Pre-employment assessment: Your guide to hiring superstars

Finding and keeping great talent has never been more challenging. We're seeing hiring hurdles reach a 15-year peak, and the way people think about work has completely transformed since COVID-19 reshaped our world.

Let's look at the numbers (they might surprise you): 69% of companies worldwide are struggling to find the right talent, while 19 million US workers have waved goodbye to their jobs since 2021. Why? Well, 73% of folks are dreaming of flexible, remote work, and here's the kicker – 67% feel their leaders just aren't tuned into their well-being. No wonder company culture and employee satisfaction are taking a hit.¹

But here's where it gets interesting (and hopeful). While more companies are turning to pre-employment testing,¹¹ we sometimes miss the bigger picture. Think of hiring like conducting an orchestra – each instrument matters for the perfect symphony. Every company and role needs its own special mix of hard skills, soft skills, and that secret sauce of cultural fit (which we prefer to call culture add). That's exactly why I'm excited to walk you through pre-employment assessments. They're like your hiring compass, helping you navigate through multiple checkpoints instead of relying on just one "you're hired!" moment.

Source 1

What is a pre-employment assessment?

Think of a pre-employment assessment as your talent detective toolkit. Instead of relying on gut feelings or impressive interviews alone, these assessments help you uncover the real story – from practical skills to problem-solving abilities and even how someone might add to your team culture.

And guess what? They work. Companies that use these assessments aren't just following a trend – they're seeing real results. In fact, hiring managers who use pre-employment tests are 36% happier with their new hires^1,10 (that's a pretty significant bump in satisfaction). When you consider that one bad hire can cost a company around US$15,000³ – not counting all the lost time and team morale – taking a more thorough approach to hiring makes sense.

Here's something interesting: if you work at a company with more than 100 employees, there's a 76% chance you're already using some form of pre-employment assessment.² But are you using the right ones? And more importantly, are you using them effectively?

Before we dive into specific tests and how to choose the perfect mix for your needs, let's look at what these assessments can (and can't) do for your hiring process.

Some popular tests companies use to assess candidates:

Source 2

What are the advantages of pre-employment assessments?

Using pre-employment assessments, you can:^{5, 10, 11, 14}

• Improve quality of hire and hiring accuracy. With data-driven hiring, 92% of companies using pre-employment assessment reported a better quality hire.
• Save money and resources. Minimize bad hires to save resources and avoid the time-consuming process of screening resumes, arranging interviews, and dealing with ghosting. Ghosting occurs when interviewees fail to show up, and it is costly for employers in terms of time and money.
• Reduce time-to-hire. Pre-employment assessments streamline the hiring process so hiring managers can make quicker and more informed decisions, reducing the time to hire considerably. Companies using them have reduced the time to hire by 82%.
• Avoid bad hires. Filter out misfit candidates with proper screening and tests. Companies using pre-employment assessments have reported an 88% reduction in total time-to-hire.
• Reduce turnover rate. Hire employees who are fit for the job and add to your team and company culture to reduce turnover. Companies have seen an 89% increase in employee retention after using pre-employment tests.
• Reduce bias in the hiring process. Resumes and interviews are subject to bias. Pre-employment assessments reduce bias by narrowing in on candidates' actual skills and abilities.
• Provide a standard testing process for prospective employees. Give all candidates a fair and uniform experience. This allows you to make impartial and reliable hiring decisions.
• Provide a well-rounded understanding of each candidate. Pre-employment assessments measure not only technical proficiency but also soft skills and social aptitude. This provides a holistic understanding of each candidate.
• Collect precise information. Pre-employment assessments, such as cognitive aptitude tests, skills tests, and behavioral assessments, elicit specific responses from candidates using targeted questions and scenarios. This provides you with specific insight into the candidate's abilities.

• Forecast performance and future expectations. Pre-employment assessments aren't just tests—they're predictive tools built on real-world success patterns. Take Canva, for example. They use Marlee's assessment to uncover candidates' natural motivations and strengths, helping leaders build and manage high-performing teams that truly click. Or look at Revolut – they slashed their hiring time by 40%⁷ by replacing manual language assessments with streamlined testing tools.

What are the advantages for candidates?

As a candidate, pre-employment assessments may seem intimidating. But when they’re well-structured and well-designed, they can be game changers.

86% of candidates have a better chance of getting their dream job, while 66% of employees discover new job opportunities through assessments.⁵

Other benefits include:^3,5,10,11

• They’re free of bias.
• They lead to better job/company fits.
• Improved job satisfaction.
• They can be done online.
• Availability in several languages.
• Enhanced fairness.
• Candidates gain insight into their own strengths and weaknesses.
• Everyone gets a standardized and objective evaluation process.

What are the disadvantages of pre-employment testing for companies?  

Pre-employment testing can be expensive, they require time for streamlining, require specialists in structure and design, and may require some adjustment.

