Hiring managers often face challenges in effectively evaluating job candidates without a data-driven approach. Traditional methods like resumes and interviews can be unreliable, as many resumes lack authenticity, and interviews may not yield relevant insights into a candidate’s potential success. In order to improve recruitment processes, assessments are essential as they evaluate candidates’ abilities, aptitudes, and personalities. Online assessments, conducted through web-based technologies, offer an efficient solution, providing valuable data for informed hiring decisions.
This blog will detail the intricacies of online assessment, its types, benefits, use cases and how organizations can find the right online assessment software for their talent hiring and management needs.
Online assessment refers to the administration of tests via digital platforms to evaluate participants’ learning and proficiency in specific subjects. These assessments are designed to measure candidates’ skills, knowledge, and competencies relevant to various roles, using a range of formats including numerical reasoning, logical thinking, and personality evaluations. The evaluations typically consist of structured questions aimed at objectively assessing an individual’s capabilities and predicting job performance.
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:
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 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 from different socio-economic backgrounds, cultures, religious beliefs, and upbringings. 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.
Some personality assessments offered by Mercer | Mettl are:
Cognitive assessments measure an individual’s cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, verbal reasoning, numerical ability, problem-solving, decision-making, etc. The test results indicate on-the-job performance and assess potential employees across job levels. These online 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 HR 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 to assess candidates’ potential to use cognitive abilities to solve complex problems or acquire new knowledge.
Some cognitive assessments offered by Mercer | Mettl are:
Technical assessments
While psychometric assessments assess human personality, traits, behavior, and intelligence, technical assessments focus on an individual’s subject matter expertise in their line of work. They test the in-depth knowledge of the person. The questions in a technical evaluation are based on the skill requirement of that particular role. The competencies in technical assessment vary with the job role, job function and industry. To hire the most competent tech professionals, employers use technical assessments to assess aspirants’ knowledge across skills and subskills. 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 insight 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 within real coding environments, such as Java Spring, ReactJS, C#, automation testing, Oracle DBA, SQL, and much more. These tests evaluate the output and consider numerous parameters such as code, time and space complexity.
Some coding assessments offered by Mercer | Mettl are:
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 evaluations 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 needing improvement, which helps prepare personalized training programs for workforce development per industry criteria.
Some role-based assessments offered by Mercer | Mettl are:
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 accurately assesses a person’s language skills, whether 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.
Some communication proficiency assessments offered by Mercer | Mettl are:
Online tests include various question types, such as multiple choice, coding, multiple-response, true/false, audio response, project or case study-based, and subjective or essay-type questions.
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. Organizations must continue investing in employee training with a host of upcoming skills and technologies in demand.
The current situation demands employees to upskill and cross-skill to stay relevant. To meet these requirements, employers must first identify their workforce’s training needs by utilizing the pre-training assessment, followed by skill gaps identification and a development plan based on the assessment report. Employers can then analyze the training effectiveness via a post-training evaluation, which helps map employees’ development journey.
A high potential (HiPo) is an employee with all the traits and attributes required to climb the corporate ladder, assume new roles and responsibilities, and undertake more advanced challenges. HiPos are distinctly recognized among their peers in the organization. They are crucial for driving business performance and achieving better productivity and profit. They demonstrate skills and qualities that align with the organization’s culture and vision. High-potential identification is a process that discovers individuals with high potential to undertake new organizational and personal advancement roles.
Despite being crucial, conducting the HiPo process is a challenging affair. For this purpose, a scientifically validated battery of online assessments is handy. Such reviews can be customized easily to measure talent potential without fail.
Organizations need a skilled and experienced leader to navigate the post-COVID-19 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 with the knowledge, expertise and potential to take up future leadership roles.
Online succession planning tools play a significant role in identifying and developing high-potential employees. Unlike subjective leadership evaluation, online assessments objectively evaluate competencies, skills, and behaviors critical for leadership positions.
Effective succession planning provides:
Online assessment in education is a critical component that significantly impacts the holistic learning structure. Online educational evaluation systematically chronicles and utilizes empirical data on candidates’ skills and course-based subject knowledge. This assessment method helps 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.
Traditional recruitment methods are not free from limitations. Online assessment tools have the edge over their retro counterparts when evaluating candidates’ capabilities holistically. The ample leeway 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 evaluating, analyzing and documenting the test-takers’ work readiness, training needs, learning progress, and skill acquisition. The benefits of online assessments are substantial, some of which are listed below:
Online assessments measure candidates’ capabilities and gather essential data on 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 of candidates to determine the right person for the role. Since these tests have inherent scientific reliability, their results can be valid indicators for the prospective candidate’s future job performance.
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 reviews make it incredibly easy to test thousands of candidates, they help recruiters build a sizable talent repository, which is helpful for future hiring. Moreover, hiring managers can leverage the power of insightful data generated from assessing so many candidates.
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 are 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.
Online assessments are also helpful 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 be translated into a successful long-term relationship. A cultural fit assessment helps employers determine what would matter to 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.
With the advent of online assessments 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 was limited to physical test centers.
