10 Best Pre-Employment Assessment Tools (2024)
The best hiring assessment tools reviewed, compared, and rated by HR tech experts. Find info on features, pricing, demos and more below.
Best Employee Assessment Tools
Are you looking to implement a best in class candidate assessment process? Fortunately, there are some great pre-employment evaluation tools that can help you look beyond the resume to find the right talent and more productively build high-performing teams.
As a recruiter or hiring manager, you have a tough job. Between competing against other companies for top talent and filtering through hundreds of often-unqualified applicants, you’re spending a lot of time and money on recruiting efforts that you hope will result in a win for both your company and your candidate.
You can take some of this guesswork away by using a candidate assessment tool to automate the screening process, assess candidates’ skills and culture fit, compare results across your applicant pool, and use data to make unbiased hiring decisions that work.
To help you make the right investment, we put together this guide on all things candidate assessment. Keep reading to find a list of the best talent assessment tools along with key features, pricing guidelines, questions to ask on demos, and more.
We pride ourselves on strict editorial standards and use a thorough process to vet and review software before we publish it on the site (and in fact, most vendors we have to end up rejecting). This process includes having our team of HR and recruiting experts use the tool themselves, getting user feedback, and then evaluating the vendor on key metrics like their financial health, customer retention, and responsiveness to customer queries. You can read more about how we evaluate vendors here.
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VidCruiter
VidCruiter provides skills testing that complements its recruitment software, making it a favorite suite for midsize and large businesses to take care of high-volume recruiting needs.
PROS
- VidCruiter skill assessment software features automated candidate scoring and notifications.
- Library with 100+ skills tests validated by industrial and organizational (IO) psychologists.
- Skills assessment workflow can be saved as templates for reuse.
- The ability to implement customized assessments based on customer specifications.
- Hybrid interviewing solution enables teams to host interviews with participants joining by phone, video, and in-person in one meeting.
- Scalable and customizable — users pay for what they need and can purchase more features as they grow.
- Robust pre-recorded and live video interviewing with advanced automation.
- Browser-based, so it works across devices without installing apps.
- Available for recruiters in eight languages and supports job seekers in dozens more.
- 24/7 live agent support, assigned account manager, and on-demand training.
CONS
- There aren’t many advanced technical skills tests in the library, though users can embed tests to VidCruiter from a third party.
- Undisclosed pricing. Also not among the lowest cost options in the market.
- No free plan or free trial.
- Because the product is feature-rich and highly customizable, the implementation phase can be time-consuming.
- Advanced search and technical skills testing features within the assessment module leave room for improvement.
- No free or trial version.
- Undisclosed pricing.
Bason on our hands-on assessment, VidCruiter's skills testing software is a valuable addition to a recruiting toolkit. The user-friendly interface and flexibility of the tool allow users to easily assess candidates' skills through pre-made or customized assessments, and the ability to include videos and images provides candidates with an authentic preview of the team’s culture, helping them determine their fit for the job.
One standout feature is one that saves the recruitment team valuable time: auto-calculation of score-weight questions. While video, audio, and text-based questions still require manual scoring, the assistance with score-weight questions significantly reduces workload. Moreover, the system automates follow-up communication with candidates based on their assessment outcomes, ensuring a seamless process.
Despite its strengths, VidCruiter's assessment tools have a few drawbacks. The library, for example, lacks advanced technical skills tests, requiring users to embed tests from external partners.
Exact pricing is undisclosed, but VidCruiter is known for being a good tool, not an inexpensive one. However, without a free plan or a free trial, potential users can’t explore and assess the tool's capabilities before committing to a subscription.
VidCruiter customers include the United Nations, Axa, Samsung, Lowe's, and US Foods.
Pricing is not published on VidCruiter’s website.
Best For
Businesses with high volume hiring needs, including governments, education, and health care. Industries that require skill assessment as part of their compliance programs can also benefit from this tool.
Our team uses the software for both live and pre-recorded interviews with candidates. For the most part, we use the pre-recorded function with candidates, allowing them to record themselves answering questions that we have predetermined for their interview. Following their interview, our team spends one day a week, going through all of the applicants that had recorded an interview to be able to quickly make decisions on who we would advance to the next round.
Additionally, within the system, we leveraged a custom rating scale to provide a consistent experience when reading candidates. This really helped our team when considering applicants and measuring them all against the same criteria.
1. Overall, the ability to offer both live and recorded interviews.
2. The cost of the offering was very reasonable compared to its competitors.
3. The customer service you are able to receive from them when needed on demand is wonderful. They’re very responsive usually within a matter of just a couple of minutes.
My organization was looking for a way to screen applicants for an initial interview in an effective and efficient manner. Knowing that, we started exploring options for video interviewing both pre-recorded and live.
Through our research, we identified VidCruiter as an option and ultimately was the one that we implemented. We added their software during the pandemic and have used it since. It’s been a great help, and really reduced our screening times through recorded interviews as we have been doing a large amount of hiring.
1. The company is based out of the country, which was not a preference of our organization for security and compliance reasons.
2. Overall, the functionality of the system, as a whole, was a bit more limited than some of its competitor's offerings.
3. The branding of the offering was a little outdated, and wasn’t as modern as some of the alternative options we considered.
Overall, their offering is reasonably priced software that can be used to accomplish the goal of conducting live or recorded interviews with candidates.
Many of the other offerings were much more expensive than what we were able to pay. It’s easy to use and the responsiveness of the customer service team is exactly what we needed. Some of the alternatives had much longer wait times in comparison, which we didn’t want to deal with.
It allows us to accomplish exactly what we need without paying a high price and without making our process super complicated for candidates, which we appreciate.
Overall, really determine at the start what you need a software for to help your process. If you are only needing it for basic functions, like conducting a live or recorded interview with candidates, you may find that there are some vendors that offer functionality way beyond that, which may be more than you need.
