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Candidate-Centric and Cost-Effective: Walmart's Strategic Move to Talkpush for Technical Aptitude Tests

October 31, 2023
5 min read
Having closely worked with Walmart on this transformative project, I'm thrilled to share our collaborative journey. We embarked on a mission to enhance Walmart's recruitment process, focusin...
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      Nikky Enemchukwu
      Nikky Enemchukwu
      Recruitment Automation Expert at Talkpush

      12 Great Volume Hiring Assessment Tools in 2023

      Ready to level up your recruitment?
      Let’s jump on a call and explore how Talkpush can help your team.

      Automated Assessments are Booming.

      We Keep You Up-To-Date on the Latest 

      blog image Resumes are a notoriously unreliable way to determine job skills. Candidates regularly under-report or over-report their own competencies and are deeply biased when self-evaluating their skills and competencies. A better alternative is automated assessments, which can evaluate skill level and potential without bias. This space has boomed in recent years, and whatever skillset you are looking for, there is an assessment out there for you.  

       

      ⚠️ Some important factors to consider when selecting the right assessment platform include:

      • Which stage of the recruitment funnel do you want to use it
      • Its ease of use and,
      • Delivery speed of the assessment platform

      Indeed, data shows that an overly complex and long assessment at the front of the funnel - before a live interaction with a recruiter - can frustrate a huge part of your talent pool, resulting in a high drop-off rate, as high as 90% at times.  In such instances, employers would need to increase their advertising spend to meet their hiring quotas, which can rapidly drive up the cost per hire.  

       

       


      Table of Contents

      Types of Assessments Used in Volume Hiring

      Below are some of the most commonly used assessments in high-volume hiring: 

       

      Skills Tests: These tests were initially used for basic skills such as typing efficiency, Mathematics, and MS Office/Google Suites proficiency, but have expanded considerably in recent years, to deliver real-world job simulations in hundreds of domains.  

       

      Language Tests: These can be voice or written tests - and are available in many languages. A lot of that technology has been developed by the educational sector.  

       

      Job Knowledge Tests: Designed to confirm the technical knowledge or professional expertise a candidate already has. This is especially relevant for jobs that require domain expertise such as accounting or medicine.

       

      Aptitude Tests: Highlights the candidate’s reasoning skills and ability to react to job simulations. This reveals behaviors on problem-solving, prioritization, and the ability to apply technical knowledge among many other things. 

       

      Personality / Psychometric Tests: Gives you a sense of the candidate’s preferences and ability to fit the company culture and role. The better fit they are, the more likely that the candidate would remain in the company.

       

      System Diagnostics Tests: Ensures that candidates applying for work-from-home positions meet the minimum system requirements such as internet speed and system specs. They follow a simple pass or fail for each IT component that needs to be measured.

       

      12 Great Volume Hiring Assessment Tools in 2023

      These are just a few of the hundreds of automated candidate assessment solutions in the market, which we have come across in high volume recruitment environments. These vendors are not always competing for the same markets and usage, and are often used in combination with one another to services different needs at different stages of the candidate journey.      

       

       

      Name

       

      Type of assessment

       

      Key features
       Candidate Experience
      (the more ⭐ the better) 
      Total Cost of Rollout and Usage  
      (the less 💲 the better)

       

      Emmersion
      Language Multilingual capabilities + adaptative testing ⭐⭐ 💲💲

       

      Verint

       

      Language
      Live phone interview + AI Automated Scoring ⭐⭐ 💲💲💲💲

       

      Harver

       

      Cognitive and learning ability, Behavioral and Job fit

       

      Online assessments, live chat support simulation, work-from-home system diagnostics

       

      ⭐⭐

      💲💲💲
      Traitify

      Personality

      90-second Assessment ⭐⭐⭐ 💲💲💲💲
      Sova
      Situational Judgement
      Personality and Cognitive Ability
      Online assessments with Video interviews and Virtual Assessment centres 💲💲💲

       

      Versant
       Language  
      Live phone interview w/
      AI Automated Scoring
      💲💲💲💲
      Vervoe Skills and Aptitude
      Assessment Builder,
      Automated scoring
      ⭐⭐ 💲💲