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, copying and pasting text and using spreadsheets have become commonplace tasks. Switching to pen and paper would be toilsome when they have become accustomed to working digitally.
By turning to online assessments, evaluators significantly reduce administrative hassles such as organizing and conducting exams. Printing and distributing estimates on paper and organizing the supplies of complete scripts for evaluation purposes is tedious.
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 authorized people can access the assessment.
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.
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 which areas require immediate attention.
Online assessments can simplify the evaluation process and provide test outcomes much faster than traditional assessments. With the auto-grading feature, assessors spend less time grading manually and give the candidates immediate feedback.
In the case of an online assessment, authoring questions becomes a collaborative process. The examining body can easily manage the tasks while creating questions because transparent workflows are defined for reviewing and selecting problems before including them in the question bank.
Administering online assessments is cost-effective because administrators save time and resources while performing administrative operations, including exam creation, delivery and circulation, and evaluation processes.
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.
Online assessment tools evaluate knowledge, skills, abilities, and even personality traits in a digital environment. The process is designed to be scalable, secure, and efficient, making it suitable for everything from campus hiring to leadership development.
At the heart of an online assessment is a digital platform that hosts the test. Candidates can log in from anywhere, using a secure browser or platform that often comes with built-in measures to prevent cheating, such as AI-based proctoring, webcam monitoring, and browser lockdowns. These tests can be objective (like multiple-choice questions) or subjective (like essay-based answers or coding simulators).
Once a candidate completes the test, the responses are automatically evaluated based on pre-set scoring algorithms or human review in more complex assessments. This not only speeds up decision-making but also removes the bias and logistical constraints of traditional evaluations.
The real strength of online assessments lies in their ability to generate data, providing insights into how someone thinks, solves problems, or fits a role. This data can be used to benchmark against role requirements, build skill profiles, or even tailor learning paths for development.
Online assessments are no longer limited to exams in educational settings. Organizations across sectors use them to solve diverse hiring, training, and talent management challenges. Here are some key use cases:
Organizations use online assessments to screen candidates for cognitive ability, job-specific skills, or behavioral fit. This ensures that only the most qualified applicants move forward, saving time and improving the quality of hire.
For companies hiring from multiple universities, online assessments standardize the evaluation process. They enable companies to reach thousands of students across geographies without logistical challenges.
Assessments help identify current skill levels and tailor upskilling programs accordingly. They ensure that L&D efforts are data-backed and personalized, from technical training to leadership development.
Assessments help find high-potential employees, evaluate readiness for new roles, and create career paths based on skill data, not just tenure.
Industries like finance and healthcare use assessments to certify professionals on regulatory or technical knowledge, ensuring compliance and competence in high-stakes environments.
Choosing an online assessment platform is about finding a solution that aligns with your hiring or learning objectives, scales with your needs, and offers a reliable, user-friendly experience for all stakeholders involved. Here’s what to consider:
The right platform should allow you to evaluate a wide variety of skills—from technical and cognitive to behavioral and domain-specific—with minimal setup. Many leading platforms offer extensive libraries of pre-built assessments that can be easily customized.
For instance, Mercer | Mettl provides role-based assessments mapped to industry benchmarks, making it easier to hit the ground running with minimal manual effort. Furthermore, Mercer | Mettl also allows organizations to customize assessments as per their needs.
Maintaining test integrity in remote settings is critical. Look for platforms that combine AI-based proctoring with human invigilation, along with features like secure browsers, candidate authentication, and real-time alerts.
The Mercer | Mettl online assessment platform offers a layered approach to proctoring, combining facial recognition, browser lockdown through MSB, and even live proctors. This ensures the highest levels of test integrity.
A smooth user experience can make or break your assessment strategy. From easy access and intuitive navigation to multilingual support and compatibility with various devices, candidate-first design is key.
Platforms like Mercer | Mettl are optimized for low-bandwidth environments and mobile responsiveness, making them particularly useful for large-scale hiring or geographically distributed teams.
Raw scores are helpful, but actionable insights are game-changing. The best platforms provide analytics dashboards that break down performance by skills, offer benchmarking, and even give behavioral insights.
Assessment platforms shouldn’t operate in isolation. Look for options that integrate smoothly with your ATS, LMS, or HRMS, so assessment data flows naturally into your broader talent workflow.
For instance, the Mercer | Mettl online assessment platform offers robust APIs and native integrations with leading HR tech platforms, helping reduce manual handoffs and improving operational efficiency.
Ultimately, the best online assessment platform is one that quietly does the heavy lifting, bringing together scientific rigor, smart technology, and a seamless experience. Mercer| Mettl, which has partnered with corporates across 100+ countries, is among the few platforms that balance all three. This makes it a trusted partner for organizations looking to assess, develop, and transform talent with confidence.
Originally published December 4 2019, Updated May 22 2025
Archita Bharadwaj has worked as a Content writer at Mercer | Mettl since April 2023. With her research background, she writes varied forms of content, including blogs, ebooks, and case studies, among other forms.
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.
Behavioral Competencies
Cognitive Competencies
Coding Competencies
Domain Competencies
