Introduction 

 Leading organizations worldwide have bid farewell to the traditional way of solely relying on the contents of resumes and cover letters to assess a candidate’s potential and skills. Instead, they have adopted skill based assessments as a means to assess a candidates’ skills and knowledge. The rising demand for IT professionals has prompted companies to incorporate tech skill assessments into their recruitment process.  

With skill based assessments, you gain information regarding a candidates’ areas for improvement and growth, which can be used to provide personalized training and education. This approach also enables a continuous enhancement of your employees’ knowledge and skills, fosters greater loyalty among your workforce, and facilitates internal career progression. Moreover, skill assessments for tech hiring need not be restricted solely to new hires but also for existing employees.  

 

What are Skill based Assessments?  

Skill based assessments are evaluation methods designed to measure an individual’s specific skills and potential in a particular domain. Some of the skill based assessments are coding challenges, quizzes, pair programming exercises, project-based assignments and more. These assessment helps employers make informed hiring decisions based on practical skills rather than subjective judgments. Skill based assessments reduce personal bias and provide accurate examinations of a candidate’s qualifications for a specific role.  

 

How to leverage Skill based Assessments for Tech Hiring 

Leveraging skill based assessments for tech hiring can help IT firms identify top talent, reduce bias, and streamline the hiring process. In this article, let’s explore the best practices for effectively leveraging skill based assessments for tech hiring. 

1. Assess the role and determine relevant assessments  

Select a skill assessment that aligns with the technical requirements of the role, such as a programming language proficiency test for software engineers/developers. For the cognitive level, an assessment measuring emotional intelligence can be highly valuable if it is well-designed and effectively interpreted. The third assessment can be customized based on the specific needs of the role, resulting in more flexibility and adaptability within the hiring process. 

Ideally, your assessments should cover the below two fundamental aspects: 

• Limit the number of assessments to minimize the negative impact on candidates. One to three assessments are considered appropriate, depending on the type of assessment and its duration.  
• As assessments become lengthier, challenging, or more intensive, it is easy to avoid overwhelming of job applications and strike a balance.  

 

2. Determine the right delivery method for the assessment 

There are various approaches to managing assessments, including proctored assessments conducted online or in person. Alternatively, you can opt for a self-assessment platform that allows candidates to complete assessments within a given deadline. The choice of method ultimately depends on your workflow and budget consideration. 

Automated skill assessments with time limits are commonly employed in the initial application stage. It encompasses general personality assessments and tech skill test. Personality assessments are typically used for entry-level positions, whereas tech skill assessments are applied to more specialized roles. 

On the other hand, proctored or in-person assessments are predominantly integrated into the interview process. Once a candidate successfully surpasses the initial screening phase, more comprehensive and nuanced skill assessments can be conducted to gain a better understanding of the candidate. 

 

3. Analyze the outcome of your assessments 

The validation of assessment result is a crucial aspect of effectively utilizing skill assessments, whether for hiring purposes or assessing existing employees potential. Occasionally, you may encounter flawed assessments or tests that exhibit issues with their methodology, scoring, or formulation. Thus, it is crucial to conduct a thorough review of your assessments using analytics and data to ensure their intended functionality and desired outcomes. A poorly calibrated assessment can have more negative consequences than driving positive impact. 

Additionally, it is imperative to track the long-term success or failure of employees in correlation with the skill based assessments for tech hiring. If an assessment focuses on evaluating employees compatibility with the company culture or their emotional intelligence then decision making should align with respective assessment outcome. If employees end up failing in their roles & responsibilities despite positive assessment results, it indicates a potential flaw in the assessment. Without long-term tracking of the data, it becomes challenging to gain valuable insights from assessment. 

 

4. Combine skill based assessments with face-to-face interviews

Integrate skill based assessments with interviews to gather a holistic view of the candidate’s skillset. It helps you to assess their technical proficiency and compatibility with the team and organization. This integrated approach ensures more accurate evaluation and enhances the decision-making process while hiring the best talent for the role. 

 

 

How to create a high-quality Skill based Assessment? 

When conducting assessments for hiring tech talents, it is essential to develop or obtain high-quality skill-based assessments. Consider the following approaches to create your skill based assessments:

1. Create in-house assessments

You can create your tailored assessments as per the specific requirement using various SaaS based assessment platforms. This allows you to customize the assessments to match your company’s tech stack and requirements. Ensure that assessments are well-structured, relevant, and representative of real-world challenges.  

Several online platforms provide pre-built assessments and coding challenges that can be customized to your needs. These platforms offer a range of skill based assessments for developers/software engineers.  

 

 2. Leverage open-source platforms

Open-source platforms can be an effective way to valuate candidates’ ability to understand, contribute, and work with existing codebases. While different assessments vary slightly in terms of their functionality, they follow a unified mechanism to conduct assessment. Identify suitable open-source projects and create assessment tasks around them.