The shortage of tech talent is a global problem and the best candidates are hired within 10 days. But as companies look for the elusive tech talent, many recruiters are struggling to identify the talent in the first place.
Placing ads on job boards and social media platforms is a good way to announce a job opening. Add to that a detailed job description and put in place an engaging hiring process and your employer brand might attract some talent.
But the real question is, can you identify the right talent when you see them?
Using Candidate Assessment Tests for Hiring
Up to 80% of employee turnover is a result of bad hiring decisions. Forward-thinking talent acquisition specialists are avoiding this outcome by bundling together several skills tests to get the full picture of candidates’ abilities.
Whereas skills tests are individual tests that check for specific abilities e.g. penetration testing skills, candidate assessment tests are comprehensive tests comprising several skills tests. They’re designed to measure attributes like a candidate’s ability to perform role-specific tasks, work in teams and solve problems.
Here are the most important skills tests you should include in your assessment when sourcing tech talent in Singapore:
A. Personality test – personality tests are used to determine whether a candidate would fit and thrive in a company’s culture. Testing behavioural patterns, decision making as well as drive, results from these tests can even predict a candidate’s ability to lead a team.
B. Cognitive ability test – this test focuses on a candidate’s mental prowess in areas like reasoning and problem-solving. It measures the capacity to deal with challenging mental processes like critical thinking, numerical reasoning and spatial reasoning.
C. Situational judgment test – this test paints a picture of a situation loaded with risks, ethical issues and other factors then asks how the situation should be best handled. Candidates are rated on their ability to deal with issues like conflict management and cultural awareness.
D. Role-specific skills test – this is usually a technical test that measures a candidate’s ability to perform on the job. Measuring a candidate’s level of expertise, the test might include testing on programming languages, database design, cloud deployment etc.
E. Software skills test – employers can also test for proficiency in using the tools they use. Results will show how quickly a hire can start contributing to the business goals. Tests can focus on specific DevOps toolchains, popular productivity suites and cloud solutions.
[Curious to learn more about skills that tech employers are looking for? Read: IT Projects to Help Boost Your Tech Career in Singapore]
How to Use Candidate Assessment Tests for Tech Recruitment in Singapore
Although embracing new solutions can be challenging, adapting to the use of candidate assessment tests will benefit companies. Here are some reasons why you should use these tests to screen tech talent.
A. Reliable and objective – it’s a known fact that candidates lie in resumes. A survey by Blind found that SAP, Amazon and Cisco are among top tech companies with employees who lied in their CVs. Since tests reveal a candidate’s real abilities, they can be trusted to guarantee the right hire.
B. Enhance the candidate experience – since candidate assessment tests provide an interactive and engaging experience, candidates will see your company as an innovative and fun place to work.
C. Cheaper than the traditional hiring process – SHRM found that the average cost per hire is $4,425 and the average time to fill is 36 days. With candidate assessment tests automatically pre-qualifying candidates, the hiring process is shortened and hiring costs slashed.
D. Reduce employee turnover – using personality and culture fit tests, you can significantly reduce employee turnover. Identifying and hiring candidates who will love working with you means they stay with you longer, automatically improving retention.
E. Increased profits – a study into the relationship between successful recruiting and business growth revealed that hiring the right talent leads to 3.5 times more revenue. Companies who hire the right talent register double profits compared to those which don’t.
How to Use Candidate Assessment Tests for Tech Recruitment in Singapore
Before putting together some tests and publishing them, remember that assessing tech talent is part of strategic hiring. For that reason, selecting tests should not be done randomly but purposefully. To get the most out of your candidate assessment tests, just follow this simple 3-step process:
1. Identify Your Company’s Tech Talent Needs
The first step in designing an effective assessment test is to determine the tech talent needs of your organization. For example, you might be a web development company utilizing WordPress themes and page builders. After considering the dynamics of web design, you might realize that you need a developer with CSS skills.
When you identify tech talent gaps in your company, you’re better placed to create tests that can filter out candidates who can’t fill them.
