Lowering Time to Hire: The Addition of Assessments

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Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko from Pexels

The hiring process has seen an obvious acceleration in time-to-hire rates in recent years. Technological advancements and increased demand for new products are the primary reason for that. While the length of the hiring process has decreased, the way hiring managers and recruiters structured it hadn’t changed with the times. Eventually, new hiring tools emerged. One of these is the administration of online assessments.

Time is an important factor in today’s job market. Companies want to hire the most qualified, talented people in the shortest time possible. To do that, online assessments became a part of the hiring process.

Online Assessments & Their Purpose

As their name suggests, online assessments are tests that are administered to candidates online. Remote interviewing has become more popular, specifically within the past year. The goal of the tests was to bridge the gap that physical interactions used to have in the hiring process. Social distancing, restrictions, and lockdowns interfered with the time hiring managers and recruiters previously spent personally interviewing candidates.

The contents of the online assessments can vary, depending on the company doing the hiring, the position available, and a number of other criteria hiring managers and recruiters use. They’re often utilized to narrow down the candidate pool and assess candidate’s skills. Pre-made tests are available as well as customized tests.

Results from the online assessments also help recruiters and hiring managers:

  • Organize candidates based on experience, skills, etc
  • Weed out unqualified candidates and bots
  • Skip several rounds of interviews
  • Automate the hiring process and decrease time-to-hire

When Should Online Assessments Be Given?

The placement of online assessments can affect how useful the assessments can be. Often, they should be given at the beginning of the hiring process. It could be administered as the first step, before a resume is submitted. One also be administered later if a company is smaller and prefers a personal, hands-on approach.

There are a few different types of assessments—technical skill assessments and soft skill assessments. They’re the most popular and highly recommended for jobs that require years of experience. Online assessments allow hiring managers and recruiters to test the knowledge or skillset (or sometimes both) of a candidate. This is especially useful because it reduces mis-hires too.

Detailed thought and problem-solving processes are things online assessments can highlight for companies prior to hiring a candidate. In order to decrease time-to-hire, and lower the rate of mis-hires, companies need to know as much as they can about a candidate in a short amount of time. The speed at which the hiring process should last is now a small window of time. Maximizing all of it effectively is crucial for businesses to be able to survive.

Conclusion

Online assessments shouldn’t completely replace the hiring process. Instead, they must be used in addition to a well-crafted process. Eliminating unnecessary stages of the hiring plan will also decrease time-to-hire. Ultimately, the goal is to create a concise hiring process that’s short, thorough and ends in the hiring of a qualified individual.