Pre-employment screening enables you to take a deeper look into a candidate’s compatibility with your company, going beyond what’s written on their resume. You can assess valuable skills and traits, such as personality, culture add, language, and cognitive ability.
Pre-employment testing also removes potential sources of bias from the hiring process compared with traditional recruitment methods and simplifies the task of identifying the most qualified individual to fill each open position.
This article examines the similarities and differences between TestGorilla and Hogan Assessments, two widely used pre-screening tools, to help you determine which would be most beneficial for your organization.
TestGorilla is a robust pre-employment assessment service. Our straightforward tests can be taken by anyone, and objective scoring helps eliminate any potential bias from your hiring process.
TestGorilla’s extensive test library of 400+ scientifically validated tests lets you design role-specific assessments that reveal critical information about a candidate’s abilities, character traits, and job-skill knowledge, including those for developers.
TestGorilla not only makes your hiring process more effective but can also help you save company resources in the process.
Creating and customizing pre-employment assessments is easy and takes the place of traditional resume screening, which is often time-consuming and may yield only limited insights.
You can brand assessments with your company’s logo and colors, incorporate an intro or outro video for a personal touch, and create one-way video interviews for screening multiple candidates efficiently.
All of these features enhance the candidate’s interaction with your organization and provide a positive experience throughout the hiring process.
Hogan Assessments provides science-based aptitude tests that enable hiring managers to gain reliable insights into a candidate’s personality and cognitive ability.
The tests can be used to determine an applicant’s likelihood of success in a particular job role, identifying top talent and disqualifying those who are inappropriate.
Hogan Assessments analyzes candidates’ assessment data based on millions of real-world workplace performance data points – specifically, an international data set of around 200,000 working adults from 180 countries.
The platform also provides easy-to-grasp scales that let you compare, filter, and identify top performers. This way, companies reduce attrition, as well as enable recruiters to evaluate a candidate’s performance risk before hiring them.
Having access to a varied test library helps you construct quality assessments that are pertinent to your organization’s open role.
TestGorilla’s library houses 400+ tests that have been carefully crafted by subject-matter experts and vetted before going live.
You can quickly and easily create an assessment by selecting tests that are specific to your company’s open position. You can also customize questions, further tailoring the assessment to your needs.
TestGorilla’s library offers tests that gauge a range of skills, such as:
Job-specific skills
Personality
Other technical skills
You can choose different question-and-answer types, like multiple-choice, file upload, or open-text. You also have the ability to create customized coding challenges.
Our websites are localized in 12 different languages for global hiring needs. Also, our test library is continually growing. For example, we recently added a Conducting Interviews test, which tests a candidate’s ability to come up with effective interview questions and – you guessed it – conduct interviews.
See how TestGorilla leads the way in skills assessments. Sign up for our free live demo and discover a better way to evaluate candidates.
Hogan Assessments offers three different types of personality tests that are designed to reveal the “bright side” (how candidates positively interact with peers) and “dark side” (how candidates struggle under pressure) of a candidate’s personality. These personality tests are as follows:
Hogan Personality Inventory
Hogan Development Survey
Hogan Motives, Values, and Preferences Inventory
Additionally, there are two different cognitive tests that help reduce gender, ethnic, and racial bias in the hiring process by objectively highlighting candidates’ cognitive capabilities and identifying individuals capable of making sound decisions and solving complex problems. These tests are:
Hogan Judgment
Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory
There are also numerical and verbal reasoning practice tests, as well as a prep course to familiarize candidates with how the software works – so there are no surprises on assessment day.
Hogan Assessments also offers two general solutions: one for entry-level roles (general employability solution) and another for sales roles (sales basis solution). But there are currently no further job-specific tests available on their website.
TestGorilla | Hogan Assessments | |
Cognitive ability tests | Yes | Yes |
Situational judgment tests | Yes | Yes |
Job-specific tests | Yes | Entry-level and sales roles only |
Software tests | Yes | No |
Programming tests (including coding challenges) | Yes | No |
Language tests | Yes | No |
Personality tests | Yes | Yes |
Culture-add test | Yes | No |
Motivation test | Yes | Yes |
Typing test | Yes | No |
Customizable tests | Yes | Yes |
Common questions (with a variety of question types) | Yes | Unknown |
Job analysis and recommendation | Yes | No |
Any business that creates software or is responsible for the upkeep of internal systems should have highly qualified developers working for them.
You can learn how valuable a prospective developer will be to your team by assessing their coding knowledge.