       

       

      TestGorilla
       
      Language Skills
      Job knowledge
       
      Built-in cheat protection,
      Custom questions,
      Customizable interface,
      One-way interview
      ⭐⭐⭐ 💲

       

      TestDome
      Language
      Copy and Paste protection
      Online proctoring,
      Automates scoring
      Bulk notification
      ⭐⭐ 💲💲💲
      SHL's Aspiring Mind SVAR
      Language  Automated proctoring ⭐⭐⭐ 💲💲

       

       

      HR Avatar
      Aptitude, Language, Personality Animated Assessments, Remote proctoring, Video interviews, Automated Reference Check ⭐⭐ 💲💲💲
      TalkScore Language
      Administered via Messenger, WhatsApp, and landing page,
      Automated scoring, requires less than 2 minutes of audio or video
      ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 💲

       

       

      Emmersion

      Emmersion is an AI-powered language assessment platform that focuses on providing fast, accurate, and affordable language proficiency screening. It offers two products, both of which can adapt to the candidate’s language level and provide instant feedback to the candidate and the recruiter. Note that Emmersion was acquired by learning technology leader IXL Learning in 2022. 

      Watch this Demo from the Recruitment Hackers Podcast 👇

       

      Their adaptive assessment evaluates the candidate’s reading, grammar, and vocabulary skills so if a candidate answers a question correctly, they move on to a more difficult question. If they answer incorrectly, then they proceed to an easier question. Since there is no time limit on the assessment, it reduces the testing time to approximately 20 minutes and diminishes the boredom and frustration that candidates may feel when items are too easy or too difficult.

       

      Emmersion is famous for its TrueNorth assessment, an automated speaking assessment with immediate score delivery which measures how efficiently candidates process language information. The first part of the assessment is elicited imitation (a fancy way of saying listen and repeat!) which then determines the difficulty level for the second part which collects spontaneous responses. Candidates are given 30 seconds to read and prepare, and another 60 seconds to respond per question for this part. 

       

      Note: Talkpush is integrated with Emmersion and can offer you a special partner rate.  

       

       

      Verint Intelligent Interviewing (formerly known as HireIQ) 

      Verint is a hiring optimization tool that now examines candidate proficiency and system equipment, using rich media web and vocal response technologies. It comes with a phone screening functionality that can capture audio responses and automatically analyze them for key characteristics using Audiolytics. This allows for language IQ evaluation and is especially useful for recruiters that need to assess the candidate’s language proficiency, fluency, and active listening skills (Hey BPO companies, we’re waving at you!).

       

      It can also conduct system diagnostics that determine how fast and stable your candidate’s internet really is. 

       

       

      Versant

      Versant is an advanced AI engine that utilizes auto-marking technology to provide automated language testing. It is owned by educational leader Pearsons and was one of the pioneers in language assessments, delivering millions of assessments even before broadband internet allowed candidates to complete these remotely. This means its tests are designed to evaluate the reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills, and provide the recruiter with instant results. However, instead of conversing with a human, Versant utilizes an AI facilitator to evaluate the candidate in real-time and flag any suspicious behavior. This makes it another popular option in call centers as well, and with call center clients, who often mandate the use of Versant as a quality check on the hiring team.  

       

      The cost per assessment is quite high, making it very expensive to use at the front of the funnel.  

       

       

      Harver

      Harver is a comprehensive platform that assesses a candidate's behavioral, cognitive, soft skills, and job knowledge skills. Harver’s assessment tests typically take 15-30 minutes to complete and match candidates to suitable job roles while measuring a broad spectrum of their cognitive abilities to gain a data-driven understanding of their learned knowledge, ability to apply knowledge in different situations, and general speed and accuracy. Candidates can be tested for job-specific capabilities and language proficiency. Also, with automated scoring, automated questionnaires, and other competency-based tools, you can assess candidates efficiently

       

      Harver uses a lot of third-party APIs to calculate its scores. They typically only work with enterprise companies that can guarantee a high volume of transactions. It was acquired by PE firm Rubicon Technology Partners in 2021. 

