Best Pre-Employment Assessment Tools

Pre-employment assessment tests are tools used by many employers to assess candidates’ qualifications and experience who are applying for the job they are hiring for. They help reduce the time it takes to hire new team members.

Selecting the right assessment provider can be a daunting task. Since there are hundreds to select from, we have narrowed the list of providers to 14. These are all tried and true and, depending on your specific needs, can help you efficiently assess candidates so you can make hiring decisions quickly.

The 14 pre-employment assessment tools reviewed in this article include:

1. eSkill

eSkill helps employers utilize pre-employment assessments that assess behavior, personality, skills, and cognitive functioning. Hiring managers and HR pros can select from a large set of options that assess candidates of interest. eSkill’s unique scoring system tells the employer if they are a perfect fit or if a candidate only meets half the criteria required. Its assessments allow employers to quickly identify top candidates, reduce hiring costs, and shorten the time from interview to the employee’s first day. Top-level customer support is also offered throughout the process.

eSkill offers a full service of products and customer support for pre-employment assessment programs.

• Types of assessments offered: Assesses skills, personality, and cognitive abilities.
• Best for: General office staffing, customer service, healthcare, and manufacturing/industrial.
• Pricing: eSkill’s “basic” level of service offers a pay-per-score package that begins at $850, higher subscription levels require calling for a quote.
• Why you will like it: eSkill’s tests are customizable and come with advanced simulations so that you can personalize everything to your business. It’s reliable and has clients worldwide, and some of its larger clients include brands like Pepsi, LG, Zappos, and Randstad.

2. HireSelect by Criteria

HireSelect by Criteria offers a wide variety of assessments for employers to utilize. It is easy to use, and its comprehensive portfolio of assessments is backed by the company’s experience in assessment development for multiple industries.

HireSelect by Criteria approaches assessments with the understanding that not all companies have the same needs and goals. In order to uncover the true potential of the candidate, employers can cultivate specific pre-employment assessments that fit the needs of the role they are hiring for.

HireSelect by Criteria’s Universal Cognitive Aptitude Test (UCAT) has a user friendly interface and provides information that is at your fingertips and easy to understand.

• Types of assessments offered: Skills, cognitive aptitude, emotional intelligence, personality.
• Best for: Office staffing, IT, professionals, technical or IT positions.
• Pricing: Must call for a quote.
• Why you will like it: Criteria’s interface is really nice. It is not only easy to use, but it looks modern and is quite intuitive. It also offers a free trial.

3. VidCruiter

VidCruiter is a strong option if your desire is to measure both hard and soft skill sets. Candidates can get measured on math, language, and technology (hard skills), and judgement, behavioral, communication, etc., (soft skills) through automated assessments. It also has a robust platform for not only interviewing, but for video which allows for even more options for pre-employment assessments.

VidCruiter specializes in general skills assessments and offers an easy user experience for candidates taking the assessment.

• Types of assessments offered: Assesses skills, both hard and soft skill sets.
• Best for: Office staffing, professional.
• Pricing: Must call for a quote.
• Why you will like it: Works for smaller businesses recruiting teams or Fortune 500 companies as well.

4. Harver

Harver is a large assessment specialist that works with some of the larger brands around. It offers a number of different assessment tools—you could think of Harver as your one-stop-shopping for assessments. Employers can select from a wide variety of scientifically proven pre-employment assessments that are easy for employers to set up and customize. Haver specializes in high-volume recruiting—Mcdonald’s is one of its clients.

Harver offers a colorful dashboard with helpful information that quickly allows for employer assessment.

• Types of assessments offered: Skill testing, cognitive aptitude, personality, cultural fit, situational judgment, language proficiency, and others.
• Best for: Most industries. Office, administrative, customer service, management, IT, food service.
• Pricing: Must call for a quote.
• Why you will like it: It works with some of the larger brands around, including McDonald’s, KPMG, Booking.com, and Valvoline. Best for high-volume hiring based on its pricing and program tools for assessment packages.

5. Imocha

Imocha’s pre-employment assessment platform and its tools are designed for larger companies of around 1,000 or more employees. Imocha gears much of its assessment resources toward assessing Next Gen knowledge, coding, and engineering. It also offers a host of quality assessments for pre-employment screening. Many of its assessments are set up in break-away vignettes, meaning that Word and Excel are different assessments—you cannot take a single assessment to assess all general office skills.

Imocha has an easy-to-use interface that is appealing to the eye and intuitive.