To help you identify and recruit the top developers, TestGorilla provides more than 140 tests to evaluate programming skills. These include:
Frameworks for app development, such as Flutter and React Native
Customizable coding challenges
Coding languages (see below)
Algorithmic-thinking tests
Game development frameworks, like Unity
Debugging tests
Further, TestGorilla offers companies the ability to deliver coding challenges based on real-world scenarios. Hiring teams can then review a candidate’s responses and problem-solving skills, as well as observe any errors they may have made. Our coding reports include a timeline with a code playback function that helps you see how each candidate performed during a coding challenge. You can, for instance, see when they pasted code or switched between programming languages.
Additionally, our coding tests offer many features that prioritize making your developer candidates’ experiences more enjoyable. Candidates can configure our integrated development environment (IDE) to meet their unique needs – for example, by opting for full screen or selecting the color scheme most familiar to them. And our language-agnostic coding test enables you to select up to 20 languages for candidates to choose from. This way, they can pick the language they most prefer for the test.
While Hogan Assessments can assess personality traits and cognitive abilities associated with developer roles, it doesn’t currently offer any hard skills tests for developers.
TestGorilla | Hogan Assessments | |
Coding languages | JavaScript, Java, Python, PHP, C, C#, C++, SQL, Kotlin, Ruby, TypeScript, Go, R, Scala, React, Swift, Elixir, Dart, Perl, Rust, and Erlang | None |
Web development frameworks | Yes | N/A |
Mobile development frameworks | Yes | N/A |
Debugging challenges | Yes | N/A |
Code-playback function | Yes | N/A |
Automated scoring | Yes | N/A |
Algorithmic-thinking challenges | Yes | N/A |
Language-specific concept challenges | Yes | N/A |
Language-agnostic coding test | Yes | N/A |
Your own custom challenges | Yes | N/A |
Video interviews are great for learning more about candidates, as well as for screening multiple candidates quickly.
Asynchronous video features can save valuable company resources and enable hiring managers to efficiently decide who to invite for an in-person interview.
TestGorilla’s simple one-way video interviews enable candidates to record their responses on any device at a time that suits their schedules.
A candidate’s personality and ability to interact can be better measured through the use of video interview features. These features also provide a welcome change of pace during testing, which helps to improve completion rates.
Your HR team can collect multiple asynchronous video responses and review them collaboratively, sharing their thoughts by rating them and leaving comments.
TestGorilla enables you to add up to 20 custom video questions to any assessment – and assessments that contain just video questions can be used to facilitate one-way interviews. You can also set time limits of 30, 60, or 120 seconds for each video response to keep candidate answers brief and save time. And candidates get three attempts per question.
Lastly, candidates can record and upload videos from any device with internet access, and you can also watch them from any device. With our playback speed control feature, you can watch candidates' responses at your favored speed, which can aid you in giving fair consideration to each response.
At this time, Hogan Assessments doesn’t offer any video interview tools.
TestGorilla | Hogan Assessments | |
One-way video interviews | Yes | No |
Live video interviews | No | No |
Customized video questions | Yes | N/A |
Restrict candidates’ recording attempts per question | Yes | N/A |
Restrict maximum answer length | Yes | N/A |
Recording and playback on any device | Yes | N/A |
Playback speed control | Yes | N/A |
Comment and rate video answers | Yes | N/A |
Candidates who have an enjoyable and positive experience during pre-employment screening are more likely to complete all stages in the hiring process.
A professional atmosphere can be established by using the company’s logo and colors in the assessment or by greeting applicants with a personalized video, both of which will reflect highly on your company.
Check for features like a mobile-friendly interface, helpful customer service, and a fair test length. Applicants will feel more at ease attempting an assessment if these options are available.
TestGorilla makes it easy for candidates to complete assessments. There are no login or account requirements, and test-takers can start assessments at any time using their preferred device. There’s also easy access to comprehensive support and our candidate FAQ section for any questions or troubles candidates might have.
Most tests only take between 10 and 15 minutes from start to finish, while assessments tend to take 30-60 minutes. A reasonable test length means it’s less likely candidates will abandon the process.
TestGorilla also provides qualifying questions you can use to disqualify candidates from the assessment who don’t meet your minimum qualifications. This can save unqualified candidates time.
Assessments can be branded with your company’s logo and colors, and you can incorporate a customized intro or outro video.
TestGorilla provides customizable email templates to inform candidates of their status, including rejection and invitation notifications. Candidates can take tests without registering or creating an account. However, those taking tests in English are asked to create an account if they want to see their results. (Users on paid plans can disable this setting.) This enables you to learn more about them – for instance, if they add their work experience, you can view it! Even if candidates don’t or can’t make accounts, you can opt to share their results with them.
After a candidate submits their assessment, we send them an automatic email confirmation, which can help put them at ease.
