Should candidates take an assessment center test?

Today’s recruiters have access to an extensive choice of evaluation methods and tools they can use during recruitment drives, including psychometric tests, interviews, simulation tests, case-study exercises, and so on, all of which are often conducted externally at assessment centers.

Assessment center test days are boot camp-like programs where shortlisted candidates are put through different tests and evaluations, all in a short span of time. However, arranging, hosting, and attending assessment days is expensive and time-consuming for both recruiters and candidates. 

Plus, with much debate about their effectiveness, it’s confusing to decide if they’re worth the hassle.

In this guide, we explain what assessment centers are, how they work, and look at the pros and cons of conducting external evaluations. We also discuss a better and more cost-effective alternative to assessment centers so you can be smart about how you spend your hiring budget.

What is an assessment center?

An assessment center or assessment day is a recruitment event that’s usually run towards the end or as the final stage of the hiring and selection process. They’re most commonly used to hire for graduate, leadership, and board membership roles. 

Assessment centers are high-pressure environments where shortlisted candidates are put through a combination of tests and activities such as psychometric tests, interviews, live exercises, and more.

Most assessment days are in-person events that last from anywhere between half a day to two days. They’re usually conducted at the company’s offices or an external facility or hotel.

The purpose of an assessment center test is to evaluate candidates on several factors including their skills, competencies, traits, and so on, before making a final decision about their suitability for the role and the company. 

What happens in an assessment center?

Companies tailor their assessment days depending on what skills and abilities they want to assess, the availability of space and resources, and their budgets. In most cases, candidates are assessed using combinations of tests. 

Psychometric tests

These are standardized tests that focus on candidates’ personality traits, behavioral attributes, and cognitive abilities, such as critical thinking, logical reasoning, comprehension, numeracy, and so on. 

They’re either paper-based tests or conducted online using computers or laptops at the assessment center. 

In-tray exercises

In this activity, candidates are presented with typical work-related documents, emails, or tasks – in the format of an email inbox. They’re assessed on how they organize, prioritize, and work through these tasks under time constraints. 

Group discussions 

Candidates participate in group discussions about specific topics or scenarios assigned to the group. They’re assessed on their ability to communicate, collaborate, and influence. 

Presentations 

In this task, candidates are asked to prepare and deliver presentations on a particular topic. They’re evaluated on their ability to research, organize, and structure their ideas, and present their topics in a clear and engaging way.  

Simulations and role-play 

Candidates are put in a realistic scenario where they need to interact with assessors who are role-playing as customers or supervisors. Assessors examine candidates’ interpersonal, adaptability, and communication skills. 

Networking 

Candidates are given time to socialize and network with each other, assessors, and company leaders between tasks or at the end of the assessment day. They’re evaluated on their social and interpersonal skills in an informal and unstructured setting. 

How are candidates scored or evaluated on an assessment day?

Psychometric tests and in-tray exercises are easy to score as they usually have fixed right or wrong answers and a clear set of desired scores. Paper-based tests are scored manually while computer-based tests are auto-scored using the software used to deliver the test. 

For presentations, interviews, group discussions, and other tests, assessors are usually given a toolkit to use in their evaluations. This could include one or more of the below tools: 

• Assessment criteria describing the skills and abilities required for the role

• Scorecards and rating sheets to use for different exercises 

• Feedback forms to note down observations, take notes, and evaluate candidates on specific points 

At the end of an assessment day, assessors get together to evaluate each candidate based on test results, scorecards, feedback notes, and more, before arriving at a final decision. 

Example assessment center testing day

Assessment center test schedules vary in duration and content based on the company and the role being assessed. Here is an example of a standard assessment day:

• 08:00 - 08:30: Registration and welcome

• 08:30 - 09:30: Verbal and numerical reasoning tests

• 09:45 - 11:00: In-tray exercise

• 11:15 - 12:30: Group discussion

• 12:30 - 13:30: Lunch break

• 13:45 - 14:45: Presentation exercise

• 15:00 - 16:00: Role-play simulation 

• 16:15 - 16:45: Debriefing and closing remarks

• 17:00 - 18:30: Assessor evaluations

Are assessment centers effective?

Assessment centers put candidates through multiple tests with the aim of providing a holistic view of their traits, competencies, cognitive abilities, and behaviors. As such, many companies have found success with using assessment centers, especially when hiring for graduate-level or leadership positions. 

However, there are a few downsides to consider when evaluating whether an assessment center is right for your company. 

Lack of skills-based testing

Assessment days are largely focused on evaluating candidates’ personality traits, behavioral attributes, and other soft skills. They’re less effective for testing candidates’ technical skills and expertise.

Assessment center tests work for entry-level graduate roles because many companies believe that graduates will acquire technical skills and abilities on the job. Similarly, they could be useful for leadership positions where candidates’ technical skills are already well-known from their time in the company. 

However, for all other roles, it’s critical to ensure that you test candidates on their job-specific skills and technical know-how before hiring them. Otherwise, you could end up hiring someone who may be a good communicator but fails to do their job effectively. 