As a result, this means the price tag of those offerings could be significantly higher, more than you can justify, or are willing to pay. Once you’ve identified what you need and can pay, it really helps narrow down the list of vendors that you can move forward with.
One of the biggest improvements our organization has experienced in working with them is that they built integrations with other systems that now make our process really smooth.
For example, we utilize Workday for our HRIS and their software integrates smoothly. This wasn’t something we had at the beginning of our experience as a customer, but now have it and it’s really helped become a seamless transition from one software to the next.
Great for an organization that doesn’t need all the bells and whistles, but that needs an offering that can do basic functionality like live and recorded interviews with candidates. So ideally, the best fit would be for a small or medium size organization.
If you are a large organization, you likely want more personalized branding, a modern look and feel, and a more robust offering than what they can offer.
Very large organizations that want robust functionality, customization, and all the bells and whistles of a product offering. Their product has all the standard functionality that you may want out of an offering, but it is pretty foundational rather than an offering that goes over and above what you would normally need.
TestGorilla
TestGorilla’s Pre-employment assessment platform is user-friendly, and easy to implement with over 230 scientifically validated tests. Some tests are even available in languages other than English, including Dutch, German, Spanish, and French.
PROS
- TestGorilla features a friendly UI that’s easy to navigate. The platform is also fairly easy to implement and anyone is able to create an account for free to test it out.
- Candidates don’t need accounts to take your test. They can access the test from the email invitation you send them.
- While TestGorilla’s full test library is only available in English, over 40 of their tests are now offered in other languages, including Dutch, German, Spanish, and French.
- TestGorilla features a friendly UI that’s easy to navigate. The platform is also fairly easy to implement and anyone is able to create an account for free to test it out.
- Candidates don’t need accounts to take your test. They can access the test from the email invitation you send them.
- While TestGorilla’s full test library is only available in English, over 40 of their tests are now offered in other languages, including Dutch, German, Spanish, and French.
CONS
- Users cannot view the question bank in full or choose the questions that go into tests. A proprietary algorithm does that instead, to ensure that TestGorilla’s stored questions are used at an equal rate by users. when a question is used too many times, it is archived and replaced by a new question.
- Candidates cannot directly communicate with the employer through the platform.
- Users cannot view the question bank in full or choose the questions that go into tests. A proprietary algorithm does that instead, to ensure that TestGorilla’s stored questions are used at an equal rate by users. when a question is used too many times, it is archived and replaced by a new question.
- Candidates cannot directly communicate with the employer through the platform.
TestGorilla’s pre-employment assessment platform allows you to hire qualified candidates with tests that ascertain their cognitive abilities, language proficiency, personality and culture fitness, role-specific skills, situational judgment and more.
Candidates don’t need to create accounts to access your tests; they can do so from the email invite you send them after identifying themselves by name and relevant email address. Once candidates complete your test, TestGorilla will automatically grade and rank them, and display the results for your viewing in a single screen.
TestGorilla is used by over 5800 companies, including H&M, Majorel, Bain & Company, and Oracle.
TestGorilla has four plans:
- Free: This plan is free of charge and allows users to access an unlimited number of TestGorilla’s free tests.
- Pay as you go: Designed for businesses that hire occasionally and want flexibility, this plan costs $25 per month for one assessment credit, and $150 per additional assessment.
- Scale: Designed for growing businesses that want all features and customization, this plan costs $300 per month for 15 assessment credits, and $120 per additional assessment.
- Business: Designed for businesses with high-volume hiring needs, this plan costs $2,000 per month for 125 assessment credits, and $95 per additional assessment.
Best For
Companies of all sizes can find benefit is TestGorilla’s offering, but it is best suited for medium and large companies looking to vet a substantial number of candidates for a variety of skills.
Vervoe
Vervoe is much more than a simple pre-employment assessment tool. Not only does it let you assess the skills of potential candidates, but it can even predict their on-the-job performance using advanced AI algorithms.
PROS
- A long, 3-month free trial is available.
- AI-driven job performance prediction.
- API access is available to customers who need it.
- Vervoe can be integrated with online job boards, ATS programs, student portals, chatbots, and more.
- All pricing plans include access to a content library with hundreds of usable assessment templates.
- Individual candidate report cards make it easy to find qualified applicants.
CONS
- Their standard plan only includes one assessment.
- Premium and advanced features are only available with their custom pricing tiers.
- There isn’t currently a two-way video interview functionality.
- No way to manage questions after saving them in the question bank.
- A few users mention the inaccuracy of Vervoe’s AI grading system.
- Monthly billing is not available.
Vervoe uses advanced AI algorithms to predict a candidate’s on-the-job performance based on various behavioral and situational skills assessments. Their AI-powered solution then automatically grades candidates and ranks them according to relevant job skills.
To reduce cheating, Vervoe has a few mechanisms in place including a question randomization feature that automatically rotates assessment questions so candidates always see a different order, plagiarism detection that flags suspicious similarity between the answers of two or more candidates, and a geolocation detector that notifies you if a candidate appears to be completing an assessment from multiple locations. The team at Vervoe is also currently working on a ChatGBT content detector that catches AI-generated answers, which is neat and very necessary today.
Vervoe is championed by companies like Walmart, Australia Post, FDM, TriNet, OmnicomGroup, and several more.
After the free 3-month trial, Vervoe users can choose from the following plans:
- Pay & go: Priced at $228 per year, this plan allows for a single assessment, up to 5 custom questions, and 100 candidates. Users on this plan can also access Vervoe’s 300+ ready-made assessments, as well as its bulk invitations, company welcome video, CSV data exports, and AI-grading features.
- Skill-based hiring: Designed for companies hiring over 50 people a year, this plan comes with everything in Pay & Go, plus customizable skills assessments, 9 custom question types, out-of-the-box ATS and Zapier integration options, company branding, candidate sharing, cheating detection, enterprise-grade security, regional data storage, and more.