• Types of assessments offered: Aptitude, business skills, coding or IT, language fluency, cognitive.
• Best for: Office professionals, coders, IT professionals, digital marketing, customer service.
• Pricing: Starter ($150/per month); Enterprise ($500/per month); Custom (Must call for a quote)
• Why you will like it: The IT and coding assessment platforms are really strong. So if your aim is to hire qualified IT professionals, it is a good bet. Having said that, Imocha ranks high, in general, simply due to its large offering of assessment tools overall.

6. Berke

Berke is a pre-employment assessment that uses data-driven results to help guide employers to their best hire. It offers a streamlined process that makes it easy to navigate within the platform. Berke measures personality traits and problem-solving skills as well as assesses the candidate’s qualifications based on the criteria that you the employer provide.

Berke’s interface is easy to use and does a nice job of putting the right information you need in front of you without a lot of extra noise.

• Types of assessments offered: Skills, personality, aptitude, overall job fit.
• Best for: General assessment tools which is fitting for any industry. Berke is strong in customer service and support assessments.
• Pricing: Must call for a quote.
• Why you will like it: Berke offers customizable, easy to use, and real-time reporting that allows you to quickly and efficiently take action with each candidate. Berke also works with larger organizations including Shell, Netflix, Comcast, and Johnson and Johnson.

7. Quodeit

Quodeit offers assessment tools that specialize in IT in general—if you’re looking for software developers or programmers. If you are recruiting for IT professionals, Quodeit is right for you. It can offer assessments on language aptitude for C, C++, Java, Objective-C, Ruby, Python, C#, PHP, JavaScript, and more.

Quodeit offers a variety of assessments that are IT focused. It also ranks all candidates who have taken your assessment and nicely displays the differences, or the pros and cons, of each candidate.

• Types of assessments offered: Mostly IT skill-based. As noted, it offers language aptitudes, including C, C++, Java, Objective-C, Ruby, Python, C#, PHP, JavaScript, as well as questions that employers want to include in their assessment phase.
• Best for: IT staffing of all kinds, including software engineers, coders, and desktop support technicians.
• Pricing: Must call for a quote.
• Why you will like it: Specializes in IT staffing, which is nice if that is your need. Customer support is helpful and knowledgeable of the world of IT, which really makes a difference when you are looking to hire IT folks quickly and well.

8. HR Avatar

HR Avatar is a wonderful resource option to have your pre-employment assessment needs met quickly and effectively. HR Avatar manages its pre-employment assessments through video vignettes that provide inquiries that candidates respond to.

We have to say that some of these tools are the coolest that we’ve seen, as many assessments are reading about scenarios instead of watching a video clip. It’s nice since it meets the needs of candidates with different learning styles.

With HR Avatar, assessments are conducted via an engaging simulation assessment which is set within a work-related environment.

• Types of assessments offered: Knowledge and skillset, cognitive abilities, personality, emotional intelligence.
• Best for: General or overall assessment for pre-employment needs. Non-technical jobs.
• Pricing: Starting at $45 for one candidate; Must call for special unlimited quotes.
• Why you will like it: Many assessments provide a partial picture of the candidate’s ability, but HR Avatar measures a full range of factors, including cognitive ability, personality factors, knowledge, skills, and past work behaviors which allows a more complete assessment of each candidate.

9. Pymetrics

Pymetrics is an assessment tool that takes a “games” like approach to its assessments. It leverages its own patented group of 12 engaging games to assess cognitive and emotional attributes in under a half-hour. Each game captures thousands of behavioral data points, then builds a profile for employers to view.

Pymetrics offers dashboards that share results from its game-themed assessments, allowing employers to quickly determine if they want to move forward with the candidate.

• Types of assessments offered: Skills, cognitive reasoning.
• Best for: This assessment tool is not really geared toward any industry, however, enterprise roles would benefit from this assessment platform.
• Pricing: Must call for a quote.
• Why you will like it: The gaming theme that Pymetrics created is cool. Candidates enjoy taking these assessments because they tend to be less stodgy than others.

10. TestGorilla

TestGorilla is another comprehensive platform that offers more than 100 assessments based on unique needs of small and large employers alike. TestGorilla allows you to assess candidates for job-specific skills such as coding or digital marketing, but also more general skills like critical thinking. It also offers personality assessments that help uncover the candidates’ true personality style and how they may work with others in the workplace.

Using multiple assessment types, TestGorilla offers a growing assessment library of 100+ assessments which allows employers to both comprehensively and efficiently assess their candidates.

• Types of assessments offered: Customer service, skills, and knowledge, IT (programming and software), cognitive, culture, personality.
• Best for: Coders, digital marketers, IT pros, customer service, general office, managers.
• Pricing: Pricing begins at $22.50/per month which makes it a great choice for a smaller business on a tight budget. It does not have a free version. TestGorilla does though offer a free trial.
• Why you will like it: Its vast library of assessments is impressive and allows for just about any combination of assessment and learning tests on the market today.

