When it comes to analysing how candidates operate (their soft skills), 60% of recruiters use recruitment tests in companies with more than 1,000 people (compared to 44% in smaller companies). 

And if we follow the facts, it would seem that they are doing so with good reason…

A study published by the Harvard Business Review found that the use of recruitment tests increased recruitment process efficiency by 15%. 

Thanks to recruitment tests, recruiters can now assess their candidates’ personality, motivations and cognitive abilities. This is a whole set of criteria which we know today is strongly linked to their subsequent success in their new role.

Why use recruitment tests?

Thanks to recruitment tests, recruiters have a more efficient and effective way of sorting applications. For example, they can preselect the candidates who best match certain criteria such as leadership, creativity, empathy or even organisational skills. 

Recruitment tests also make it possible to collect highly structured data concerning individuals’ soft-skills. They are therefore part of a “Data Driven” recruitment process. This approach guarantees a much higher level of objectivity in recruitment as opposed to a recruitment process that relies only on human intuition or feeling.

As a result, recruitment tests also allow us to reduce cognitive bias that can come up during the recruitment and interview process. 

Some examples of recruitment tests.

Among the most commonly used recruitment tests, we find mainly those focused on aptitudes or cognitive abilities, personality and motivations. 

Aptitude and cognitive tests.

These recruitment tests are intended to allow recruiters to assess their candidates’ abilities to reason fairly and quickly learn new knowledge or new skills. 

Personality tests

This category of recruitment tests is more focused on analysing candidate behaviour. The main purpose is to describe the behaviours that a person is most likely to exhibit once integrated into a company.

Most recruitment personality tests have a series of statements from which the candidate chooses the one that most closely reflects them.

Motivation tests

This most recent family of recruitment tests is dedicated to assessing a person’s driving force and the exploration of their needs. The idea behind motivation tests is therefore to understand the situations that have a positive impact on the candidate’s satisfaction and commitment in the workplace. 

Recruitment tests, regulations and legal obligations.

From the moment you decide to use a recruitment test, you need to keep certain principles and adhere to a set of regulations designed primarily to protect candidates.

  • You must inform the candidate – at the start of the recruitment process – that they will be subject to a recruitment test. You are not legally required to explain precisely “which recruitment test”. However, at AssessFirst, we recommend that you do so. 
  • The candidate can refuse to take the proposed recruitment test and as a recruiter, you have the right to interpret this refusal as you see fit.
  • From the moment the candidate agrees to take the recruitment test, they must submit to the exercise “in good faith”.
  • After passing the test, the candidate is entitled to access the results of the test.
  • Finally, the test results are subject to GDPR legislation regarding their personal data.