       

       

      Traitify by Paradox

      Traitify is a visually engaging and customizable personality assessment tool that claims to be the world’s fastest talent assessment. Each assessment contains a series of pictures in which candidates are asked whether or not they can identify themselves as having that kind of trait. After only 90 seconds, the candidates are assigned a personality based on openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability. These personalities are explained in terms of their strengths, weaknesses, and ideal work settings both to the candidate and recruiter; and then matched with the relevant traits needed for the job opening. You can try the assessment for free through this link.

      Watch this Traitify demo from the Recruitment Hackers Podcast 👇

       

       

      Traitify was acquired by Paradox in 2021, which may affect its unitary cost. 

       

       

      Sova

      Sova offers personalised assessment solutions that are tailored around the requirements of each recruiter and the job role.  The platform boasts an extensive test library of flexible, scientifically robust assessment content from which recruiters can choose to measure what matters most for the role and organisation.

       

      Sova assesses candidates on an interactive homepage where they can be assessed on their situational judgment, their personality, and their cognitive ability. This hub also functions as a communications platform where candidates can access different activities such as watching a welcome video and assessors can score the candidates and leave their feedback.

       

      With Sova, recruiters can easily customize the look and feel of their tests and include images, videos, audio, and other multimedia elements. They can also choose from a variety of question types, including multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, and essay questions. Additionally, users can add custom scoring, feedback, and other features to tailor the tests to their specific needs.

       

       

      Vervoe

      Vervoe is an AI solution-oriented assessment vendor that provides realistic and role-specific tests. It lets you create unique assessments tailored to each position in a matter of minutes through the Assessment Builder. You just have to select from their library of over 300 validated assessments and customize the questions based on the relevant skills for the position. This can be done by typing in the job title which will prompt a list of relevant questions from their bank of over 300,000. They offer a diverse selection of question types such as videos, presentations, and live spreadsheets.  You will also be given tools to help train an AI to automatically grade candidates based on what you value. The system will generate a few responses and you will provide a grade from 1-10 so that it would understand what good and bad answers would look like to you. Once candidates have been graded, they are ranked and top performers are highlighted. 

       

      Watch this Vervoe demo

       

      Vervoe has integrated and partnered with Talkpush, so feel free to reach out to Talkpush for a preferred partner discount.  

       

       

      TestGorilla

      Test Gorilla conducts hundreds of pre-employment tests and is known for its cost-effective pricing scheme and easy-to-navigate interface. This tool has a wide range of assessments from cognitive ability, software skills, personality, language, and culture fit tests which can all be found in its large test library. While this platform is mainly self-service, you can customize the interface to include your brand colors and logo, create custom questions, and conduct one-way interviews by asking candidates to submit video answers. It also has built-in cheat prevention to ensure the integrity of the test results. 

       

       

      TestDome

      TestDome is an online enterprise-ready skills assessment platform that tests candidates with real-world questions and work samples. They have 50+ ready-to-use assessments and 1000+ premium questions that you can choose from and add to your custom questions to create a unique assessment. The tests usually last less than an hour and allow candidates to use online resources during the assessment. However, the platform has built-in copy-and-paste protection and guarantees that there are no available answers to their premium questions online, forcing candidates to synthesize information. They also offer online proctoring via webcam and safety checks that prevent candidates from retaking the assessment. TestDome can automatically score and sort candidates on whether they passed or failed.

       

       

      SHL's SVAR (ex-Aspiring Minds)

      SHL offers SVAR, a cloud-based assessment platform that uses psychometric tests and data-driven insights to help streamline talent in every major industry. It offers a wide selection of tests including cognitive ability, personality, and job simulation that can be answered on your mobile device.

      Watch this SHL demo from the Recruitment Hackers Podcast 👇


      This can range from coding tests to SVAR evaluations, a popular test for call centers in need of fluent English-speaking agents. It helps identify unique attributes such as intonation, listening skills, pronunciation, etc. Another cool feature SHL has is automated remote proctoring that leverages webcams, browser controls, keystroke analytics, facial recognition, and more. This ensures that candidates rely on their head knowledge when taking the assessment.

