Online assessments generate more information than a final score. Depending on the assessment design, an employer or its service provider may hold candidate contact details, invitation histories, responses, question-level results, timing information, accommodations correspondence, reviewer notes, integrity flags and hiring decisions. Some records are essential for explaining a decision; others may have little value after an assessment closes.
Read guide →A candidate scores 92% on a numerical test, 68% on a practical work sample and four out of five in a structured interview. What is their overall score? More importantly, should those results be combined into one number at all?
Read guide →A good assessment question should make candidates think about the skill being tested, not struggle to work out what the question writer means. When a question is unclear, two capable candidates may read it differently and choose different answers for reasons unrelated to their ability.
Read guide →Imagine interviewing two applicants for an accounts assistant position. One has an impressive degree and several years of experience. The other has a less familiar qualification but can accurately check invoices, find errors and explain financial records. Which person is better suited to the job?
Read guide →An employer can run an assessment smoothly and still make a poor decision. A candidate may be rejected because an answer key is wrong. A strong applicant may abandon a test after repeated connection failures. A hiring manager may change the pass mark after viewing results. An assessment risk register helps an organisation anticipate these failures before they affect people and decisions.
Read guide →An employer may spend weeks preparing a recruitment assessment, only to discover that some questions have been copied, photographed or shared before the next group of candidates takes the test. The immediate concern is understandable: can the results still be trusted?
Read guide →An employer receives 150 applications for an accounts assistant vacancy. The recruitment team reviews CVs, interviews shortlisted candidates and chooses someone who communicates confidently. Three months later, the new employee struggles with bank reconciliations, even though the role requires them every week.
Read guide →Two candidates complete the same skills test. One scores 72 out of 100 and the other scores 70. Is the first candidate definitely better at the job? Not necessarily. The difference might reflect a real difference in skill, but it might also reflect which questions appeared, temporary distractions, unclear wording or ordinary variation in performance.
Read guide →Two interviewers hear the same candidate answer. One awards five out of five because the candidate sounds confident. The other awards two because the answer lacks a specific action plan. Both may believe they are being fair, but their scores are based on different, largely unstated standards.
Read guide →A candidate may describe excellent spreadsheet skills in an interview but struggle to reconcile a simple dataset. Another candidate may be less polished in conversation yet complete the task accurately and explain the result clearly. Work sample tests help employers observe performance on tasks resembling real work instead of relying exclusively on claims about ability.
Read guide →A candidate completes an online skills assessment. The hiring manager receives a report showing 78 out of 100, a ranking and several charts. What should happen next?
Read guide →Document promotion assessment-centre decisions, evidence retention, appeals, independent review and accountability.
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