2. Create Your Candidate Assessment Test
To create your assessment test, start by choosing the right tool. Top considerations include checking whether the tool is scientifically validated, can integrate with your ATS system, allows customized tests and provides a great candidate experience. Some of the best platforms for assessing tech talent are Cloud Academy, HackerEarth and DevSkiller.
Candidate assessment tools can recommend tests based on job function. They also allow you to create a test from their inbuilt skills test library. Choose tests that will evaluate candidates on their technical skills as well as their ability to help achieve your overall business goals. Once you’re done, include the link to your test in the job description of your job ad or email it to all job applicants.
3. Evaluate and Re-Use Your Candidate Assessment Tests
Candidate assessment tests are not use-once-throw-away tools; they are investments that can be used multiple times for various purposes. One way to re-use them is by evaluating their effectiveness and making improvements instead of creating new tests every time you’re hiring.
You can also use the assessment results to create a suitable learning and development plan for your new hire. Your employees become more productive, ensuring business growth.
“Nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not on strategies.”
- Lawrence Bossidy (Former General Electric Credit Corporation COO)
5 Limitations of Using Candidate Assessment Tests
As great as these tests are, they have some shortcomings. Keeping these limitations in mind will help you identify and cover for blind spots. Here are five limitations to take into account when assessing tech talent using tests.
1. They Don’t Measure the Ability and Willingness to Learn
Tests can pre-qualify candidates with the best skills but how sure are you that the candidates will adapt to future changes in the workplace? Testing only for current skills might leave you with tech talent that struggles later on.
Since testing for willingness to learn can be difficult, your best bet could be to partner with one of the top technology recruitment companies in Singapore. At BGC Group, we’re well acquainted with our tech talent and know the ones that will fit different companies best.
2. Tests Can Be Discriminatory
Singapore laws protect candidates from unfair hiring practices and if tests discriminate against a candidate, the result could be a lawsuit. TAFEP has dealt with many cases of unfair hiring practices in Singapore. When employers are found to be culpable, they face fines and suspension of work pass privileges.
Common sources of discrimination are job ads that foster hiring biases on the basis of age, religion, gender or disabilities. Personality tests can also cause problems when they seem to assess mental health instead of temperaments and psychological preferences.
3. Tests May Not Filter Lying Candidates
Technical tests like programming skills tests may be hard to fake but a test on a candidate’s interpersonal skills can definitely be faked.
For example, anti-social candidates can easily say that they are outgoing and love working in teams. If hired, they can successfully practise their fake personality for a while before being discovered.
4. Tests Don’t Factor in Different Candidate Backgrounds
Given diverse candidate backgrounds, questions may be interpreted differently, leading to “wrong” answers. During these times of hiring remote teams, this can cause major recruitment challenges.
For example, when testing for integrity, an employer could ask about morals. One candidate might interpret morals as “treating others as you would like to be treated” while another may interpret it purely from a religious perspective. With automated processing and analysis of answers, the system could disqualify the candidate who is actually the best fit.
5. Tests Can Disqualify Unique Talent
Tech talents have a lot in common. They love open spaces, a fun work environment and open-door policies. Still, there are unique abilities that each individual candidate has and these may not be evident from tests alone.
When companies over-emphasize testing for technical skills, they do so at the expense of building diverse teams. Although technical skills directly affect productivity and business success, diverse teams are often the ones producing innovation. Diverse teams have also been shown to produce 60% better results.
The Best Way to Recruit IT Tech Talent in Singapore
For IT recruitment in Singapore, conducting a candidate assessment is a must. For most recruiters though, the costs involved as well as the expertise required to create tests and identify individual uniqueness in candidates pose a challenge.
With most multinationals in Singapore depending on recruitment companies for their tech hires, the best thing to do is to partner with one specializing in recruiting tech talent. As a top tech recruitment agency in Singapore, we’ve got a knack for hiring the right talent. We have a curated database of talents that we can quickly engage to significantly shorten your time-to-hire.
Talk to us today and see why our WECARE™ HR outsourcing solutions make our clients happy.
Read More:
How to Hire High-Demand Tech Talent in Singapore
The Nine Enneagram Types in the Singaporean Workplace
How to: Interview Tech and Cyber Security Candidates in Singapore