Designing well-structured pre-employment assessments can be tricky. When they’re not properly designed, tests can:¹²

• Cause applicants to drop out and/ or increase time-to-hire if they are long and unengaging.²⁸
• Stress managers financially, especially in smaller companies with limited resources.
• Require additional resources in terms of managing candidate expectations and providing feedback.
• Cause participants to lean towards answers they feel would land better with the employer.
• Sometimes not provide the whole picture. Imagine a candidate has all the right hard and soft skills for a job but doesn’t pass the personality test. Maybe they were nervous, not everyone tests well. So rejecting them based on the test could prevent a company from recruiting a suitable candidate.

What are the disadvantages for candidates?  

We’ve all been there. Job seeking is stressful enough as it is. Adding pre-employment assessments on top of the process has mental, emotional, and physical repercussions, when they’re not designed with the candidate’s experience in mind. Ideally, these screening tools should be about finding the best candidate fit, not putting candidates under unnecessary stress. Plus, tests and assessments need to be conducted so that candidates understand what is happening and why.

What are the most effective pre-employment assessment tools?

Motivational traits assessment

Want to know what really makes your candidates tick? Motivational assessments reveal the hidden drivers that shape how people work and collaborate. Marlee's Motivational Analysis helps you understand whether someone thrives on achievement, craves recognition, or values autonomy – insights that traditional assessments often miss.

Just ask Canva. As they scaled rapidly, they knew protecting their special culture was crucial. By using Marlee's executive coaching features in their onboarding process, they've built cognitively diverse teams that truly complement each other. The results speak for themselves: companies using Marlee need 90% fewer interviews to find their perfect match and see a 752% ROI in their first year.

A Marlee team board showing similarities and differences

👉 How to take the Marlee Motivational Analysis

Personality tests

Around 80% of Fortune 500 companies use personality tests for recruitment, employee development, and team development. These tests don't have right or wrong answers. They are tools to assess the candidate pool on various aspects, including cultural fit, aptitude, and career progression.

The aim of personality tests is to identify a candidate’s strengths and areas for improvement. Businesses use this information to build higher-performing teams. Some common personality tests are:

• Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN Model)
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• DISC assessment

Psychometric assessments

These assessments evaluate an individual's psychological attributes, including aptitude, personality traits, cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, and behavioral style. Psychometric tests have become a standard practice in hiring as they offer valuable insights into how people respond to various situations.¹⁰

Skills tests or skills assessments

Skills tests evaluate an individual's hard and soft skills, essential for success in a specific role. Typically, skills tests present candidates with various questions in different formats to assess their performance in job-related tasks.

The majority of employers find skills-based hiring effective for talent identification (91.9%), on-job success (88.8%), and longer employee retention (81.8%).⁵

Cognitive aptitude tests or cognitive ability assessments

These measure a candidate's potential to apply mental processes in addressing workplace challenges. They focus on how a person thinks rather than what they know. They assess intelligence or general mental ability and provide insights into a person’s ability to handle complex mental tasks effectively. They also evaluate attention to detail, memory, problem-solving skills, critical thinking skills, abstract reasoning skills, and verbal comprehension skills.

Some examples of less common pre-employment assessments:

• Emotional intelligence tests examine a candidate's ability to control their emotions and their ability to empathetically interact with other workers. These identify skills in areas of leadership, teamwork, calmness under pressure, conflict resolution, and empathy toward others.
• Job knowledge tests evaluate an individual's understanding of specific job-related information, facts, or concepts. They’re different to skills tests as they don’t measure level of skill or talent but the level of knowledge and expertise a person possesses in their field or role. This includes knowing and understanding industry jargon, the nature of the job and the typical tasks associated with it. This knowledge usually comes with a candidate’s experience.
• Logical reasoning tests evaluate an individual's ability to think logically, solve problems, and make sound decisions. These are commonly used in recruitment and educational settings to assess a person's critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
• Numerical reasoning tests measure a candidate’s ability to work with numbers and interpret quantitative information. Used in hiring for roles that require strong numerical and analytical skills, such as finance, data analysis, and other professions involving quantitative information.
• Programming language tests evaluate an individual's proficiency in specific programming languages like Python, Java, C++, and others. Coding tests and programming tests are commonly used in the tech industry for technical job interviews and assessments to gauge a candidate's coding and programming skills.
• Physical ability tests assess an individual's physical capabilities and fitness for specific job roles. They are commonly used in professions that demand physical skills, such as firefighting, law enforcement, construction, or the military.
• Integrity tests determine an individual's honesty, ethics, and trustworthiness. They’re often used for roles where trust and ethical conduct are critical, such as positions in finance, security, or law enforcement.

Who uses pre-employment assessment tools?

Many organizations and industries use pre-employment assessments. Some examples include healthcare, finance, manufacturing and production, sales and marketing, customer service, technology, IT, government agencies, educational institutions, and nonprofit organizations.

