Assessment Methods
What Is a Pre-Employment Assessment (And Which Ones Actually Work)
28 January 2025
A pre-employment assessment is any structured test, task, or evaluation used to judge whether a candidate can—or will—do the job before an offer is made.
When chosen correctly, these tools add up to 24% more predictive power to your hiring process (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). Yet most recruiters still rely on CVs and unstructured interviews, which collectively explain only 14% of future performance.
Below, we unpack what a pre-employment assessment really is, which formats actually work, and how to embed them without slowing hiring.
Pre-Employment Assessment: Definition, Purpose and Limits
At its core, a pre-employment assessment is a data point gathered before employment to forecast post-employment behaviour.
Valid assessments reduce adverse impact, speed up shortlisting, and give candidates a realistic preview of the role. Crucially, assessment is not a silver bullet; it must complement a well-designed process that starts with a current job analysis.
According to the CIPD, 68% of UK organisations now use some form of assessment, yet only 42% validate scores against performance metrics.
Without validation, even the most sophisticated test becomes an expensive lottery ticket.
Which Pre-Employment Assessment Formats Predict Performance?
A landmark meta-analysis of 85 years of hiring data ranks assessment methods by validity:
- Work-sample tests (ρ = .54)
- Cognitive-ability tests (ρ = .51)
- Structured interviews (ρ = .51)
- Job-knowledge tests (ρ = .48)
- Integrity tests (ρ = .41)
- Situational-judgement tests (ρ = .38)
- Personality (conscientiousness) (ρ = .31)
- Years of experience (ρ = .18)
- Education level (ρ = .10)
Source: Schmidt & Hunter (1998), updated by Roth et al. (2022).
Notice that experience and education—the staples of a traditional CV—sit at the bottom. Modern recruiters therefore combine high-validity formats: a cognitive screener, a job-specific work sample, and a values-aligned situational-judgement test.
How to Choose the Right Pre-Employment Assessment for Your Role
Follow a five-step filter:
- Start with critical incidents. List the top five situations in which a new hire must excel.
- Map required competencies. Divide them into can do (skills/knowledge) and will do (motivation/culture).
- Match assessment type. Use the validity table above to pick the lowest-cost, highest-validity method for each competency.
- Check adverse-impact statistics. Run a pilot with 50–100 incumbents to ensure pass rates do not differ by more than 20% across gender or ethnicity.
- Integrate with ATS. Single sign-on and auto-scoring raise completion rates by 30%.
Remember: a pre-employment assessment is only as good as its instructions. Brief hiring managers on score interpretation and never use a cut-score in isolation.
Common Pitfalls When Using Pre-Employment Assessments
Over-testing
Stacking five assessments in series can slash completion to 35%. Use one multi-trait test instead.
Ignoring candidate experience
60% of applicants who rate assessment as unfair will withdraw and post negative reviews (IBM Smarter Workforce, 2021).
No feedback
A two-line automated email with a score snapshot increases Net Promoter Score by 18 points (SHRM, 2020).
One-size-fits-all
Graduate schemes and senior hires need different complexity levels; adjust branching algorithms accordingly.
Implementing Pre-Employment Assessments: A Quick-Start Checklist
Week 1: Define role-critical competencies and pilot a 30-minute pre-employment assessment battery (cognitive + situational-judgement).
Week 2: Collect performance data from recent hires to set a defendable cut-score.
Week 3: Train recruiters on score use and legal compliance (Equality Act 2010).
Week 4: Launch publicly, monitor drop-off, A/B test invitation copy, and iterate monthly.
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