How Skills Assessments Can Enhance the Candidate Experience

While assessments are a vital part of the recruiting process and integral to ensuring a good fit, they are also good for the candidate. When best practices are applied, assessments establish that employers care about their success. 

Pipplet has always strived to provide a quality, user-friendly experience in language assessments, so this topic was very close to our hearts.

In a recent webinar, Pipplet joined fellow recruitment experts, including global recruiter Emily Aldridge, Lauren Tait of the soft skills expert AssessFirst, and Nathalie Figuière of coding skills expert Coderpad, who provided deep insights into the impact of assessments on the candidate experience and discuss how they approach them to set a positive tone from day one.

Common Mistakes Employers Make During Assessments

Many companies use skills assessments in the interview process, but how they are delivered can make or break the interview. Whether or not the candidate is hired, the assessment experience sets the tone for what comes next. 

If employers see poor results from assessments, they may not realize the mistakes they are making. Fortunately, most are fixable with only the slightest adjustments. 

Here are some of the most common assessment mistakes and how to mitigate them:

1. Candidates lack context about the assessment

Candidates should understand why they are doing an assessment. Whether to gauge language skills, technical skills, or personality, they should be informed about how the assessment works, what the test measures, how it relates to company culture, and the role itself. 

Taking the time to explain the process and why it’s being done beyond “this is what we do” signals that the company cares about them as a person and wants to ensure the job is a good fit. 

The assessment is also an opportunity to express the company’s cultural values. Candidates may buy into the process more easily if they understand your reasoning. Transparency builds trust. 

Recruiters can also pass on what they know about the process so the candidate is comfortable going in. When candidates are nervous or off-balance, they won’t perform well, which serves nobody. 

2. Assessments are not benchmarked per role

Choosing the right type of assessment is just the first step. You also need to interpret the results properly, which requires a clear understanding of the role and what it takes to succeed in that role. 

As succinctly expressed during the webinar, “failure to benchmark properly can affect the candidate experience as you’re not understanding the results. When you know why you’re assessing and how it applies to the role, your results are more thorough and consistent, which contributes to a good candidate experience.”

To summarize, benchmarks should be based on job roles, not generic standards. When you know why you’re assessing, you can better understand the results, which will lead to a better candidate experience. Plus, candidates perform better if the assessment is relevant to the job they’re applying for. Benchmarking ensures better outcomes for all concerned.

3. Assessments are too complicated, lengthy, or irrelevant to the role

Ensuring a good user experience is imperative. A good metric to gauge whether the assessment experience is good or not is to look at your completion rate. How many candidates are finishing the assessment? Poor completion rates may indicate that the process is too complicated and requires some adjustment to streamline the process. It could be a simple matter of providing instructions and sample tests to the candidate so they can prepare. 

Emily suggests, “Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes. Picture your best friend applying for the job and what it’s going to be like for them—and understand what the most off-putting things are for candidates: if it takes too much time, if the “why” hasn’t been communicated, if it’s way too complex, there is a perceived lack of trust.”

Taking Emily’s points into consideration will help you streamline the experience to be more user-friendly. 

4. How to Introduce Assessments to Candidates

Transparency is critical to ensure a good candidate experience. Recruiters and hiring managers (as appropriate) should go through each stage of the process with the candidate to ensure they know what to expect. 

Assessments can be given as a stand-alone. Before they begin, provide context: why it’s being done, how long it will take, how it’s done, what to expect, and what they’re being assessed on. Knowing these points helps candidates feel more prepared and confident going in. It also saves time for all parties as there will be fewer questions, explanations, and hesitation. 

Recruiters may also choose to show the candidate the report they will receive following the assessment. Providing this information after the fact may help them move forward whether or not they are offered the position. 

You may want to offer a tutorial on how to do the assessment so the candidate can familiarize themselves with the format and interface. 

Finally, ensure consistency: provide each candidate with the same information to level the playing field. 

Providing Feedback After the Assessment

To improve the candidate experience, the panel unanimously recommends asking the candidate for feedback following the assessment. Candidates should be viewed as customers and, therefore, be provided an avenue to share their thoughts. 

However, feedback works in two ways. In a high-volume recruiting scenario where you are assessing hundreds of candidates for the same positions, getting too detailed might not be possible. That being said, here are a few tips for providing feedback:

• Keep it positive and constructive
• Decide how much you want to share
• Limit negative feedback – you may see this person again!

🔁 Missed the "Better Assessments, Happier Candidates" webinar?  Catch the replay here.

How can Pipplet help?

At Pipplet, we understand that a good experience builds trust and assures the individual they are valued, setting the tone for a positive engagement. 

Our quick 30-minute language proficiency tests are designed with the candidate in mind and can be completed 100% online. 95% of test-takers find the process enjoyable and relevant to the reasons they are being assessed. More reliable completions help you find the candidates you need faster and ensure the best possible fit for your role. 

For organizations requiring comprehensive skills assessments, Pipplet collaborates with expert partners like AssessFirst  and CoderPad. Together, we can offer tailored solutions that combine language proficiency testing with assessments for soft skills, coding skills, or both—perfect for roles with multifaceted requirements.

To learn more about what we can do for your organization, speak to us today.