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Talent Assessment | 10 min Read

What is an Online Assessment? Here’s Everything You Need to Know

Introduction

Most hiring managers find themselves in a predicament where they did not have rigorous evaluation methodologies and actionable insights required to conduct quality screening of job candidates. Without a data-driven screening process, finding the most coveted employees is the same as finding a needle in a haystack. Besides, employers have long used resumes and interviews to garner as much information about an applicant as feasible.

Despite that, most resumes are so densely garnished with sprinkled lies that they appear too good to be true. Similarly, unstructured and nonstandard interviews do not provide relevant insights into the candidate’s probability of success on the job. That is why assessment tests that are designed to delve deeper into an applicant’s ability, aptitude, and personality function more effectively as a recruitment tool. Contrarily, assessments that do not yield the best insight leave the recruiter with no significant data to wield. That said, assessments that are conducted over the internet using web-based technologies are called online assessments.

This blog will detail the intricacies of an online assessment and how to leverage such assessment tests to make successful recruiting decisions.

 


What is an Online Assessment?

Online assessment is the process of conducting a test online to gauge the participants’ learning and mastery over a particular subject. An online assessment may be administered with a specific intent, such as ascertaining a candidate’s skills, knowledge, or learning abilities.

Online assessment tests may include numerical reasoning, inductive logical thinking, and verbal reasoning assessments, personality questionnaires, and much more besides.

In simple terms, an online assessment is a structured, meticulous evaluation of an individual’s skills, characteristics, knowledge or expertise. The test is hosted online via modern web-based technologies.

Online assessments comprise a series of questions that assess multiple aspects of a test-taker and are created based on the job role, level and competency requirements. Such assessments offer an objective evaluation of an applicant’s capabilities and predict on-the-job performance.

”Online assessments can help businesses determine if an employee would be a good fit for an organization. There are several types of online assessments, from skills-based to personality assessments. The type of assessment needed varies by position. For example, a content writer may need to take an assessment for proofreading. One of the many benefits of online assessments is that they help filter through candidates and make the hiring process run more smoothly’’, says Tim Mitchum, President of WINPRO Pet.

According to a study by Emergen Research, the global assessment services market is estimated to reach USD 11.47 Billion by 2027. The primary causal factors for such projection are increasing reliance on data-backed assessments to shortlist prospective candidates and a growing number of youth job seekers around the globe, contributing directly to the global market revenue growth of assessment service providers.

Online assessments are well-received in different domains: corporate HR teams, higher education, and K-12 schools, among others. There has been a staggering increase in demand for psychometric, aptitude, coding, and other domain-based skills assessments. This surge could be attributed to several factors, including a rising number of competitive exams and certification tests, an ever-increasing demand for employability skills, and organizations’ growing affinity for such assessments. In addition, the vagaries of the Covid-19 pandemic have brought significant disruption, compelling many educational institutions and corporates to automate their workflows digitally.

 

main objectives of online assessments

 


Types of Online Assessment Tests

Online assessments exude duality, i.e., they can be used both qualitatively and quantitatively. For example, an assessment test aimed at determining how quickly a person completes a coding task will quantify her/his technical expertise. Similarly, a reaction-based assessment test intended to measure a subject’s soft skills will help uncover new aspects of her/his personality.

There are various types of online assessments, each one being employed for a specific purpose. Based on purpose and implementation technique, we divide online assessment types into three broad categories:

 

Types of online assessment tests

 

1. Online assessments for assessing employability skills

 

Online assessments or, rather(say), E-assessments offer a package of wide-ranging benefits that strengthens the hiring process and adds substance to an organizational structure, increasing the chance that new employees will achieve success in their new roles. In addition, these assessments can help recruiters alleviate the complexities of first-level screening procedures. After the screening process, recruiters have a sizable talent pool, brimming with the required talent and skills to take the talent assessment process to the next level.