- Skills validation via API: Designed for companies looking to embed a skills validation engine into their workflow, this plan also has custom pricing and comes with all features in previous plans, plus API access for custom integrations, white labeling, assessment design consulting, premium support and SLAs, SSO, and more.
Best For
Vervoe is best suited for medium and large organizations looking to quickly narrow down a large pool of prospective new employees.
HireVue
With HireVue, recruiters can assess a gigantic number of job seekers with relative ease using this AI-powered candidate assessment software. This and its video interview capabilities make it a great tool for enterprise teams.
PROS
- The virtual assistant can help with initial screening, vetting, and sending messages.
- Great on-demand interviewing feature.
- Playback speed available.
- The implementation team and customer support agents are quite responsive.
- HireVue is very useful when it comes to screening a large number of job candidates in a short frame of time. Its virtual assistant can do an initial screen of applicants on its own, leave messages for them, and get responses in return. All of this frees up recruiters’ time.
- It has a great on-demand interviewing feature. Recruiters can sit and watch candidates’ interviews as per their convenience. The ability to change the speed of the interview while watching can also help recruiters save time.
- Their implementation team and customer support is extremely responsive or in the words of a Global Talent Attraction Director, “I love the support, tenacity and just constant desire to do the right thing. They take the time to understand our business and I never feel like it is a ‘catch and release’ relationship that is so common in this space”
CONS
- Likely to be cost-prohibitive for budget-conscious teams.
- Not good for small teams – it’s best for headcounts of 2k+ and growing.
- Limited integration partners.
- HireVue is not very affordable compared to its alternatives, especially when you factor in the functionality. Their pricing plans are geared towards companies with at least 2500 employees and even then, you only get a small set of features.
- HireVue does not have a lot of integration partners and the range of software it integrates with is also very limited (mostly ATS).
- Too much automation can at times lead to unwanted candidates. For instance, the asynchronous interview feature can allow candidates to adjust their responses in order to fit the job criteria. However, HireVue wouldn’t screen such candidates out and your company may need human intervention to pick up on visual cues and body language.
HireVue was one of the first businesses in the HR Tech sector to pioneer the practice of video interviews.
This tool comes at a high price but is an excellent choice for teams who can pay. It excels in automation and high-volume recruitment for its sole target market: large and growing teams.
The platform offers plenty of features, including text-message and AI-powered recruitment, video interviewing, constructing interviews, candidate testing, and scheduling. From what we experienced with HireVue, the video interviewing software outshines the rest of the features based, in part, on its ability to conduct both live and one-way video interviews.
Accessibility and ease of use are highlights of this too. We like that candidates aren’t required to download an additional app or use their laptops or computers to take the interviews: any phone with an internet connection will do.
The built-in interview guide, designed by organizational psychologists, is also a nice touch. There are more than a thousand job-specific interview guidelines, so building a tailored interview from scratch is relatively easy.
The virtual assistant can be a terrific time-saver for recruiters. This conversational AI can answer candidates' questions and direct them to the next stage of the assessment process via WhatsApp or text message. It can also schedule interviews and present job seekers with suggestions for relevant positions within the company.
Big firms like Amazon, SmartLynx Airlines, and Unilever have used HireVue for their hiring.
HireVue offers two pricing plans starting from $35,000 per month.
Best For
HireVue is designed for large enterprises (at least 2,500 employees) to streamline their high-volume hiring process.
HireVue was used daily to screen potential candidates for open roles. We were able to customize the look, feel, and candidate experience through their one-way interview features. This dramatically improved the speed at which candidates were able to move through the pipeline while maintaining a positive interview experience.
Ease of use, customizable and adaptable, mobile friendly, great customer service, and real-time accessibility.
I utilized the HireVue tool when I worked at Caleres. They had over 1500 retail locations across the US and Canada. Hiring was a priority but we found a bottleneck in our hiring process. Hiring managers and interviewers were unable to keep up with interviews due to their busy travel schedules. HireVue was purchased to speed up the screening process by allowing all interviewers the ability to virtually assess applicants via one-way interviews on their own time and from wherever they were.
HireVue could be improved by adding in additional user permission levels to better control access to data. HireVue could also expand the types of API integrations available to stay current with all new HCM platforms.
The degree of features and customization differentiates HireVue from its competitors. I believe HireVue is one of the best-in-class tools out there for these types of services.
Potential buyers should consider how this tool will improve efficiency in their interview processes. There may be pushback on gaining buy-in at first; however, clear training and explaining the 'why' will help increase tool adoption.
They are constantly improving features to ensure the end users can maximize the use of this tool.
HireVue is a great tool for high-growth and turnover organizations (i.e. Multiunit Retail). It provides effective and efficient solutions allowing companies to hire and scale at a fast pace.
Companies with minimal open requisitions annually or low/limited growth plans may not benefit from this tool as much.
CodinGame
With an impressive 60+ languages and frameworks supported, CodinGame allows recruiters to screen developers through fun coding games and challenges.
PROS
- Engaging gamified technical assessments add enjoyment for candidates compared to standard tests.
- Clear pricing structure with a free 14-day trial.
- Easy to use for both recruiters and developers.
- Supports 60+ programming languages and frameworks.
- Integrates anti-cheat tech and code playback in test reports.
- Auto-scores candidates and compares them to other developers who have taken similar tests.
- You can cancel your subscription yourself from the user account at any time and with no cancellation fees.
- Offer candidates different language options (English, French, or Spanish).
- Supports live interviews.
- CodinGame allows you to deploy gamified technical assessments that are more engaging and enjoyable to candidates than traditional tests.
- CodinGame has transparent pricing and offers free 14-day trials that anyone can sign up for.
- The platform is easy to use and currently supports over 60 programming languages and frameworks.