Moreover, candidates have access to our comprehensive guides to help them navigate and complete assessments.
Candidates must log in to take assessments with Hogan Assessments. The core Hogan personality assessments take about 15 minutes each. This helps reduce the chances of candidates dropping out.
Hogan Assessments are designed to objectively evaluate candidates based on proven personality traits linked to job performance, helping reduce bias and increase candidates’ confidence in the hiring process. Hogan's assessments are available in over 40 languages, and their global norms are based on data from 200,000 working adults across 180 countries. This ensures a consistent and culturally relevant experience for candidates worldwide. In addition, candidates are notified of their standing throughout the hiring process.
Although Hogan Assessments doesn’t support comprehensive branding options, such as incorporating your company’s logo and colors, it does enable hiring teams to create customizable invitation and rejection emails.
| TestGorilla | Hogan Assessments |
Your company’s intro or outro video | Yes | N/A |
Add logo and colors to assessments | Yes | No |
Customized email invitations and rejections | Yes | Yes |
No login required for candidates | Yes | No |
Mobile friendly | Yes | Yes |
Help and support for candidates | Yes | Unknown |
Typical assessment length | 30-60 minutes | 15 minutes |
Qualifying questions before the assessment | Yes | Unknown |
Your company’s hiring goals will shift as it grows. As a result, you need a flexible pre-employment testing system.
Look for capabilities like ATS integrations, API access, and GDPR compliance in your pre-employment software.
TestGorilla’s services cater to businesses of all sizes, including small startups and large enterprises.
Smaller companies can take advantage of our Free (forever) plan, and scaling businesses can benefit from our paid plans.
Our GDPR compliance, API access, and ATS integrations provide a more seamless hiring system for larger enterprises with greater recruitment volumes. Our invitation options – which include email invites, public links, and bulk invitations for large-scale hiring – can work for businesses of all sizes, including startups looking to expand or larger companies wanting to improve their hiring processes.
In addition to bulk invites, our other bulk actions for managing your candidates include bulk rejections, reminders, and results-sharing.
Also, we now offer a job board where you can post remote job positions for free. If candidates want to apply for your job, they must request that you invite them to take your assessment for the position. This means that you can use the assessment to screen applicants as the very first step of the application process – so you can find candidates with the skills you need right away.
TestGorilla is dedicated to constantly developing new features to support the varying requirements of all customers.
It’s unclear how the platform specifically caters to the needs of different-sized businesses.
However, since the traits measured by Hogan tools are especially important for leadership, these assessments are commonly used for developing leaders at all levels – from middle management to executives. According to the Hogan Assessments FAQ section, the platform works with organizations of all sizes – from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies – across various industries. These include financial services, pharmaceuticals, retail, and consumer goods.
The software is GDPR compliant but doesn’t offer ATS integrations or API access.
TestGorilla | Hogan Assessments | |
ATS integration | Yes | No |
Multiple users and role-based rights management | Yes | Unknown |
GDPR compliant | Yes | Yes |
Multiple candidate invitation options | Yes | Unknown |
Public link to invite candidates | Yes | No |
Public links for each candidate source | Yes | N/A |
Bulk invite candidates (CSV/XLSX upload) | Yes | Unknown |
Track candidate stages from invited to hired | Yes | Unknown |
API access | Yes | No |
Bulk actions to manage candidates | Yes | Unknown |
The reliability and accuracy of test results are vital for making successful recruitment decisions.
Examining a platform’s quality-control procedures is one way to ascertain whether or not it’s dependable and trustworthy.
Look for measures that include formulating science-backed questions, undertaking exhaustive quality checks, and responding to customer and candidate feedback.
Prior to release, each test goes through a rigorous 28-step quality-control procedure. Tests are developed and reviewed by a team of specialists, including psychometricians, peer reviewers, and subject-matter experts.
TestGorilla’s proprietary algorithms work to enhance test quality, and test questions are retired after repeated use to decrease the likelihood of candidates exchanging them.
TestGorilla actively seeks and implements user feedback to ensure that tests continue to be relevant to the industry they serve, as well as evolve with the needs of job-seekers and employers.
Ultimately, you can rest assured that if you’re using TestGorilla as a hiring solution, you’re using a science-backed solution.
Although Hogan Assessments lacks a variety of quality-control features, its three personality tests and two cognitive ability tests are backed by a decade of extensive independent research to ensure validity.
Hogan Assessments' tools are backed by over 40 years of research with millions of participants, which is stored in a large research archive. Their assessments are regularly updated and refined by their research team. Their studies from real-world data claim that Hogan's assessments accurately predict workplace performance and are fair to all applicants, regardless of gender or minority status.