Using online assessments in campus recruitment

Campus placements often manifest as a logistical nightmare for colleges and companies alike. The mammoth task of sourcing and testing candidates from thousands of campuses annually can take a grim toll on organizational resources. It will not suffice to adopt pen and paper testing methodology when conducting such massive campus placement drives. A vast majority of companies, as referred to above, prefer stepping into campuses to test the potential candidates at the source. The usual time-consuming process of a college drive involves a presentation, assignment, Group discussions, and interviews. It becomes a colossal task if the number of companies participating is huge, not to mention the logistical expenses.

Online assessments provide an opportunity to break the shackles of slow and outdated recruitment processes. Talent acquisition teams can make objective decisions based on insights drawn out by online assessment tests. These tests are an effective filtration tool that screens out incompatible candidates from the large pool of applicants, enabling companies to find the right match to build winning teams. Such tests offer flexibility to assess candidates’ skills in different talent verticals. One can assess multiple aspects in an online assessment; for example, apart from evaluating a candidate’s technical competencies, it is easy to understand their cultural fit and psychology through online psychometric assessments. These are just some of the (many) benefits of online assessments.

Utilizing online assessments in lateral recruitment

Online assessment tests are the key to an effective recruitment strategy as they provide tangible results by assessing candidates objectively. They help in determining if a job prospect is the right fit for the open position. The use of online assessment tools allows companies to make data-backed decisions to identify top talent while reducing hiring time and recruitment costs. Online tests are incredibly effective as pre-employment tests to streamline the hiring process and increase the likelihood of new hires being a great addition to the team. As ideal assessment tools, they have found extensive use in lateral hiring.

After a profound impact of prolonged exposure to the pandemic, it has become evident that talent assessment is much more nuanced and dependent on technology. More organizations have started leveraging online assessments and other virtual hiring tools to tide over the disruption caused by COVID-19 to meet their recruitment needs. When calibrated aptly, these assessments will help improve the recruitment metrics (time to fill), work performance, productivity, employee retention, etc. However, the most important consideration is choosing an online assessment test that suits an organization’s needs.

Listed below are some of the most commonly used pre-employment online assessments to assess critical traits and skills:

 

Utilizing online assessments in lateral recruitment

Psychometric assessments

Psychometric assessments are assessment tools to evaluate a person’s competencies, behavior and aptitude. They are designed to assess personality traits and role fitment. They measure how individual behavior affects workplace dynamics and vice-versa. Employers then use the information gauged via psychometric assessment tests to make informed hiring decisions. They are divided into two categories:

Personality Assessments

A personality test is a systematic evaluation of human personality constructs. It is commonly used as a part of the pre-employment assessment process. The employer administers these tests to assess a candidate’s personality characteristics. The tests measure how an applicant’s personality traits correlate to their work performance.

Personality assessments are based on the premise that observable changes in an individual’s behavior vary from person to person based on underlying traits. The traits may differ in people coming from different socio-economic backgrounds, cultures or religious beliefs and upbringing. Personality assessments aim to measure these traits objectively. They can be administered to observe a change in personality, screen job applicants and provide a holistic view of an individual’s weaknesses or strengths. Amongst the various trait theories, the Big Five OCEAN model reveals the five core personality traits.

 

the Big 5 personality traits

Cognitive assessments

Cognitive assessments measure an individual’s cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, verbal reasoning, numerical ability, problem-solving, decision-making, etc. The test results are an indicator of on-the-job performance and assess potential employees across job levels. These online assessment tests also measure role-specific IQs across multiple job functions.

Cognitive tests play a critical role in mapping the workforce’s development journey. They reveal the competency gaps on which employees need to be trained to perform better. They also help the HRs to improve the quality of hires. Cognitive tests can correctly predict the probability of success in almost any job – from beginner to executive level. Such assessments include questions intended to assess candidates’ potential to use cognitive abilities to solve complex problems or acquire new knowledge.