CONS
- Limited question library for specific technologies, with custom questions limited to 10 on the most popular pricing plan.
- Not all developers are big fans of gamification. Some find the UI distracting at times.
- Limited built-in integrations. ATS integration & API access are available for higher-priced plans, with additional fees apply.
- Several users complained about the question library not being as extensive or not covering technologies that they needed to test in. CodinGame does allow you to create custom questions but that’s limited to 10 questions only on their most popular pricing plan.
- The platform is currently only available in English, French and Spanish.
- CodinGame currently has limited built-in integrations with third-party ATSs and HRISs, but they’re working on expanding their list of partners and do offer API access for users on the Team plan or higher.
If you're looking for a vendor that does candidate assessment specific to jobs that require coding, Coding game is a great bet. Their assessments try to mimic the actual work they'd do if hired as much as possible. In addition to being a gamified tool to assess developers, it also has video interviewing and candidate management capabilities.
CodinGame is used by many coding-heavy companies including Facebook, Nintendo, EA, and Warner Bros.
CodinGame is free for 2 tests or interviews per month. The platform also provides three paid plans (free trials available) with pricing ranging from $70 to $575 per month when billed annually.
Best For
CodinGame is a good fit for medium-to-large-sized companies that want to assess the coding skills of candidates using gamified assessments.
Pymetrics
pymetrics uses AI to vet, assess, and manage candidates. Their algorithms can create an ideal persona for each role and determine which tests should be taken by potential matches.
PROS
CONS
pymetrics uses a series of games and exercises to understand a job seeker’s risk aversion, cognitive abilities, behavioral characteristics, and so much more. Your best employees are also mapped using similar criteria so that applicants can be matched with the appropriate role within your organization
The pymetrics approach is favored by organizations like Kraft Heinz, McDonald's, Colgate-Palmolive, and Boston Consulting Group.
pymetrics doesn't not disclose its pricing scheme upfront.
Best For
pymetrics is best for organizations that look at pools of candidates with at least 5,000 individuals.
HackerRank
HackerRank is one of the largest tech assessment platforms out there with customers such as AirBnB, DropBox and more.
PROS
- HackerRank has transparent pricing. They also offer a free 14-day trial with an easy sign-up process.
- HackerRank’s community has over 18 million Developers, with 40% of them already assessed.
- HackerRank for Work currently supports over 40 different programming languages.
- HackerRank has transparent pricing. They also offer a free 14-day trial with an easy sign-up process.
- HackerRank’s community has over 18 million Developers, with 40% of them already assessed.
- HackerRank for Work currently supports over 40 different programming languages.
CONS
- Third-party integrations are limited at this time, and only Enterprise customers are given access to pre-built integrations and HackerRank’s API.
- The platform is currently only available in English.
- Third-party integrations are limited at this time, and only Enterprise customers are given access to pre-built integrations and HackerRank’s API.
- The platform is currently only available in English.
The HackerRank Developer Skills Platform can boost your recruitment plan through each step of the candidate's journey. Their solution is used not only to assess tech skills, but to plan recruitment processes, source candidates, automate screening, interview people remotely, and rank the bes talent for each position.
HackerRank has over 2800 customers, including brands like Cisco, Twitter, Bloomberg, and VMware.
Aside from their free trial, HackerRank has four plans. When billed annually, they cost as follows:
- Interview: This plan costs $25 per month for 1 interviewer license, and access to the Interviews module and standard content library only.
- Individual: This plan costs $249 per month and comes with everything in the Interview plan, along with access to the Tests module, a quota of 360 candidates a year, and one full-access user license.
- Team: For $599 per month, the Team plan comes with everything in Individual, plus two full-access user licenses instead of one, a total of three Interviewer licenses, an increased quota of 720 candidates a year, access to HackerRank’s premium content library, and the ability to have Projects, Benchmarking, and Code Reviews as add-ons.
- Enterprise Platform: This plan has a custom number of licenses, candidate quota, and pricing. Customers on this plan also get assigned a dedicated success manager. Contact HackerRank’s Sales team for a quote.
Best For
In their words, HackerRank is "enterprise-ready for effortless scaling". This means it's used both by fast-growing startups and large companies.
After screening the candidates, I usually ask them to complete the HackerRank assessment, so I am pretty much exposed to using this every day. Based on the languages the Software Engineers are using, I will be able to identify which language they used in order to send the correct assessment. Finally, after they're done with the assessments, they will get back to me with the results on whether they passed or failed.
First, HackerRank is very easy to use and understand even when I used it the first time. Second, I like that I can easily create new codes/tests. Finally, I can easily reach out to anyone from the team should I have any requests or inquiries.
We used HackerRank for more than 5 years. We bought it in order to gauge the expertise of the Software Engineers that we are hiring. Also, we want to be able to expand and develop tests while hiring people for the said position. Before buying HackerRank, we had to do manual testing or come up with software tests that made the hiring quite impossible to proceed to the next steps, but HackerRank made it easier. It streamlined the processes and we're hiring way faster and quicker than usual along with the quality candidates.
I have never encountered any dislikes with it so far. Though, I have always wanted them to come up with Software Tests for Flutter Developers. They got back to me quickly about it and mentioned that they might come up with something soon.
They have to think about the type of Software Tests they want for their candidates. Second, they need to think if the team has the programming language they need to come up with the right assessment. Lastly, they need to consider the budget. If they want an easy to use software tool, this is what they should use.
They normally take the users' requests quickly and even take the feedbacks to improve the process. That's what I like about them so far.
For the Software Coding Assessments and HR streamlined processes.
I’d recommend it for most teams hiring software developers.
Qualified.io
If you’re looking to vet and hire developers, Qualified is a well-regarded developer assessment tool offering customizable assessments mimicking real-world scenarios, objective evaluation methods, real-time feedback to candidates, and more.
PROS
- Assessments can be tailored to your hiring requirements.