New clients are equipped with all research data, which is also publicly available in the form of technical reports and professional publications.
TestGorilla | Hogan Assessments | |
Proprietary algorithms that continuously improve the quality of each test | Yes | No |
Extensive quality checks before tests go live | Yes | Yes |
Questions replaced after reaching exposure limit | Yes | Unknown |
Customer feedback used to improve tests | Yes | Unknown |
Test-taker feedback used to improve tests | Yes | Unknown |
Pre-employment screening tests must be reliable and secure. Anti-cheating features stop candidates from using your chosen testing system to their benefit or gaining an unfair advantage over others.
TestGorilla uses a combination of IP address tracking and permission-based webcam snapshots to verify that the candidate sitting the test is the correct person.
Our platform also prevents the use of copy and paste while also incorporating full-screen monitoring to detect when a click is made outside the test screen.
All test questions are pulled from a large question bank and chosen at random. This results in candidates being less able to plan or study ahead. Further, to lessen the impact of content leaks, questions are retired after a certain number of uses.
At the time of writing, Hogan Assessments doesn’t have any anti-cheating measures in place but reports that new features are coming soon.
TestGorilla | Hogan Assessments | |
IP address logging (to avoid multiple attempts by the same candidate) | Yes | No |
Logging of candidate location | Yes | No |
Webcam snapshots (with the option to turn on/off) | Yes | No |
Full-screen mode detection (to avoid research during the test) | Yes | No |
Randomized questions per test | Yes | No |
Large question pool for each test | Yes (100+) | No |
Questions and answers not visible to employers to protect test integrity | Yes | No |
Time limit on tests | Yes (typically 10 minutes) | Unknown |
Copy-paste disabled | Yes | No |
Mouse tracking | Yes | No |
Once assessments have been completed, results can be interpreted with the use of reporting and analytics tools.
Keep an eye out for pre-employment testing software that gives you an unobstructed view of all candidates, lets you compare them with one another, and enables your hiring team to add notes and rankings.
TestGorilla’s in-depth reports and analytics evaluate performance and reveal standout candidates. They enable hiring teams to view a candidate’s details, a summary of test results, and individual answers to custom questions.
Applicants can be set against a scoring benchmark, and individual reports can be easily compared with each other. We even offer advanced filters that let you compare candidates using criteria like their overall test scores or answers to your personalized questions. In addition, all candidate results can be viewed in one convenient summary report.
Reports can be downloaded in PDF, XLSX, or CSV format and shared, annotated, and rated for a collaborative hiring effort with your team.
For example, you can download and share candidates’ results in PDF. Our PDF reports are detailed and provide excellent visuals for helping you understand each test-taker. Results for role-specific tests highlight where a candidate’s skills are strong or could be improved, and results for personality tests identify their personality type and sum up more about this type.
You can also use weighted scores to customize how much each individual test affects the overall assessment score. For example, someone hiring a project manager might give more importance to the Project Management test than other tests – so that test will have the most impact on their candidates’ final scores.
Hogan's assessments give you clear, objective data to compare candidates with each other or against a success profile for the role. This helps you find the best candidates and avoid biased hiring decisions.
They also offer detailed candidate reports that you can use for feedback and coaching. These reports highlight a candidate's strengths, areas for improvement, and strategies for success in the role.
Although reports are detailed, they can’t be downloaded and shared. It’s also unclear if the platform lets you add your own notes to individual candidate profiles.
TestGorilla | Hogan Assessments | |
PDF reports of assessments and individual candidates | Yes | No |
Excel and CSV reports of assessments and individual candidates | Yes | No |
Comprehensive overview of all current and past candidates | Yes | Unknown |
Scoring benchmarks for candidates (including percentile rank scoring) | Yes | No |
Add your ratings and personal notes for candidates | Yes | Unknown |
Detailed candidate analytics | Yes | Yes |
The effectiveness of your pre-employment testing software will depend on how well your hiring team can use its features. Team members should have the support and knowledge base available to enable them to create, distribute, and analyze assessments and reports with confidence.
Candidates can also greatly benefit from accessible support throughout the process in the form of instructive blog posts and technical help.
TestGorilla provides support for hiring teams and candidates via live chat, email, and a comprehensive FAQ section containing detailed and helpful articles.
To further assist you in getting started, we provide a free 45-minute live demo, as well as a training and onboarding center where new customers can learn how to use all the features of our software. You can also access our help center, which contains customer and candidate guides. Our blog also contains info you might find useful. For instance, we post articles on how to hire for specific roles, how to use personality tests, and so much more.