 

fluid reasoning, crystallized reasoning, and key brain functions

Behavioral Assessments

A behavioral assessment is a part of the evaluation process that employers use to assess critical behavioral traits required to excel in a particular role. The test aims to determine whether an individual is a good fit based on personality characteristics rather than skills. The purpose of behavioral assessments is to perceive, comprehend, elucidate and envisage human behavior.

To understand which behaviors are expected at the workplace, hiring managers can consult psychologists regarding appropriate workplace behavior and design their assessments based on required behavioral competencies. Hence, behavioral assessments are based on behavioral competencies and relevant indicators.

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.

Mark Twain

Agreeing with Twain’s ideology, American psychologist Paul Meehl wrote, “Behavior science research itself shows that, by and large, the best way to predict anybody’s behavior is his behavior in the past.”

 

interview questions to identify integrity at workplace

Technical assessments

While psychometric assessments assess the human personality, traits, behavior, and intelligence, technical assessments focus on an individual’s subject matter expertise in her/his line of work. They test the in-depth knowledge of the person. The questions in a technical assessment are based on the skill requirement of that particular role. The competencies in technical assessment vary with the job role, job function and industry.

Employers use technical assessments to assess aspirants’ knowledge across skills and subskills to hire the most competent tech professionals. The specific skills and proficiency for a particular job role are quickly evaluated through the technical assessment test. By conducting a technical exam, recruiters can determine if candidates have the suitable expertise required for a given position.

Technical assessments can be divided into three categories:

Coding assessments

Online coding assessments are automated, structured frameworks to assess candidates’ coding skills in a dedicated programming environment. These tests enable recruiting and engineering teams to conduct pre-employment screening for programming roles effectively at a large scale. Employers use coding tests to gain deep insights into applicants’ skills and abilities.

Online coding assessments encompass numerous coding skills. These assessments include a C developer test, Java developer test, C++ developer assessment, software testing, python development, and more. Coding tests assess prospects on various languages and technologies such as Java Spring, ReactJS, C#, automation testing, Oracle DBA, SQL, and much more within real coding environments. These tests evaluate the output and consider numerous parameters such as code, time and space complexity.

 

the competency framework for a C # Developer

Role-based assessments

Role-based assessments, or domain skills assessments, are suitable for gauging the job-specific skills of applicants. Recruiters can assess job seekers’ competencies with the expert-curated problems provided in these assessments. The purpose of role-based assessments is to determine the domain expertise of individuals. This test enables hiring managers to onboard the most eligible candidate.

Role-based assessments are customized for various job functions such as marketing, sales, finance, operations, customer support, etc. These tests are also used to re-skill employees to enhance workforce productivity. The assessment results shed light on the areas that need improvement, which helps prepare personalized training programs for workforce development as per industry criteria.

 

the competency framework for a Financial Analyst

Communication proficiency assessments

A communication proficiency test measures an individual’s fluency, pronunciation, grammar and comprehension skills. It plays a crucial role in effective communication. This pre-employment test acts as a filtration tool that screens out unsuitable candidates and helps employers find candidates with excellent oral and written skills.

The communication test provides an accurate assessment of a person’s language skills, whether it be writing, speaking or listening. These tests provide crucial information on both job candidates’ and employees’ ability to use the language to comprehend and communicate thoughts, ideas, and issues.

 

key evaluation parameters for evaluating communication skills

 

2. Online assessments for organizational development purposes

 

understanding the training lifecycle in learning and development

Learning and Development

Employee learning and development directly impact revenue, cost and overall productivity. The change and churn are making numerous job profiles obsolete. A majority of organizations have frozen their ongoing recruitment. The focus of businesses has now shifted to sustenance, employee engagement and development. With a host of upcoming skills and technologies in demand, organizations must continue investing in employee training.

The current situation demands employees to upskill and cross-skill to stay relevant. To meet these requirements, employers first need to identify their workforce’s training needs by utilizing the pre-training assessment, followed by skill gaps identification and a development plan proposition based on the assessment report. Employers can then analyze the training effectiveness via a post-training evaluation, which helps map employees’ development journey.