       

       

      HR Avatar

      HR Avatar is an online all-in-one pre-employment testing tool that immerses candidates in work-related scenarios. They have an assessment catalog of over 200 animated test templates for various positions that are available in 7 languages. Once you select your assessment, it then evaluates the candidate’s skills, aptitude, and personality; and has the option to conduct remote proctoring. You can also set an automated reference check to automatically send out a five-minute survey for the candidate’s previous supervisors and coworkers. This lets you do a background check into their past work behaviors and patterns. HR Avatar supports video interviews on the platform. The results include a text transcription, a playback, and a voice analysis that rates how the candidate’s voice is perceived by others.  

       

       

      TalkScore by Talkpush

      TalkScore is the first English voice pre-screening tool that can score candidates with just a brief interaction over messaging (available on Messenger + WhatsApp). With TalkScore, you can screen candidates for English proficiency in less than 2 minutes, enabling the platform to deliver the highest completion rate (the % of candidates invited to the assessment who finish it) in the industry. An easy-to-use platform, TalkScore asks candidates open-ended questions via their preferred communication channel and generates an automated CEFR score after capturing their answers to determine their English level based on proficiency parameters including fluency, grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary.

       

      Results are immediately generated and sent over to users. TalkScore reduces the time needed to identify candidates who are fluent English speakers from 30 minutes to less than 5 minutes.

      You can learn more about TalkScore here

       

      Benefits of an Integrated Assessment 

      Creating a seamless process, from the very first click on a job ad to the first day on the job may seem like a daunting task, but it pays off in the end. In volume hiring, and in general, speed is of the essence. Connecting all your steps, from prescreening to assessments, and then interviews and finally onboarding is crucial for candidates to have a positive experience, and for recruiters and hiring managers to be able to make decisions faster — and send that offer letter before anyone else does. 

       

      See how Concentrix automated 100,000 annual hires end-to-end. 

       

      Faster response time

      Top of the list is speed because the longer it takes to process a candidate, the higher the chances of your best candidates being seized by other hiring companies; AND because the longer they don’t hear back from you, the more likely the candidate would lose interest and abandon their application. Hence, it is crucial that candidates hear back from us ASAP. Thankfully, Talkpush has got this covered through automated candidate engagement via Conversational AI. Engage with candidates throughout the recruitment process and even on their preferred channels like WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, etc.

      Respond to inquiries in real-time, notifying them of what to expect for the next step of their application which improves the candidate experience. 

       

      Less manual work 

      If your assessment tool requires a unique link or credentials to be created for each candidate, you wouldn’t have to manually generate one, then send it to your candidates each time. Instead, you can simply move the candidate to the Shortlisted folder on Talkpush (or you can create an Autoflow action to do this for you!) and it would automatically generate the link or the unique credentials to be used by each candidate. Once that’s created, a message will be automatically sent out to the candidate containing those details. From there, your candidate can seamlessly proceed to take the assessment.

       

      Wanna be an automation wizard? Check out Autoflow, Talkpush’s drag-and-drop feature that allows you to design workflows for hassle-free prescreening. 

       

      Centralized platform 

      When it’s a two-way integration with Talkpush and the assessment tool, information can travel back and forth between the two systems. Meaning you wouldn’t have to go to the assessment platform to generate any credentials or to check on the candidate scores, and then back to Talkpush to process the candidate. For some assessment platforms like Vervoe, they create a unique link that automatically shows up on the candidate profile that leads you to the candidate’s answers. This way, you wouldn’t have to constantly switch between the two platforms as everything you would immediately need is reflected on the candidate profile in Talkpush.

       

      Easy filtering & Convenient processing

      Another perk of integrating your assessment is that you can filter candidates according to their scores and process them in bulk. For example, Talkpush allows you to add a data map so your search/filtering results will only show candidates who received a passing score. From there, you can select all of the qualified candidates and move them to the next campaign folder or send them a message all at once, informing them that they will be proceeding to the next step of their application. This way your recruitment team can focus on processing only qualified leads while Talkpush handles the rest.

       

      Curious about what other filtering capacities we’ve got? Read more about it here or you can click here to learn more about processing candidates in bulk.

       

      Best Practices to Adopt in your Recruitment Process

      To make sure qualified candidates complete your assessment, you need to set expectations, make sure it's placed at the right stage in the selection process, and a few reminders don't hurt! 