Customers and candidates can receive support from the platform’s team via phone, email, and an online knowledge base. Customers can also schedule a training and onboarding session.
There is a help center, but it’s easy to miss because it isn’t directly accessible from the main site. Additionally, it’s visually bare and difficult to navigate.
TestGorilla | Hogan Assessments | |
Live chat | Yes | No |
Help center | Yes | Yes |
Email support | Yes | Yes |
Training and onboarding tour | Yes | Yes |
Phone assistance | No | Yes |
Plans and pricing will vary between providers. Look out for transparent pricing, tiered plans, and scalable options. It’s important to find a subscription package that best suits the hiring requirements of your company.
There are three different pricing tiers with TestGorilla. Plans are determined by the number of full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) at your business. This means that multiple part-time employees whose combined hours equal full-time hours will count as one FTE.
Here’s our first plan:
Free forever at $0: You get access to five free tests with five custom questions.
Here are our paid plans, which scale with the size of your company (i.e., the number of FTEs you have):
Starter from $75 USD per month ($900 per year paid upfront). You get access to all available tests and can run unlimited assessments at the same time.
Pro from $115 USD per month ($1,380 per year paid upfront). You get everything in the Starter plan, plus ATS integrations, video question features, and the ability to add custom branding to your assessments.
Teams with 1-15 FTEs need to sign up for an annual plan, while teams with more FTEs have the option to pay monthly or annually. Regardless of the plan, you can test as many candidates as you need.
Plus, you can try TestGorilla using our free trial.
Hogan Assessments doesn’t publish its pricing online but states that it offers a variety of custom and off-the-shelf products.
TestGorilla | Hogan Assessments | ||
Plan | Price (billed annually) | Plan | Price |
Free | $0 | No free plan | |
Starter | From $75 USD per month ($900 per year paid upfront for teams of 1-15 FTEs) | Customized plans | Contact Hogan Assessments |
Pro | From $115 USD per month ($1,380 per year paid upfront for teams of 1-15 FTEs) |
Pre-employment screening software that is easily navigated by job candidates and HR personnel helps to streamline the hiring process.
Look out for a platform that offers an interface with a responsive layout, easy-to-use menus, and intuitive navigation.
TestGorilla’s UI and menu structure make it possible to develop and distribute assessments in a matter of minutes. These assessments are easy and quick for candidates to access and complete.
TestGorilla has been praised by its customers for its ease of use and efficiency.
TestGorilla makes it simple to manage the hiring process, no matter how many people are applying. This is because of helpful functions like bulk invitations and numerous integrations to other HR applications you may already be using.
With our new test preview option, you can check out each test before adding it to your assessment. Also, as you’re creating an assessment, you’ll have the option to input the job you’re assessing for. Do this, and our system will recommend tests. Our system can also measure the quality of your assessment as you make it (though this is limited to specific roles).
All these features simplify and speed up the assessment creation process.
Find out what sets TestGorilla apart in hiring. Sign up for our free plan and access comprehensive tools for effective candidate screening.
Third-party SaaS review sites give Hogan Assessments good marks for ease of use.
Customers have mentioned that the assessment process is not always user-friendly, but the results make hard hiring decisions easy.
TestGorilla and Hogan Assessments are popular pre-employment testing services that enable hiring teams to find the right candidate for their organizations. Both platforms possess useful online help centers, and their tests have been rigorously validated for quality assurance.
There are a number of standout features that make TestGorilla the clear frontrunner. We offer 400+ scientifically validated tests across a variety of soft and hard skills, including more than 140 tests for programming skills.
TestGorilla’s robust suite of anti-cheating features ensures reliable and accurate results for data-driven, bias-free hiring decisions.
In addition, TestGorilla also offers very affordable subscriptions, like our free-forever plan, providing startups with the opportunity to find top talent from day one. Tiered plans and scalable pricing enable our solution to grow with your business.
Hogan Assessments lacks transparent pricing and doesn’t offer a free version. Its five tests are limited to soft skill assessments, with no in-depth job-specific tests.
Hogan Assessments also doesn’t specify any anti-cheating measures, which greatly detracts from the accuracy of its test results.
It’s clear to see that TestGorilla provides a superior pre-employment testing product.
Pre-employment testing provides greater insight into a candidate’s skills beyond what is shown on their resume.
Using a skills-based, data-driven hiring strategy not only makes the hiring process more efficient but also saves company resources and ensures bias-free decisions.
Do you want to streamline your hiring process? Check out our free (forever) plan, or join us for a free 45-minute live demo.
Ready to sign up now? Take a shot at our free plan today.
Why not try TestGorilla for free, and see what happens when you put skills first.
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