High-Potential Identification

A high potential (HiPo)is an employee who possesses all the traits and attributes required to climb the corporate ladder, assume new roles and responsibilities, and undertake more advanced challenges in the future. HiPos are distinctly recognized among their peers in the organization. They are crucial for driving business performance, achieving better productivity and profit. They demonstrate skills and qualities that are in sync with the organization’s culture and vision. High potential identification is an associated process that aims to discover individuals with high potential to undertake new roles for organizational and personal advancement.

Despite being crucial, conducting the HiPo process is not an easy affair. For this purpose, a scientifically validated battery of online assessments seems to be very useful. Such assessments can be customized easily to measure talent potential without fail. Such an online assessment test will enable organizations to discover high potential employees that can be groomed to take up new responsibilities in the future.

Succession Planning

Since the worldwide lockdown, the rate of business losses appears to be surmounting. Hence, organizations need a skilled and experienced leader to navigate through this turbulence, someone with a deep understanding of effective crisis management, workplace disruption and problem-solving. However, to build a leadership pipeline, businesses must first identify the high-potential (HiPo) employees who possess the knowledge, expertise and potential to take up future leadership roles.

When organizations commit to succession planning, they build a leadership pipeline that develops high-potential talent, keeping those team members invested and on track for future success.

Jill Pioter
Director of Branding and Communication, Psychological Associates

Online succession planning tools play a significant role in identifying and developing high-potential employees. Unlike subjective leadership evaluation, online assessments offer an objective evaluation of competencies, skills, and behaviors critical for leadership positions.

Effective succession planning provides:

  • Improved retention of Hi-Pos
  • Increased availability of skilled leaders
  • Planning of career paths

 

3. Online assessments in education

 

Online assessment in education is a critical component that poses a significant impact on the holistic learning structure. Online educational evaluation is a systematic process of chronicling and utilizing empirical data on candidates’ skills and course-based subject knowledge. This assessment method can help teachers align the learning outcomes with teaching methodology to encourage a more effective learning process. Assessments are an impartial analysis of an individual learner or all individuals collectively.

There are eight different types of assessments of learning:

  • Formative : A formative assessment is aimed at monitoring students’ learning and providing ongoing feedback that both instructor and learner can use to enhance the efficacy of the learning process.
  • Summative : A summative assessment is intended to measure students’ learning at the end of an instructive unit.
  • Diagnostic : A diagnostic assessment is administered at the start to assess candidates’ prior knowledge to understand their knowledge level, skills, strengths, and weaknesses.
  • Confirmative : A confirmative assessment aims to determine whether the learning imparted by instructors is still effective after a year of training.
  • Norm-referenced : A norm-referenced assessment is used to compare a candidate's performance against an average norm, meaning relative performance comparison of a student with other students.
  • Criterion-referenced : A criterion-referenced assessment is used to evaluate a student's performance against predetermined learning criteria, meaning it assesses what learners are expected to know at a particular stage of their education.
  • Benchmark : A benchmark assessment is conducted periodically to evaluate the student's performance and is mainly carried out at the end of a grading period.
  • Ipsative : An ipsative assessment aims to understand a student's progress by assessing her/his current performance against previous performances.

 


Top 14 Benefits of Online Assessments

Traditional recruitment methods are not free from limitations. Online assessments have the edge over their retro counterparts when it comes to conducting a holistic evaluation of candidates’ capabilities. The big leeway which these assessments have over their predecessors is the accuracy and flexibility they offer to recruiters in various talent verticals and screen out misfits from the cohort early in the process. They justify the purpose of evaluating, analyzing and documenting the work readiness, training needs, learning progress, and skill acquisition of the test-takers. The benefits of online assessments are substantial, and some of which are listed below:

  • Better Candidate selection

Online assessments aim to measure candidates’ underlying capabilities and gather essential data pertaining to their skills, abilities, and personalities. The test can help ascertain whether they are a good fit for organizations. These assessments are proctored online with the highest security standards. Therefore, the integrity of these tests is unwavering.

