RESEARCH REPORT

2018 Pre-Employment Assessments Benchmark Report

About the Report 

The hiring landscape is changing, and employers are finding new ways to attract, evaluate, and retain top talent. We created this report to learn more about how companies hire, the challenges they face, and the priorities they have when evaluating candidates.  

The results in this report are based on responses from companies that use pre-employment testing in the hiring process. Respondents include companies of all sizes across a wide breadth of industries. 

 

6 Key Insights from the Report 

  1. The demand for talent is still rising. In an already competitive labor market, companies expect their hiring volume to increase in the next year. This will continue to challenge employers to attract and retain talent.  

  1. HR spend is increasing even faster. Companies expect to increase their financial investment not just in hiring but in other key initiatives that are designed to promote retention. Some of the major priorities include strengthening employer branding efforts, cultivating a positive work environment, and fostering career development opportunities within the organization. 

  1. Employers use a wide variety of factors to make hiring decisions. Aside from pre-employment tests, most companies use resumes, interviews, phone screens, background checks, and reference checks. 

  1. The biggest benefit of pre-employment tests is better quality of hire. 97% of respondents agreed that this was a top benefit of testing.  

  1. The most used tests are cognitive aptitude and personality tests. These also happen to be the most predictive of job success.  

  1. Pre-employment tests are versatile and flexible. Our respondents administer tests for just about every job level and at nearly every stage of the hiring process. Pre-employment assessments provide the flexibility for an organization to gain predictive insight into a candidate’s abilities in a way that best suits that organization. 

 

Hiring Professionals Wear A Lot Of Hats

Beyond just recruitment and selection, many hiring professionals are responsible for managing other HR activities post-hire, including onboarding, managing employee relations, and training and development. This means they aren’t just invested in filling open positions - they’re also invested in the long-term success of their hires within the company. 

 

 

The Biggest And Most Important Priority For Hiring Professionals Is To Find High Quality Job Candidates

Because hiring professionals have many roles, they also have many different priorities for their organization. Most agree, however, that finding high quality job candidates is the most important priority - 96% regarded this as extremely or very important. 

 

Desktop Still Dominates.  

Hiring professionals still turn to desktop when it comes to the amount of time spent on hiring activities - they spend 85% of their time on a desktop device. 

 

Mobile Trends. From online shopping and gaming to social media and the job search, people are spending more and more time on their mobile devices. But does this extend to the hiring process? Based on the survey results, hiring professionals still complete most of their hiring activities on a desktop or laptop. This makes sense - hiring is a process that happens at work, where most professionals have access to a desktop. It will be interesting to see if time spent hiring on mobile devices increases over time, or if the hiring process will remain squarely within the domain of the desktop. 

 

Hiring Demand Is Still Rising, But Hr Budgets Are Increasing Even Faster

 

 

In an already tight labor market, employers expect to continue increasing their hiring volume in the next year. This could signal even more competition for hiring the best candidates - the number of open positions in the United States now exceeds the number of individuals who are unemployed, and companies are already struggling to fill open positions. 

 

 

With increased hiring demand on the horizon, HR professionals may have to get more creative in order to source and attract great candidates. This could explain the anticipated increase in HR budgets, which exceeds the expected increase in hiring volume, a possible sign that companies are setting aside more funds for HR priorities designed to attract top talent. 

 

COMPANIES ARE SETTING ASIDE MORE FUNDS TO ATTRACT AND INVEST IN TOP TALENT

In line with the expected increase in HR spending, most companies either predicted that they would increase spending in these key areas or keep them the same. Only about 2% of respondents expected to reduce investment in these areas. 

 

 

Companies Are Using Multiple Factors In The Hiring Process In Order To Make More Informed, Holistic Hiring Decisions 

Aside from pre-employment tests, the most used hiring criteria amongst the survey respondents are resumes and in-person interviews, which have long been at the core of the traditional hiring process. But what other factors are companies incorporating into their hiring processes? With hiring competition at its peak, companies are seeing the value of investing in a variety of hiring tactics to help make the hiring decision both more objective and predictive of job success. 

 

How Does Pre-employment Testing Fit Into The Hiring Landscape?  

Companies are adopting unique strategies for getting the most out of pre-employment testing.