- Choose from over 25 programming languages for assessments.
- Quickly filter out unqualified candidates.
- Try the platform for free for up to 14 days.
- Candidates get real-time feedback on their performance.
- You can create customized assessments tailored to the role you’re hiring for.
- There are over 25 programming languages to choose from for assessments.
- The initial screening process is automated, allowing you to quickly filter out unqualified candidates and focus on those with high potential to be a great fit.
- You can try the platform for free for up to 14 days. The free trial includes up to 5 assessment results, and access to many of the Team plan features.
- Candidates appreciate that the platform gives them real-time feedback and a clear understanding of their performance.
CONS
- May not be as effective at evaluating soft skills.
- Need to go through the sales team for pricing.
- No live interview functionality built-in.
- Interface is modern but busy.
- Some users found code editors to be too small.
- While Qualified.io is a great tool for evaluating technical skills, it may not be as effective at evaluating soft skills, such as communication and teamwork.
- Pricing isn’t transparent and you need to go through the sales team to get a sense of how much it’ll cost you.
- There currently isn’t a live interview functionality built-in
- The interface, though modern looking, is rather busy
- A few users found the code editors to be a little too small
Qualified’s pre-employment assessment platform was designed by developers for developers. Although it doesn’t currently support live interviews, Qualified lets you create customizable assessments, automate the screening process, give real-time feedback to candidates, and make use of several other features to narrow down the field of potential recruits. Candidates who pass your initial assessments can be invited to additional coding sessions or interviews as needed, and individual developer profiles let your team track candidate progress through the hiring process.
Large enterprises like Qualified, including Apple, Zoom, and Domino's have used Qualified.io for their coding interviews.
Custom pricing is available. Contact Qualified for more information.
Best For
Qualified is ideal for hiring managers who want to challenge their candidates with various coding and developer assessments. It’s also well-suited for those who want a solution that will integrate with their current HR software.
CodeSignal
CodeSignal is a candidate assessment tool for engineers and developers. As a platform, it also features remote interviews and certified assessments.
PROS
- Supports over 70 programming languages.
- ‘Flight simulator’ for real-world skills assessment.
- Friendly UI with auto-complete feature.
- Replays candidate keystrokes.
- CodeSignal allows companies to create tasks in over 70s languages and install any package or framework.
- To assess real-world skills, in a real-world developing environment, CodeSignal packs a proprietary “flight simulator” solution that lets candidates work on a full-stack application, complete with databases, APIs, and frontend layers.
- The platform features a friendly and well-thought-out UI for hiring teams and developers. Developers have particularly praised the auto-complete feature in the IDE.
- CodeSignal lets you replay every keystroke made by a given candidate during a test or interview. This can be shared with the entire hiring team if need be.
CONS
- Pricing not publicly listed.
- No discussion forum or community.
- Only available in English.
- CodeSignal doesn’t publicly list their pricing. You’ll need to contact their sales team to get a price estimate.
- Several developers complained about CodeSignal’s lack of a discussion forum or community to connect with one another and share knowledge.
- The platform is currently only available in English.
CodeSignal’s team wants us to go beyond the resume when we vet engineers - which is definitely a great idea given all the signal we can get from understanding the skills and aptitude a given applicant has.
CodeSignal is a hiring platform used by companies like Roblox, Zoom, and Zoom to assess the coding skills of their candidates. The majority of them are large teams (1,000-5,000 employees).
CodeSignal offers custom pricing based on your needs.
Best For
CodeSignal is made for companies, mainly enterprise level, that need to hire many engineers, developers, and test for coding skills on a frequent basis.
We used CodeSignal for software engineer interviews. This came in two forms: live-coding sessions and take-home assessments. The live-coding sessions were 1-2 hours long. The take-home assessment was timed and took around an hour. We were doing around five live sessions and 10+ take-home assessments a week. The results then fed into our Greenhouse instance beautifully.
- The product was easy and straightforward to use - our candidates and interviewers all liked the functionality that it offered
- The sales team wasn't pushy - Unlike other similar solutions, the in-house sales team at CodeSignal was friendly and authentic. They really treated us like a big enterprise client. Additionally their pricing model made sense.
- The UI - It was clear and understandable. They chose colors that made it visually easy to use.
As a small company with a SaaS security product we needed the ability to conduct coding tests with engineering candidates. We evaluated and used several other similar tools but really liked CodeSignal for a multitude of reasons. They had a fantastic pricing model, integrated nicely with our ATS (Greenhouse), and candidate/interviewers liked it.
No complaints :)
CodeSignal differentiates itself in their approach and flexibility. It genuinely felt like CodeSignal listened to their customer base when they made changes. Additionally, CodeSignal’s deal structure was more flexible and permitted growth compared to some of the other competitors.
- How many users will you need and what permission level do you want them to have?
- What is your current interview volume?
- Will this improve your candidate/interviewer experience?
Technical recruiting/TA
Companies that don’t often hire tech talent
myInterview
myInterview is where video interviews meet AI sourcing and bias-free assessments. It can set you up with a queue of custom-picked candidates to watch while the algorithms scan every video to reveal the best matches for each job. Further, each video is analyzed for things like soft skills, personality traits, and more.
PROS
- myInterview's screening feature identifies suitable candidates based on skills and personality.
- AI-power features for video transcriptions and analysis.
- Comments and sharing features for better collaboration.
- Instant candidate ratings enable data-based decision-making.
- Creates a branded, customized interview process.
- Ensures fairness in evaluations with consistent access to candidate information.
- Has a free plan.
- myInterview has a neat screening feature that can sift through thousands of video submissions and identify suitable candidates not only based on skills, but also personality.
- The platform provides analytics that help you understand how well your current application process is working, so that you can make improvements as needed.
- It lets you add instant candidate ratings so you’re able to compare candidates and make data-based decisions.