Online assessments are normative, which helps employers conduct an objective and fair evaluation between different candidates to determine the right person for the role. Since these tests come with inherent scientific reliability, the results furnished by them can be taken as valid indicators for the prospective candidate’s future job performance.

  • Data-driven hiring decisions

Online assessment analytics lend unparalleled ease to dissect complex data to furnish crucial insights, enabling employers to make data-driven hiring decisions. With instant test results and report generation in real-time, the candidate evaluation report gets generated as soon as the test-taker completes the online assessment. Since, online assessments make it incredibly easy to test thousands of candidates, it helps recruiters build a sizable talent repository, which is helpful for future hiring purposes. Moreover, hiring managers can leverage the power of insightful data generated from assessing so many candidates.

  • Better filtration in campus hiring

Online assessments can help companies identify prospective hires during a campus hiring drive. By utilizing these tools, recruiters can save a significant amount of time by not having to administer tests for every candidate manually and single-handedly but rather automating the entire process with the help of online assessments. These tests serve as an excellent filtration tool to assess a large applicant pool, screen out unsuitable applicants and qualify top talent.

These assessment tests are used as standard pre-recruitment tools to assess various skills (both hard and soft) for technical and non-technical roles. Additionally, one can employ specific online assessments such as psychometric tests, culture fit tests, aptitude tests, and behavioral tests to obtain a holistic profile of candidates.

  • Hiring for cultural fit

Online assessments are also fit for purpose when understanding a candidate’s cultural fit during the hiring process. Cultural fit is the congruity of beliefs, values, and objectives between the employer and employee. When a candidate aligns perfectly with an organization’s values and goals, it might get translated into a successful long-term relationship.

A cultural fit assessment will help employers determine what would really matter to their prospective employees once they start working at an organization The test is a helpful tool to assess candidates’ cultural fit and increase retention rate by selecting candidates who are the best fit for the company.

  • Scalability

With the advent of online assessment tests came the convenience of reaching beyond the constraints of geographical limitations. Now examining bodies can reach out to candidates from far-flung areas, unlike before when administering tests were limited to physical test centers.

  • Easy Accessibility

Examinees nowadays prefer working on a computer and are not keen on adopting the traditional pen-and-paper approach. Candidates are so used to computer editing tools while writing that they cannot do without them; for example, copy and pasting text and using spreadsheets have become commonplace tasks. It would be toilsome to switch to pen and paper when they have become accustomed to working digitally.

  • Minimized Administrative Burden

Evaluators can significantly reduce administrative hassles such as organizing and conducting exams by turning to online assessments. Printing and distributing assessments on paper and organizing the supplies of complete scripts for evaluation purposes is a tedious process.

  • Enhanced Security

Security concerns are appropriately addressed in an online test setting, where all test papers, candidate details, and grades are digitally available. Besides, the security level is remarkably high because only the people authorized to do so can access the assessment.

  • Flexibility

Online assessments offer unparalleled ease of taking exams from anywhere. Features such as online remote proctoring enable examinees to take an exam from the comfort of their homes securely and conveniently.

  • In-depth Reporting

Online assessment reports are comprehensive and provide insights into candidates’ results and progress. Such a report delves deep into how candidates perform in a particular area and what areas require immediate attention.

  • Auto grading

Online assessments can simplify the evaluation process and provide test outcomes much faster than traditional assessments. With the auto grading feature, assessors can spend less time grading manually and provide candidates with immediate feedback.

  • Collaborative Authoring

In the case of an online assessment test, authoring questions becomes a collaborative process. The examining body can easily manage the tasks while creating questions because clear workflows are defined for reviewing and selecting problems before including them in the question bank.

  • Cost-Effectiveness

Administering online assessment tests seems to be a cost-effective affair because administrators can save time and resources while performing administrative operations, including exam creation, delivery and circulation, and evaluation processes.

  • Accommodates candidates with disabilities

Administrators can conduct online assessments even for candidates with disabilities. It is easier to change the background color, font size, etc. Moreover, the test format perfectly caters to those candidates with special considerations.