In fact, a whopping 76% of employers incorporate some form of pre-employment skill testing. 46% use personality or psychological assessments, while 41% assess applicants for fundamental literacy and math skills.¹⁰

Some examples:

• Amazon uses a variety of pre-employment assessments such as Amazon WorkStyle Assessments to assess work-related preferences and decision-making style, Amazon Work Simulation to evaluate a candidate's ability to perform tasks, and Amazon Leadership Principles Assessment to determine if candidates possess qualities such as customer obsession, ownership, and bias for action.
• Walmart uses the Walmart Assessment Test to measure candidates’ abilities to understand and handle different situations with customers and whether they would be able to work under supervisors and with co-workers.
• H&M screens candidates using a combination of pre-employment tests, such as numeracy tests, inductive logical thinking tests, psychometric tests, deductive logical reasoning tests, and situational judgment tests.
• DaVita uses personality assessments to ensure they hire individuals who contribute to a positive work environment and align with the company's culture.
• State Farm uses the PI Learning Indicator (PILI) to evaluate a candidate's overall learning capacity and aptitude for grasping and adapting to new concepts in a workplace setting. The test is split into non-verbal reasoning, verbal reasoning, and numerical reasoning.
• Almansons streamlined their recruitment process using Xobin’s skill test. They reduced their screening time and provided comprehensive tools to assess job skills. This enabled them to identify relevant technical skills leading to a qualified candidate pool with strong logical and technical abilities.

The science behind pre-employment assessments

Let me introduce you to Marlee's game-changing approach to understanding talent. While traditional assessments like cognitive tests and MBTI personality types have their place, Marlee takes things to a whole new level with an evidence-based motivational analysis that gets to the heart of what makes people succeed.

Here's what makes Marlee different: After spending two decades studying successful entrepreneurs and business leaders, our founder, Michelle Duval, discovered something fascinating. It wasn't just about technical skills or personality types – it was about understanding people's core motivations and attitudes.

As Michelle explains:

"What often is a blind spot for most hiring teams is their focus on hard skills alone. If a candidate's attitudes don't align with the task, team culture and goals, the team dynamics will cause them to fail – regardless of their experience. In reality, attitudes and motivations impact career success more than talents, aptitude, and experience."

That's why Marlee dives deeper than traditional assessments. Our workstyle assessment measures 48 different traits that actually predict performance. Think of it as your crystal ball for hiring success – except it's backed by science, not magic. Whether you're building your dream team or developing future leaders, Marlee helps you see beyond the resume to understand what truly drives someone to excel.

You can also use our XFactor success models to identify low, medium, and high-performing candidates during the hiring process, or for evaluating current employees. This will help you develop high-performing teams and future leaders.

Tips for employers: choosing the right pre-employment assessment tool

Let's cut through the confusion and make your assessment strategy work smarter, not harder. Here's what I've learned really makes a difference:^{19, 26}

Start with the essentials: Match your tests to what actually matters for the role. Before diving in, take a moment to map out the must-have skills and abilities. It's like creating a shopping list before hitting the grocery store – you'll make better choices and save time.

Timing is everything: Get those assessments rolling early in your hiring process. Think of it as your first filter – why wait until you're five interviews deep to discover deal-breakers? While remote testing works great, consider a quick in-person confirmation for critical skills if needed.

Keep it snappy: Nobody likes a marathon assessment (and your completion rates will thank you). Aim for 40 minutes or less – that's your sweet spot for keeping candidates engaged while getting the insights you need. If you need more data, spread it across different hiring stages.

Know your north star: Here's a pro tip – test your current stars to set realistic benchmarks. What better way to know what "good" looks like than by looking at your existing top performers? Just remember to adjust those targets based on your company's unique needs.

Don't overdo the filters: While minimum scores can help screen out mismatches, be careful with maximum cutoffs. Just because someone scored off the charts doesn't mean they'll get bored and leave. Sometimes those high achievers are exactly what your team needs!

Resources

Speed up your hiring efforts using our list of handpicked resources.

• Marlee Motivational Analysis: Trusted by teams from 90% of Fortune 100 companies, Marlee's Motivational Analysis draws on the world's largest database of human motivations. Built on 25 years of research, we help you find candidates who truly enhance your team's dynamic.
• TestGorilla: Has 300+ scientifically created tests. TestGorilla partners with over 9,000 companies and has helped fill 130K jobs.²¹
• Toggl Hire: 180+ skills tests for different job roles and saves companies 22 hours per job opening.²²
• Adaface: 750+ custom assessments for on-the-job skills. Trusted by companies such as Amazon, Adidas, and Vodafone.
• Codility: Tests for 90+ coding languages. Trusted by companies such as Swift, Unity, LiveRamp, and Asseco.
• LinkedIn as an effective outreach tool for recruiters. With 930M+ users and 77% of recruiters relying on it, LinkedIn is indispensable for connecting unknown nodewith top talent.

Transform your hiring with the right pre-employment assessment mix

Let's be real about hiring right now – when 73% of employers are struggling to find and keep great talent,²⁴ you need every advantage you can get. But here's the exciting part: companies who crack the code on pre-employment assessments are seeing game-changing results. We're talking 92% better talent matches, hiring decisions made 88% faster, and an 89% increase in retention.⁵

Ready to make hiring your competitive advantage? Whether you're focused on finding the perfect culture add, testing critical skills, or understanding what truly motivates your candidates, the right mix of pre-employment assessments can transform your entire hiring process. Let's start building your talent strategy today.

Start for free with Marlee.