That is why assessment centers may not be the best approach for roles that require skills-based assessments. 

Expensive to run  

Assessment centers can be pretty costly to organize and run. You’ll need to bear the following expenses when conducting an assessment day: 

• Cost to hire a venue for the assessment day 

• Travel reimbursements for candidates

• Fees for external vendors or facilitators who’ll support one or more sessions 

• Cost for food and beverages throughout the day 

• Additional expenses for employer branding, merchandise, etc.

With this in mind, not every company has the budget to run successful assessment centers. And, even the ones that do could potentially find the same success conducting these tests at different stages of the application process, or using online or virtual testing methods, which are all significantly cheaper options.  

Time-consuming and resource-heavy

Assessment days are time-consuming – not just for recruiters, but also for assessors, candidates, and hiring managers. 

It can take months to organize a good assessment center. You’ve got to find the right venue, source qualified assessors and vendors, shortlist the right candidates, choose and build tests, and so much more. It’s heavy on logistics and requires a lot of planning and resources. 

Therefore, it’s worth exploring if you can get the same results using different evaluation methods before you pour your time and resources into assessment centers. 

Potential backfire if conducted incorrectly 

An assessment day has a significant impact on your employer branding. If it’s conducted well and leaves candidates with a positive experience, they’re more likely to accept a job offer. 

On the flip side, issues like a poor choice of venue, ineffective assessors, disorganized activities, and so on, can reflect badly on your company’s culture and working practices. Not only can this lead to candidates rejecting job offers, but you’re also at the risk of them posting negative reviews about your company on social media and websites like Glassdoor. 

This can damage your reputation in the job market and make it challenging to attract future talent. Hence, consider your budget and ability to create a positive candidate experience before putting your employer brand at risk with a poorly run assessment center. 

The better alternative to assessment center testing

Pre-employment testing – and specifically online testing – is an excellent alternative to assessment center tests because it assesses candidates on all the same factors and even more, at a lower cost.

The best way to run pre-employment tests is through platforms like TestGorilla. Let’s look at the reasons why.

Online talent assessments provide a more well-rounded testing approach

TestGorilla uses a multi-measure approach that enables you to roll out numerous different tests to candidates from the same platform. 

Its extensive library offers more than 300 tests – including those found on assessment days and many that aren’t, such as job-specific and technical skills testing. 

• Personality and culture assessments such as Enneagram, DISC, Big Five (OCEAN), and more. These help determine candidates’ core personality types, traits, and characteristics, so you can assess if they’ll mesh well with your company’s culture and people. 

• Cognitive ability tests that focus on problem-solving, decision-making, critical-thinking skills, and more, so you can better understand candidates' thought processes. 

• Situational judgment assessments put candidates in real-world scenarios and assess how they respond. These are similar in format to simulations and role-play exercises.

• Role-specific skills tests that evaluate candidates on the technical skills and expertise required for the role.

• Software skills tests that help examine if candidates are skilled at working with the different software required for the role. 

• Programming skills assessments to test candidates on their theoretical and practical coding and programming abilities. 

• Language tests to verify that candidates have the level of proficiency required for a specific language.  

• Typing tests to check candidates’ typing speed and accuracy. 

Prescreening tests can be rolled out during different stages of the hiring process 

Unlike assessment days which pack many tests into one or two days, online tests can be rolled out easily and conveniently at different times. 

Not only is this less of an intense experience for candidates, but it also makes logical sense to conduct tests that are appropriate to the stage of the process the applicant is at. 

For instance, you can test for role-specific skills, language, numerical reasoning, and so on in the early stages of the hiring process. These are effective ways to screen candidates based on objective and quantifiable data and are much more effective than the resume-interview-assessment day trajectory. 

Meanwhile, situational judgment and culture-add tests can be conducted with a shortlisted group of candidates. 

Pre-employment testing is cheaper and more convenient 

Online tests don’t require the same kind of budget as assessment centers as there’s no need for a venue, facilitators, travel reimbursements, and so on. 

Moreover, candidates can complete these tests from anywhere with an internet connection – making it much more convenient than having to travel for an assessment day. 

Hire successfully and cost-effectively with TestGorilla’s online assessment tests

Many companies conduct assessment center tests toward the end of their hiring process to evaluate candidates’ traits, competencies, and more, before making their final hiring decisions. 

While assessment centers are effective – especially for graduate and leadership roles – they’re time-consuming, resource-heavy, and expensive to run. 

Online pre-employment testing is a better alternative to assessment centers. Platforms like TestGorilla offer a multi-level testing approach. Its tests assess candidates on the same skills and abilities as assessment days, but it also offers skills-based tests that aren’t typically covered in assessment centers. 

That’s not all, TestGorilla’s online tests are significantly cheaper than assessment days and can be conveniently completed by candidates from anywhere, making TestGorilla’s platform the superior choice. 

Check out TestGorilla by signing up for a free plan. You can also take a product tour or request a free 30-minute live demo to explore all that TestGorilla has to offer.