 


A Comparative Review: Traditional Assessments v/s Online Assessments

Conventional evaluation methods, such as pen-and-paper tests, multiple telephonic rounds, and face-to-face interviews, were prone to hassles. Sifting through a pile of applications, scheduling meetings with relevant candidates, managing expected availability and selecting the most suitable candidate became subjective, time-taking and challenging to manage.

With online assessments, the time spent coordinating with job applicants, selecting qualified prospects and scheduling multiple rounds became easier. Candidates can now be administered an online assessment exam even before the telephonic interview. This step will save hiring managers’ time and provide them clarity in ensuring that only top talent qualifies.

Compared with traditional assessments, online assessments offer speed and accuracy in identifying and developing top talent. They streamline both these processes, enabling organizations to make the right ‘people’ decisions. Due to their multifold benefits, there has been increased adoption of online assessment tests in human resource management. They are now widely used in various sectors, such as education, government, consulting and others.

Ryan Dalal, CEO & Founder of Word to PDF, adds, ‘’The traditional classroom is not conveniently optimized for conducting online assessments. The uncomfortable chairs, bright lighting, and closeness to other students make an already unpleasant scenario even worse. It may not seem like much, but shifting postures due to a rough chair, a classmate banging their pen on their desk, and a noisy air conditioner detracts from deep focus. It prevents pupils from accessing deep memory and disrupts the creative flow.’

 

the role of online assessments in hiring and employee development

 


What Are Online Assessment Platforms and Their Advantages?

Online assessment platforms are enterprise-grade end-to-end software solutions for talent identification and selection. From screening and shortlisting to onboarding, they effectively map a candidate’s journey. When used together with assessments, these platforms automate human resource (HR) processes effortlessly.

 

Advantages of an Online Assessment System

 

The adoption of online assessment systems is rising steadily since these platforms can be used across the employee lifecycle, making human resource management more manageable than before. From hiring top talent, employee training and development to succession planning, online assessment software offers umpteen benefits to employers.

 

i) Handles a Large Number of Candidates

Online assessment platforms allow talent experts to scale recruitment and selection effortlessly. The use of AI to automate manual processes has simplified many day-to-day tasks of hiring managers. Clean recruiter dashboards deliver a funnel view of applicants. HRs can view the number of applicants in the pipeline, test completion rate, pending tests and candidature status. Conducting online assessments has become seamless with customizable e-mails and auto-scheduling of multiple rounds.

 

a hiring funnel view of Mercer | Mettl assessment platform

 

ii) Extensive Question Library and Easy Customization

Online assessment systems are enriched with a wide variety of questionnaires. The questions are based on a wide range of competencies required for numerous job roles and levels. There are different types of questions, including MCQs, coding, graphs, equations, video, audio, database and many more. Hiring managers can either choose from a library of thousands of questions, upload bulk questions, or consult an in-house team of experts to get quick customization of online assessments.

 

the question’s library on the Mercer| Mettl’s dashboard

 

iii) AI-Enabled Proctoring Delivers Secure Environment

The remote proctoring service, be it auto, live and recorded proctoring, helps maintain test results’ integrity. The three-step authentication process keeps a check on impersonation, which is critical, especially in high-stakes assessments. The AI-enabled platform flags any suspicious activities. Additionally, the online assessment software kills all background apps, does not allow test-takers to navigate away from the browser and bar screen sharing, thus ensuring the credibility of the test results.

 

Mercer| Mettl’s remote proctoring service

 

iv) Comprehensive Post-Assessment Analysis

Online assessment tests are followed by comprehensive reports based on candidates’ performance. The reports provide essential insights to employers, facilitating the decision-making process much better and understanding a particular team’s strengths and weaknesses. The exhaustive reports also cover section-wise performance and time taken to attempt different sections.

