Determining the ideal stage to introduce an assessment depends on your organization’s specific goals and participant volume. While there is no single right answer, most organizations utilize one of two primary strategies.
Option 1: Between the Screening Interview and Final Interview (Recommended)
This is the most frequent placement, occurring in 80% to 90% of hiring processes. It is generally the recommended approach for most standard hiring needs.
The Benefits:
- Enhanced Participant Engagement: During the initial screening call, the recruiter can cue up the assessment by explaining why the organization uses it and encouraging the participant to complete it. This makes the assessment feel like a natural progression in the process rather than a barrier.
- Strategic Interview Preparation: Because the assessment is completed before the final interview, the hiring manager and recruiting team have time to review the results. This allows them to use the data to identify specific areas to probe or develop targeted questions for the final interview.
Option 2: Immediately Following the Application
This strategy is typically used under very specific circumstances, primarily when an organization is dealing with very large participant volumes.
Key Considerations:
- Efficiency Gains: Placing the assessment at the start of the process helps to automatically reduce the applicant pool, saving the recruiting team significant time and effort that would otherwise be spent screening every applicant manually.
- The Trade-off (Applicant Dropout): Introducing an assessment this early inevitably leads some applicants to drop out of the process, even when the organization provides excellent communication.
- Strategic Reduction: Organizations that choose this route accept a smaller applicant pool, consisting of those who performed well and those who were committed enough to finish, in exchange for increased recruiting efficiency.
Which should you choose?
- Choose Option 1 if you want to provide an enhanced participant experience and use data to conduct more in-depth final interviews.
- Choose Option 2 if your primary goal is efficiency and managing an overwhelming volume of applicants, and you are comfortable with some applicant dropout.
Our Success team at support@highmatch.com will be happy to answer any additional questions that you may have about where to place an assessment in your hiring process.