       

       

      Prescreen candidates first

      When thinking about the candidate experience, the truth is you don’t really want all of your candidates to take the assessment — especially if it’s a long one. A better practice is to leave assessments for candidates who are further along in the process, meaning they meet the basic requirements. With Talkpush, you can filter candidates based on preset criteria by asking a few knock-out questions which typically include the minimum requirements for the role like the candidate’s proximity to the job location or willingness to go onsite. If it is a work-from-home position, you could require the candidate to have their own laptop or internet connection.

       

      Once candidates have met the minimum requirements, you could set up Autoflow to automatically move candidates to the Shortlisted folder which would then trigger the assessment credentials/link. This ensures that candidates receive an application update in a matter of hours or even minutes after prescreening and that they are still engaged when invited to take the assessment.

       

      Do an expectations check 

      Help candidates prep for their assessment, by letting them know what it’s all about beforehand. For example, if the assessment includes video questions, then it’s best to let them know that they’ll need a working camera and mic for some of the questions. Even a simple heads-up on how long the assessment takes is a good way to reassure the candidate that it won’t take up too much of their time or if it does take a lot of time, at least they can prepare for it ahead of time instead of dropping off midpoint because they would need to do something else.

       

      Automate reminders 

      Some candidates tend to delay taking the assessment. It could be that they don’t have the equipment ready or don’t have enough time at the moment to take the test. Sometimes, it could be a matter of mentally preparing themselves as well.  Regardless of the reason, this could kill the momentum and lead the candidate to forget about the test. A good way to address this is to set up automated reminders. Checking in with candidates regarding the next steps through automated messaging is proven to decrease the drop-off rate. Plus, it also allows the candidate to raise any queries or concerns that she may have that are hindering her from taking the assessment.

       

      Candidate Assessment FAQs

      • What are the benefits of having a candidate assessment?

      There are many benefits to adding a candidate assessment to your recruitment process. First, you get to ensure that you are getting quality hires that can get the job done. Second, completed assessments are an indication of whether a candidate is serious about applying for the role as some candidates would lose interest once asked to take a test. Lastly, you get to evaluate candidates based on their ability to perform and not just on their resumes.

       

      • What are the types of assessments that are commonly used?

      It depends on the industry. For BPO companies, there are language assessments that help them gauge the communication and English comprehension skills of the candidates. The retail industry would have situational and role-based skills tests (think typing tests and Microsoft proficiency for administrative roles!). Meanwhile, management positions are more likely to have job knowledge tests as they are expected to achieve a certain level of technical proficiency. However, across industries and various positions, we would be able to see the use of personality tests to determine cultural fit.

      • How can I make sure more candidates complete the assessment?

      Invite candidates to take the assessment while they are still engaged. Prepare them ahead of time by letting them know what to expect and what they need. Send out reminders for those who have not completed their assessments after a few days. Choose an assessment with a user-friendly interface (better if it’s one that can be done on their mobile device as well!) and keep the test as short as possible.

      • Do candidates like taking assessment tests?

      A study conducted by Zety reveals that candidates spend an average of 11 hours a week looking for a new job and that it is easy to get burned out fast. After a few weeks, job descriptions and interviews start to look the same. With that, candidates are quick to engage when given the chance to rise above their resumes and showcase what makes them great. Candidates (especially those with little to no relevant experience) appreciate the opportunity to prove themselves. Even when they aren’t hired, assessment tests offer a break from the repetition of a stale job hunt. 

      • How can I include assessments as a frictionless part of the recruitment process?

      The answer to this is simple - automate it! All of the aforementioned assessment platforms can be readily integrated with whatever HR technology you are currently using. If you didn’t see your assessment provider on the list, don’t panic. So long as your assessment tool has an open API, then it should be no problem. You can reach out to your Customer Success Manager to find a Talkpush solution that best fits your recruitment needs!

       

      Talkpush integrates with all major assessment providers, allowing recruiters to automatically send assessment links, check scores inside Talkpush, and set up triggers that move candidates to the next steps depending on their results. 


      Request a demo to find out how you can optimize your hiring process, for a better and faster candidate experience. 👇

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