More than half of employers, 56%, use pre-employment assessments to gauge job applicants’ knowledge, skills and abilities, according to research by the Society for Human Resource Management. Its survey of HR professionals found that 79% say scores on skills assessments are just as or more important than traditional criteria in hiring decisions.
Twenty-eight percent of responding HR professionals said a job candidate who scores high on an assessment but doesn’t meet the minimum education requirement would be very likely to make it onto the list of final candidates for consideration. Meanwhile, 36% say candidates who don’t meet the minimum years of experience but score highly on the assessment are very likely to make it onto a list of final candidates.
Other findings:
- 78% of HR professionals say the quality of their organization’s hires has improved due to their use of assessments.
- 23% of HR professionals said the diversity of their hires has improved using these assessments.
- One in four organizations that utilize pre-employment assessments plan to expand their use of these assessments in the next five years.
- One in 10 organizations that don’t utilize pre-employment assessments plan to start using them in the next five years.
The survey included 1,688 HR professionals.