The report includes the following:

  • Instant and completely accessible individual reports
  • Evaluate response style from the candidate’s journey
  • On-demand analytics report

 

Mercer| Mettl’s individual report and group analytics report

 

Mercer| Mettl’s overall performance analysis

 

 group performance analysis in cognitive and domain abilities

 

Bill Harrison, CTO of ComplianceBridge, asserts, ”an online assessment requires three key elements: questions, the internet, and an intention. While the specifics will vary, the end goal, i.e., the intention, must be to understand the caliber of test-takers. Hard copy assessments do not hold a flame to their online counterparts. It is far easier to distribute something over the internet than it is to hunt down every participant. However, the biggest benefit of an online assessment, without a doubt, comes in the analysis phase. With the right software system, you can watch the answers in real-time, automatically calculate results, and easily conclude from the findings (bonus points if the software can create graphs, charts, or visualizations). This would be a grueling task on paper, but software makes correlations, trends, and patterns apparent”.

 


How Mercer | Mettl Can Help?

It makes utmost sense to harness the power of a cutting-edge hiring and skills assessment system that does all the technological heavy lifting and comes packed with all of the features stated above—right from screening, shortlisting, and onboarding to effortlessly tracking a candidate’s journey.

Mercer| Mettl’s online assessment platform is one such leading enterprise-grade holistic software system that will help you conduct high-stakes assessments securely. This all-in-one assessment evaluation system automates each step of the hiring process, enabling you to set up and deliver online AI-proctored evaluations and manage the end-to-end candidate evaluation process.

The platform offers simple steps to set up online assessments right from the creation and delivery to post-test analytics. It hosts and supports all types of online assessments ranging from technical, role-based, communication, aptitude, and personality evaluation tools.

 

 

Mercer | Mettl has taken a pole position in the assessment ecosystem, offering top-notch cloud-based talent assessment solutions tailored to any organization’s needs for hiring and skill development. Since its inception, Mercer| Mettl has partnered with over 4000 corporates across 80+ countries, successfully delivering more than 25 million assessments in more than 20+ languages to date.

With over a decade of experience in providing HR technological solutions and talent assessment services, Mercer | Mettl’s talent assessment solutions enable organizations to make well-informed decisions on recruitment, training and development.

 

Mercer| Mettl’s psychometric offerings

 

Categorization of Mercer| Mettl’s domain assessments

 

Mercer| Mettl’s assessment creation approach

 

Mercer| Mettl’s assessment creation approach

 


FAQs

Get the answers to the most commonly asked questions about online assessment tools. We have listed the answers to the most typical concerns in the FAQ section:

What are online assessment tools?

Online assessment tools are techniques used to assess how a participant performs on an online assessment test. Pre-employment assessments are the most commonly used tools for job recruitment. Such web-specific tools have found wide application in academia, business and government domains.

What to expect from an online assessment?

While every online assessment test aims to have a particular purpose, here is a brief overview of what employers can usually expect candidates to be assessed for on an online assessment:

  • Skills

Employers seek reliable and scientific methods to assess candidates’ abilities and domain knowledge to understand beyond what is already there in resumes. For example, they can conduct a pre-employment test online to determine a candidate’s web-designing skills, including the approach undertaken to design a website’s wireframe and the rationale behind it. Similarly, an online coding test can reveal the essential skills/behaviors that distinguish suitable coders from unsuited ones. Thus, an online test successfully measures what recruiters aim to measure.

  • Aptitude

Employers want to delve deeper into a candidate’s abilities to know whether the candidate can perform required specific tasks and appropriately respond to diverse situations at work. They need a standardized approach for grading a candidate’s skills, with quantifiable metrics to find a basis for comparison against other applicants. An online aptitude assessment enables recruiters to gain insights into a candidate’s competencies that are indecipherable solely from personal interview rounds.

  • Personality

Companies are looking for applicants to exhibit those personality traits which align well with the job requirements. During the hiring process, it matters most to the employer if a potential candidate can perform the job and prove an asset to the organization. Well, online personality assessments are the key! Such assessments provide deep insights into candidates’ professional personality, which considers various aspects, such as stakeholder management skills, complex problem-solving skills, leadership skills, stress-handling ability, teamwork, compliance, and much more.

