees. An organization with
a learning agile workforce has:
9. Digital readiness
Businesses have often seen a digital transformation as
being limited to an upgrade in their IT infrastructure and
through the internet of things (IoT). However, for businesses
to champion the future of work, every aspect of a business,
right from processes, strategy, to its building blocks and its
workforce should be ready to embrace this transformation.
This can be achieved by measuring the digital readiness
of your prospects. Damien Martin of Shufti Pro defines
digital readiness as the ease with which employees and
organizations can transition to digitized workflows, using
software and other technology. The eventual goal is to
streamline the way business is done, and customers are
served.
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10. Language proficiency assessment
English language proficiency types of pre-employment testing measure an individual’s fluency, pronunciation,
grammar and listening comprehension. They play a crucial role in effective communication. English language
proficiency is becoming increasingly important in the global economy. English proficiency is among the key factors
for success, especially for certain roles, jobs and professions. Professionals are expected to communicate effectively
in English, even though they may not use English in everyday life.
The primacy of English-speaking skills in any consumer-centric role in the service sector, cutting across industries,
is well-established. It plays a critical role in the right communication of a product’s nuances or service up for sale.
Hence, language proficiency types of pre-employment tests have quickly become among the most important
criteria in the hiring process. However, the proficiency level required may be different, depending on the company
or the position. Hence pre-employment cognitive tests assume significance in certain job roles.
ABC
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According to Checkster CEO Yves Lermusi,
organizations cannot ignore solutions that play further 38%
down in the funnel, including interview solutions,
assessments, background screening, online reference
32%
checking and onboarding solutions. Companies
that use technology during these later stages have a 26%
better understanding of a candidate and gather more
meaningful information beyond what is found in a
profile or a resume. Many organizations are currently
investing in background screening and interview
management providers, he adds.
4%
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Conclusion
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How Mercer | Mettl can help
The types of pre-employment tests provided by Mercer | Mettl allows companies and professionals to make
measured decisions on recruitment, training, and promotion of candidates and employees. An extensive library of
tests and simulators can help you create customized assessments to evaluate the shortlisted candidates’ underlying
abilities and current skills. Explore a wide range of psychometric, cognitive, role-based and technical assessments to
onboard the right individuals.
Our offerings:
1. Psychometric tests
Assess traits that influence cultural fitment, trainability and job performance using personality profiler, dark
personality test, motivation inventory, etc. Mercer | Mettl psychometric tools can be divided into:
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2. Behavioral assessments
Mercer | Mettl’s behavioral assessments measure behavioral competencies in a simulated work environment using
situational judgment tests, caselets, in-box simulations, etc. Mercer | Mettl has a vast repository of behavioral tests
and tools that can be used to make seamless recruitment and selection.
3. Aptitude tests
Mercer | Mettl’s pre-employment aptitude test assesses a candidate’s thinking abilities such as perception,
reasoning, memory, verbal and problem-solving ability. These types of pre-employment testing are designed to
challenge applicants’ potential to solve problems when learning new job skills or tackling workplace issues.
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Fluid reasoning Crystallized reasoning
MCQ
Caselets
Guesstimates
Case study
simulator
Audio
questions
4. Coding tests
Mercer | Mettl’s coding types of pre-employment assessment evaluates technical know-how and hands-on skills
such as front-end, back-end, database, etc., using role-based and coding simulators. Coding assessments elucidate
whether the applicant can fulfill the essential criteria and job requirements. A meaningful talent evaluation from the
onset ensures that the subsequent steps enable successful hiring. Hence, our coding assessments are best suited
before the interview round and are administered as part of technical screening.
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5. Role-based tests
Our role-based assessments ensure that new hires have the requisite functional
knowledge across different verticals such as sales, marketing, finance, HR, etc.
These types of pre-employment tests help organizations build an understanding
of competencies based on the job role, industry and organization-specific
context. Mercer | Mettl SMEs assist companies in creating blueprints that list skills
and subskills to cover each competency. The assessments are designed from a
combination of question types and as per the customization request.
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