- myInterview lets you create a branded, customized interview process. You can choose from their library of pre-recorded questions, or create your own.
- myInterview ensures that all your interviewers have access to the same information about each candidate. This is so they’re all asking the same questions and given a fair chance at evaluating each candidate's answers.
CONS
- Lacks some customization options, like modifying email templates.
- No mobile app currently available for hiring managers or candidates.
- The free forever plan is limited to one active job post at a time.
- A few users have noted that myInterview doesn't offer many customization options. For example, you can't customize the email templates without contacting support.
- myInterview currently doesn’t have a mobile app neither for hiring managers or candidates.
- Though they do have a free forever plan, it is limited to only 1 active job post at a time.
myInterview’s Wordcloud feature caught our attention right from the start. The feature is user-friendly and lets users filter candidates using keywords or specific industry terms. Some TA users we talked to used it during the interview assessment stage to quickly jump to the exact points where certain keywords were mentioned.
Another cool feature is video transcription. When applicants submit their interviews, the software generates transcripts with tags that recruiters can easily sort through. But the AI doesn't stop there — it also analyzes the applicants' soft skills, personality traits, and keywords. It even provides a ranking list of qualified candidates. Just keep in mind that these features are only available in the highest-priced plan.
Sharing interviews is fairly simple with myInterview. You can share them with multiple reviewers, both internally and externally, for more comprehensive evaluations. And they've even added a 15-day deadline to external share links to make sure reviewers take action on time.
myInterview is well-regarded for its customer service, which is always a plus. However, starting August 2023, they've made some changes. They no longer offer a free plan. Instead, they now have two pricing plans with a minimum contract length of one year. Unfortunately, there's no free trial available either.
1,000+ companies, including Billabong, Goodwill, and Chick-fil-A.
myInterview no longer offers the free plan and there isn’t a free trial either. Their pricing is custom and starts from $99 per month.
Best For
myInterview is ideal for growing teams starting with the free plan and upgrading as needed. It's particularly useful for high-volume roles like entry-level positions with numerous applicants.
We use myInterview daily as an integral part of our recruitment process. The platform is employed mainly for initial candidate screenings, enabling us to handle large volumes of applications efficiently. We design custom interview templates and questions tailored to specific job roles to ensure a consistent evaluation process. The AI-powered analysis helps us identify candidates with the right soft skills and personality traits. Additionally, we use the integration features with our HRIS to streamline data management, enhancing the overall efficiency of our hiring workflows.
The AI-powered video screening saves our recruiters significant time by automating the initial assessment process. The platform's integration capabilities with our HRIS streamline data management and improve efficiency. Customizable interview templates and questions ensure a standardized and thorough evaluation of candidates.
To address the inefficiencies in our clients' hiring processes, especially the time-consuming nature of initial candidate screenings, we needed a solution that could handle high-volume applications efficiently while providing deeper insights into candidates' soft skills and personalities. myInterview offered AI-powered video screening, which automated much of the initial assessment, saving our recruiting team time and resources. The platform's integration capabilities with our existing HRIS were also a bonus. We have been using myInterview for approximately one year, and it has greatly improved our clients' hiring workflow.
Our recruiters have provided feedback that the AI analysis, while helpful, can sometimes miss nuances that only a human recruiter might catch.
While other tools offer broader customization and additional onboarding tools, we prefer myInterview for its robust AI-powered video screening, which provides deeper insights into our candidates' soft skills and personalities. The combination of AI analysis and seamless integration capabilities makes myInterview the preferred choice for our recruiters. This ensures a more efficient and insightful hiring process, allowing us to make informed decisions quickly.
Ensure the platform is intuitive for both recruiters and candidates to avoid deterring usage that would then slow down the hiring process. Look for tools with robust AI capabilities that provide valuable insights into candidates' soft skills and personalities, enhancing decision-making. Check if the tool integrates well with your existing HRIS and payroll systems for efficient onboarding and seamless data management.
Consider features that improve the candidate experience, such as flexible recording times and user-friendly interfaces. Ensure the tool can scale with your company's growth and offers customizable options to meet specific hiring needs.
Since we began using myInterview, the platform has continuously improved its AI algorithms, which are essential for accurate candidate analysis. Additionally, the user interface has become more intuitive, making it easier for both recruiters and candidates to navigate.
myInterview is particularly well-suited for organizations that handle high volumes of applications and need to streamline their initial screening processes. For our RPO division, it is ideal for medium to large companies with growing recruitment needs, especially those in tech-savvy industries.
myInterview may not be a good fit for small businesses with limited budgets or organizations that prefer traditional, in-person interview processes every step of the way.
Use-Cases: Why Use Candidate Assessment Tools
Pre-employment screening is a necessary task for any talent acquisition team. You want to find candidates with the right skills who also fit in well with your company culture so they’ll succeed AND stay. You also want to understand how to best manage them so they stay motivated and are set up for success from day one. Of course, recruiting teams want to do all this in the most efficient way possible so you can keep growing your team without wasting time or money.
Hiring assessment tools are a great way to streamline your evaluation of job seekers, and save your team time. Still not sure? In addition to the obvious use cases (like assessing skills, culture fit, and tech and cognitive abilities) there are an array of other reasons to consider adding this tool to your recruitment efforts:
- Narrow the candidate pool by focusing on skills. Get a better sense of who is actually qualified for the job in question by focusing on their skills. When you go into any hiring process with skills in mind, you let the candidate and his or her aptitude shine — not their resume. So see which candidates have the necessary skills for a job and focus on bringing them in for interviews. You’ll save a lot of time in the process.
- Make final hiring decisions with confidence. An objective test from a pre-employment screening solution can provide conviction that you are making the right decision when it comes to hiring. This is similar to how SAT scores can give college admissions confidence in making the decision on an applicant. Of course, just like the SATs, there are imperfections in the signal provided from these tools and so it is just one piece of the puzzle.