11. Rate My Excel

Rate My Excel is on our list simply because when it comes down to it, Excel skills are still one of the most sought after skills by employers. It quickly assesses candidates’ using a fully automated testing platform. Assessment tools include core skills, data analytics (intermediate), accounting and financial modeling (each offered in separate knowledge assessment vignettes).

Put simply, there is no greater assessment out there to determine if your candidate has the Excel skills he says he has than Rate My Excel. It can assess just about any level, entry-level to advanced, of Excel knowledge and quickly ascertain what degree of expertise candidates have with this program.

• Types of assessments offered: All levels and comprehensive Excel assessments.
• Best for: Administrative support, office managers, accounting, and any heavy user of Excel.
• Pricing: Its three primary offerings (“Core Skills Excel Assessment,” “Analytics Excel Assessment,” and “Financial Modeling Excel Assessment”) each are offered at $49 per vignette. For combo pricing or if other tools are offered, you must call for a pricing quote.
• Why you will like it: A hiring manager can remotely test up to 10 candidates by email invite. Scoring is instant and includes a custom score report comparing candidates and attached workbooks with samples of their work.

12. EmployTest

EmployTest offers 100+ pre-employment job assessments, based on employers’ job descriptions that are best for entry-level to mid-level roles. It offers the largest selection of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) compliant set of assessments, including behavioral, cognitive, and knowledge and skills assessments. EmployTest works with thousands of employers both large and small and can offer a comprehensive set of assessments for any role in just about any industry.

We like EmployTest’s scorecard as it shares a lot of information on one easy-to-read screen. You can see how the candidate ranks against others, what was assessed, and all relevant downloads for the subject assessment.

• Types of assessments offered: Reliability, teamwork, administrative and clerical, math, grammar/spelling.
• Best for: Office personnel, managers, and people working within teams. No industry-specific recommendation.
• Pricing: Must call for a quote, however its “per test” pricing (for low volumes) or annual unlimited plans (for high volumes) makes it easy for your company to start a pre-employment test plan.
• Why you will like it: To begin with, many employers use EmployTest—in fact, it administers thousands of tests monthly for 6,000+ customers. It has the largest pool of assessments that the EEOC rates as compliant with the Department of Labor’s rules and expectations for pre-employment assessments. It works with large clients including Lowe’s, Farmers Insurance, Keeler Williams, and so on.

13. Plum

Plum not only promotes strong assessments for candidates, but its program helps employers build a more diverse workforce. In fact, Plum’s mission is to help employers utilize the power of AI to help them grow and retain their top talent. Plum touts brief and efficient assessments that help employers make forward progress in their hiring process in less time.

Aside from having one of the more modern layouts, Plum offers an extremely easy and intuitive interface, which allows employers to move through brief assessment results quickly and effectively.

• Types of assessments offered: Skills and knowledge, personality, cognitive, aptitude, as well as adaptation, judgment, and ability to work on complex projects.
• Best for: Plum is for any employer who needs a scalable hiring solution with the intent to grow rapidly. Additionally, if you have a serious intent to build a diverse workforce, then Plum is one of your best options.
• Pricing: Must call for a quote. Free trial is offered.
• Why you will like it: Aside from having a sleek look, it is easy to use and the results from the assessments are quick and can be digested in half the time it takes to review other assessment results from other platforms.

14. Codility

Codility offers specific assessments for employers hiring for coders, computer engineers and general IT professionals. It promotes its speedy hiring process and the ability to help employers construct diverse teams while finding the most experienced computer engineers and coders on the market.

Codility can get a little technical, however, that’s what you want from it. In order to grab the most qualified IT pros out there, namely engineers and coders, these assessments have to get in the weeds with IT jargon and brass tacks.

• Types of assessments offered: Mostly IT-related assessments, including Codility’s “CodeCheck,” program which allows employers to develop their own assessments, in part, on just about any popular technical domain.
• Best for: Most IT positions, particularly computer engineers, coders, and IT managers.
• Pricing: Must call for a quote. No free plans available.
• Why you will like it: If you are hiring for technical professionals, this should make your shortlist, at least. It is a creative-looking platform, and the information, although detailed, is well organized and easy to access.

Bottom Line

To be sure, this is NOT a comprehensive list (and we do not think one exists). There are countless employment-related assessment providers out there, as it is a multi-billion dollar industry. Our list is designed to help you narrow the field so you can select one that will meet your needs and help you hire more quickly, efficiently, and effectively.

If you want to learn about the methods that you can use to screen candidates, then read our article on ways to do applicant screening.