  • Passion

Although competencies and characteristics of a person are crucial parameters when conducting a skills assessment test, it is equally important to finding highly passionate candidates who, in the right earnest, are looking forward to performing to the best of their abilities if hired. Online assessments are helpful to assess the level of passion in an individual, whether in terms of enthusiasm, professional-growth goals, self-development efforts, hobbies and interests, etc.

  • Responsibility

There are specific qualities employers look for in candidates; responsibility is one of them. Companies strive to onboard responsible employees who are readily available to take complete ownership of their work and go the extra mile for the same task. By adding online assessment to the talent assessment process, employers can quickly screen and select the ideal candidates for jobs, screening out non-serious candidates from the process.

Define digital assessments?

A digital assessment is primarily an online assessment test or series of tests to evaluate an individual’s skills, knowledge and qualifications to ascertain their suitability for a given role using specific metrics and data. There are high chances that a candidate can present wrong information in a CV or interview, but digital assessments stamp out this possibility.

Why do we conduct online assessments?

The use of online assessments enables organizations to save a lot of time and resources. These assessments are not time-consuming, and multiple test-takers can simultaneously take the online assessment exams, eliminating the need for delegating specialized personnel for the same. Besides, the candidates can take the assessments from anywhere, any time. Test administers can easily see the candidates’ responses and give instant feedback and results. And that enables you, as a recruiter, researcher, trainer or teacher, to get a better understanding of your users, their strengths, improvement areas and needs.

What is an online assessment test for a job?

The online assessment test is designed so that employers can identify specific abilities or characteristics of candidates with the utmost ease. This type of assessment is used to select candidates based on their suitability for a particular job. The online assessment is frequently used now in talent assessment processes. To learn more about the online assessment exam, please visit Mercer | Mettl.

How to pass online job assessments?

Listed below are some points that students might consider while preparing for online assessment tests:

Focus on Preparation

Students might encounter various questions on pre-employment tests, but most of them aim to measure the same things. Such tests intend to evaluate the competence, work ethic, and emotional intelligence of the candidates. Online assessment tests might also focus on integrity, social skills, trainability, ambition, self-discipline, reliability, and political skills. If test takers can plan their preparations around these points, it will help them understand what they are being tested on, enabling them to respond with utmost confidence.

Practice Diligently

It all boils down to one fact that job assessment tests are much like any other exam students will appear over time. Like everything else, studying and practicing are the only two ways to improve performance. Moreover, various online resources and study materials help enhance the skills for the exam. There are several self-assessment quizzes and tests that can assist applicants in improving their reasoning and logic skills. Timely guidance from subject matter experts also comes in handy.

Authentic Self-expression

Since online assessment tests can gauge candidates’ competency, students must ensure preparedness for all challenging sections, namely personality sections. Candidates strive to make the best impression while taking pre-employment tests, but they must refrain from misrepresenting facts about their personality to gain an unfair advantage over others.

Various online assessments come with an anti-cheating configuration that detects test takers trying to manipulate the test. Moreover, recruiters also deep dive into the candidate’s work history, CV, past accomplishments and conduct face-to-face interviews. Candidates are likely to land in a problematic situation if what they portray does not match their responses. It is always advisable to answer honestly and focus on real personality.

Originally published December 4 2019, Updated November 23 2021

Abhilash Malguri

Written by

Abhilash works with the Content Marketing team of Mercer|Mettl. He has been contributing his bit to the world of online business for some years now. Abhilash is experienced in content marketing, along with SEO. He’s fond of writing useful posts, helping people, traveling, and savoring delicacies.

Online Assessment

Online Examination Platform

Online assessments, also known as digital or virtual assessments, are computer-based exams. Online assessments use information technology to empower test-takers to take assessments from anywhere, anytime. Online assessments are widely used by educational institutions and corporations.

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