- Predict job performance and culture fit. Assessments will help you determine if someone has the right skills, but that’s not all. You can also get a sense for how a candidate is likely to fit into your organization’s culture. This is a major benefit because if they’re a good culture fit, they’re more likely to succeed in their roles and stay at the company longer.
- Prepare managers more effectively. Analyze behavioral screening results to understand how people tick — what behaviors do they generally exhibit? How do they tend to approach their work/tasks? Not just how good are they likely to be in their role, but what motivates them to actually do their best? Understanding this type of information will allow you to better prepare their managers for onboarding and beyond.
- Create diverse and higher functioning teams. By using data to focus on actual skills and fit, you’ll more objectively screen candidates and ultimately build a more diverse and successful workforce. Not only that, you’ll be able to use candidate and people data to understand how a candidate will fit into a specific team, and how that team will ultimately work together.
Common Mistakes With Employee Screening Tools
Candidate assessment tools aren’t perfect and no implementation process is either. But when you can anticipate challenges and create solutions before there’s a problem, you maximize your chances of a straightforward and seamless integration. To help you be better prepared, we’ve outlined common pitfalls and mistakes that talent acquisition teams experience while using candidate assessment tools. Taking these to heart will ensure that you use your tool most effectively:
- Biased scoring: As we mentioned, candidate assessment tools can help you eliminate unconscious bias — that is, if their algorithms are impartial. Just like SAT scores correlate with household wealth, hiring assessment tools can provide false signals that don’t mirror a candidate’s aptitude alone. If you do implement a new solution, take a look how candidates from different backgrounds are scoring, and be aware that you may be penalizing job seekers who’d actually be a good fit.
- AI and video don’t really work together: Video submissions should really be scored by a human. If you use AI to vet candidates’ videos, you could run into issues with bias against women, people of color, other underrepresented people, even introverted people. This is because there could be unconscious bias baked into the AI itself — so make sure that an actual human is screening and scoring video interview submissions. Also, remember that some candidates might not be comfortable on camera, which could increase someone’s nerves, etc.
- Automation only goes so far: You can’t deny that hiring is a personal experience. As great as automation is, it’s not personal. You simply can’t make a fully confident hiring decision on data alone, so supplement the work your screening tool is doing with actual face to face interviews — just save those interviews for the most promising candidates.
- Know what skills are tested before you invest: Many tools are designed solely for technical roles and only test for things like coding skills. If you’re looking for a broader range of skill sets, make sure you understand what skills your preferred tool covers before you invest. Keep in mind that you can’t test for everything. For example, trade skills like plumbing or operating a forklift can’t be tested using a computer. If you need to hire a tradesperson, do some research on the certifications they’d need or see if there are specific skills tests you can have them take as part of your screening efforts.
- Eliminate barriers to entry: To get candidates to actually take the skills tests you want, you have to make it easy for them to do so. That means starting the assessments with easy questions first, and making any pre-employment test easy to take on a mobile phone.
- Ask candidates for feedback: At the end of the assessment process, gather feedback from candidates so you can see how everything was received, if there is room for improvement anywhere, etc.
If you have follow-up questions on any of these points, you might be able to get more clarity during your demos. So write down your questions then continue to the next section to see what else to ask.
Benefits and ROI From Pre-Employment Screening Software
At the end of the day, candidate assessment tools can help recruiters and hiring managers do their jobs better, which means your company will do its job better. Here’s how:
- Better productivity: Recruiters will spend less time on screening and administering standard assessments, so they can focus their time on the most promising candidates.
- Unbiased process for screening: Studies show that diverse teams perform better. When you use a data-driven tool for screening, you take away bias and focus on skills and fit. The result is more diversity across gender, ethnicity, experience, and more.
- More scalable screening: You can screen more people in less time, allowing you to weed out unqualified applicants quickly, create talent pools for future roles, and more.
- Faster time to fill roles: When you can more quickly screen more people, you can more quickly find promising candidates and begin the interview process with them.
- Organizational success: With the help of a top candidate assessment tool, you are more likely to find the best talent and hire someone who is right for the job and your company — all of which leads to higher performing teams and a more successful organization.
To help you calculate how all these benefits translate to a positive return on investment, check out our ROI calculator for candidate assessment tools. It covers a variety of key points, including:
- How to measure increases in recruiter productivity
- How faster hiring affects your organization
- How software tools can decrease large agency fees to save you money
Pricing for Candidate Assessment Tools
As with most software platforms, pricing for hiring evaluation software depends on a number of factors. These tools either charge per hire, per assessment, or on a subscription basis. Personally, we like the per hire model because this incentivizes you to put all candidates through the tool which will eventually uncover diamonds in the rough vs a per assessment pricing model that means you have to be more judicious about which candidates to use the tool with.
As you evaluate different tools, pay attention to how their pricing works (i.e. if it’s per hire, assessment, or by subscription) and match that to how many jobs you need to fill over the course of a month or year. If you only have a couple per month, then a per-hire or per-assessment might make more sense. On the flip side, if you’re filling a lot of roles and conducting a lot of assessments, a subscription model might be a better deal.
Features: What You Can Expect from Candidate Assessment Tools
As we’ve mentioned, pre-employment screening will help you more productively find top talent and build high-performing teams. How they do that depends on their features. While each tool differs slightly, you can expect to see most or all of the following:
- Video interviews: In person interviews are great but there simply isn’t enough time to meet with every candidate face to face at the screening phase. Conducting video interviews can save you a lot of time. Not only that, you’ll get a sense for how candidates communicate by watching recorded video responses to your screening questions. We have an entire page dedicated to the best video interview platforms.
- Coding assessments: Test candidates’ coding abilities and overall technical skills to see if they’re even qualified for an in-person interview. You can give everything from pre-screens to full scale coding projects that mirror the work they’d be doing as an employee.
