What kinds of screening processes can be used for potential employees beyond an interview?

There are a number of screening processes that can be used for potential employees beyond an interview. As an employer, there are various assessments available to help you hire better people, faster. They can help you to hire more objectively and provide greater transparency for potential employees.

The first important step is to decide what you want to test for. What is important to your company and what is relevant for the job role? Do you need to test skills specific to certain roles, or would personality testing or cognitive ability testing be more applicable? Decide what's important and then consider some of the following options:

Background checks

A background check for a potential employee can be a simple and efficient way to make a good hiring choice. It's one part of determining the suitability of a potential employee and is important as a way of protecting the company from liabilities. Legalities around background checks include the requirement for written consent from the potential employee, especially because some checks may be seen as discriminatory by the potential employee. Many businesses opt to hire a background screening company or to use a government agency to help ensure the process is carried out efficiently and effectively.

Psychometric testing

Psychometric testing can be used to assess the ability of the potential candidate to work well under certain conditions. As is the case with background checks, employers need to be aware of legal compliance with psychometric testing. Assessment tools need to be well validated and job relevant.

If psychometric assessments are used, make sure they have been designed for the pre-work evaluation phase. For example, although it's a very popular test, the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI) test should not be used for employee selection. Some pre-employment psychometric tests that can be considered include:

• The Caliper Profile
• Gallup StrengthsFinder
• Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire
• The Berke assessment
• Athena Assessment
• Wonscore
• Saberr's assessment to measure cultural fit

Skill specific assessments

Employers can also opt for skill specific assessments relevant to the job position. Codility is a recruiting platform designed specifically to help employers recruit suitable programmers. The Objective Management Group has a sales and marketing assessment tool to help evaluate potential marketing and sales candidates. Test Dome offers programming, aptitude and administrative tests, whilst Skills Arena offers both skill based tests and psychometric tests.

Most of the psychometric and skill specific tests are available as online assessments, making them simple and easy to implement.