- Skills assessments: Test job-specific skills, general work skills, and/or soft skills to get a sense for how a candidate might perform in the role. The skills tests you administer could include text, multiple choice or video questions, document editing, code editing, and more.
- Cognitive screening: Assess how someone thinks, problem solves and learns new things. Using this information can help you understand how to manage them and prepare them for success in their new role.
- Psychographic screening: Understand a candidate’s personality traits, including their values and interests. This can help you determine how they’ll fit into a specific team as well as your company’s overall culture.
- Employer branding: In addition to using your company branding (like logo, messaging and voice), you can infuse your employer branding as well throughout your assessments. That means inserting information about what it’s like to work at your company and why a candidate should want to work there. This is especially important because candidates are likely applying to other companies, so you want yours to stand out.
- ATS integration: Sync your applicant tracking system with your candidate assessment tool to more seamlessly run your recruiting, screening and hiring efforts.
- Library of potential questions: If you need help coming up with individual questions or full skills assessments, you can pull from a library of content and then customize that content as you see fit. Or, if you already have your testing content created, you can just use that.
- Bias-free screening: Eliminate unconscious bias around gender, ethnicity, credentials, education, etc. and focus instead on someone’s actual skills. When you make fair and objective hiring decisions, your organization is better primed for success.
- Talent pools: If you’ve screened a candidate who scored well for culture fit and soft skills but didn’t have the technical skill set required for the role they wanted, keep them in a talent pool until a better suited position opens up for them.
- AI-powered candidate ranking: Many tools grade and stack-rank your candidates based on their results so you can evaluate them more efficiently and be confident that you’re only focusing on the best.
- Reporting and insights: Get data on which candidate sourcing methods perform better than others, understand completion rates and times, then make any necessary adjustments accordingly.
- NPS/feedback surveys to candidates: Get direct feedback from your candidates on how your interview/screening process is to better understand where you might need to make improvements.
Demo Questions for Employee Assessment Tools
Demos are very important as you do your own assessment of these candidate screening tools. To make sure you get the most of your demos, prepare a list of questions specific to your screening and hiring needs, the use-cases that matter most to you, and how your overall HR tech stack might be affected. And be upfront about what you want to get out of the demo so the person on the other end doesn’t waste your (or their own) time.
So what questions should you ask? Generally speaking, you should always be thinking about the following questions when you’re considering any new software program:
- How will this solution fit into the rest of my tech stack? What integrations do I need?
- How will others in the organization use this solution?
- What are the key features I want to ask about?
- What are the things that would make me nervous about buying this sort of solution?
- How does pricing work?
- What implementation guidelines do they suggest?
For candidate assessment tools specifically, here are some questions to cover:
- What ATSs do you integrate with? How long does this take?
- How do I build new screens?
- What are your best practices for screens for my type of roles?
- How are candidate responses reviewed?
- What employer branding can I put into this process?
- What percent of candidates accept the screen? Does that differ by role or source of candidate?
- What is your candidate NPS?
- Do you have a team that can help me map my current screening to your tool?
- What types of screens do you focus on (skills, tech, psychographic, etc.)?
Implementing Talent Assessment Tools
Tee vast majority of these candidate assessment tools are cloud-based so you won’t have to manage a technical or complicated implementation process. In fact, onboarding can be pretty simple. Focusing on these three things will help you maximize success:
- Connect your ATS so when new people apply they are sent the right assessment
- Create assessments for key roles
- Create messaging for candidates
- Train your recruiting team on how to access and evaluate the assessments
- Create a workflow that pushes passed applicants into the next round of interviews
If you discover during your demo that your implementation might be more complicated, make sure to get a clear picture of what you’ll need from the vendor’s account management team, along with a customer reference call. This means understanding any tech requirements and, depending on the scope of the implementation, electing a project manager to run point, keep the team focused, and communicate updates regularly to key stakeholders.
Pre-Employment Assessment Software FAQs
What is pre-employment assessment?
Pre-employee assessment is the process of evaluating a candidate before hiring through skills tests, behavioral assessments, and video interviews.
What is a pre-employment assessment tool?
A pre-employment assessment tool is a software solution designed to customize, administer, analyze, and report different types of test results to a hiring team to make better hiring decisions.
Why use a pre-employment assessment tool?
Your company can use a pre-employment assessment tool to make more informed hiring decisions that will bring in better candidates. You’ll be able to narrow your candidate pool, make more confident hiring decisions, predict job performance, find better culture fit candidates, and create diverse and higher functioning teams.
What are some benefits of using a pre-employment screening tool?
Benefits of using a pre-employment screening tool include:
- Better productivity
- Unbiased screening process
- More scalable screening
- Faster time to fill roles
- Success for whole organization
What are the different types of pre-employment assessment tools?
There are a few different types of pre-employment assessment tools, such as:
- Video interviews
- Coding assessments
- Skills assessments
- Cognitive screening
- Psychographic screening
What features do pre-employment assessments tools offer?
There are many great features that pre-employment assessment tools offer companies. You will get ATS integration, larger talent pools, AI-powered candidate ranking, detailed insights and reporting, feedback surveys, and bias free screening.
Candidate Assessment Software, Final Advice
Finding candidates with the right skill set who are also good culture fits ultimately leads to more organizational success and less attrition. With a candidate assessment tool, you can be more confident in your screening and hiring efforts and build a higher-performing company.
To find the right assessment tool for your needs, run an audit of your existing screening process to see what data you’re currently getting and/or prioritizing. From there, you can more easily identify which of the solutions here can take this screening work off of your recruiters’ plates and make your overall screening efforts more consistent and more efficient. At the end of the day, you want something that will make your job easier and your company more successful.
From here, it’s probably best to talk to 2-3 vendors about their solution and get a sense for how they would fit into what you are trying to accomplish with your program.
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