Top 10 new hire assessment tools

Why Use New Hire Assessment Tools?

Let's face it, sifting through piles of resumes is a nightmare. Imagine spending hours reviewing candidates, only to realize their skills don't quite match what's needed. This is where online assessment platform come in, acting as your trusty sidekick in the quest for top talent.

These tools offer a systematic approach to evaluating candidates. Instead of relying on gut feelings or subjective interviews alone, you gain access to objective data on their skills and abilities. This ensures a more level playing field for all applicants.

Here's how these tools help:

• Skills validation: Confirm if candidates truly possess the skills listed on their resume. Quickly test for hard skills like coding tests or aptitude, as well as soft skills such as communication and problem-solving.
• Time saving: Automate the initial screening process to focus on promising candidates.
• Bias reduction: Standardized assessments minimize subjective bias, promoting diversity.

What Makes for a Great New Hire Assessment Tool?

For recruiters, the primary goal is to identify candidates who not only possess the required skills but also demonstrate the ability to apply them effectively in real-world scenarios. So, what should you look for in these tools?

A key feature is the ability to create assessments tailored to specific job descriptions. This ensures that candidates are evaluated on the exact skills and knowledge needed for the role, rather than generic competencies. By customizing assessments, recruiters can gain a clearer picture of how well a candidate's abilities align with the demands of the job.

Beyond customization, look for platforms that offer a wide range of question types, including coding exercises, aptitude tests, and even personality tests. Furthermore, integration with your existing ATS streamlines the hiring process. Finally, consider platforms that prioritize security and compliance to ensure candidate data is protected.

Top Assessment Tools: A Quick Comparison

Choosing the right assessment tool can be tough. Here's a simplified comparison of the top 10 tools to help you pick the best one.

1. Adaface: Best for breadth of skills assessed

Now, let's talk about Adaface. This platform is designed to help you quickly screen candidates across a wide range of roles, thanks to its extensive library of ready-made tests and seamless ATS integrations.

Why we picked Adaface

Adaface stands out with its capability to assess candidates across 500+ skills. It goes beyond just the final output, evaluating the candidate's approach, logic, and even those all-important soft skills. With Adaface, you're not just looking at short-term talent; you're assessing potential for long-term success.

For recruiters, Adaface offers a way to accurately gauge a candidate's aptitudes. The platform supports diverse question types, from Excel and SQL simulators to scenario-based MCQs for role-specific skills. This ensures a thorough evaluation, mirroring on-the-job experiences.

One of the biggest advantages of Adaface is its focus on test integrity and breadth of skill assessment. The platform offers advanced proctoring features and covers a wide range of skills including technical, cognitive, language, and personality, making it a versatile tool for any hiring team.

Key Features of Adaface

• Extensive skill assessment library: Access over 500 tests across programming, IT, business, Excel, aptitude, personality, finance, and role-specific skills.
• Customizable tests: Tailor assessments by adjusting test duration and cut-off scores, or let Adaface experts customize tests based on your job descriptions.
• Scenario-based on-the-job skill questions: Accurately screen for experience with questions designed to reflect real-world job scenarios.
• Multiple question types: Evaluate skills using simulators for Excel, SQL, and coding, and scenario-based MCQs for role-based skills.
• Advanced proctoring: Ensure test integrity with webcam proctoring, video monitoring, ChatGPT proctoring, and off-tab activity tracking.
• Custom Test creation: Create your own questions or let Adaface experts design custom tests tailored to your specific needs.

Pros of Adaface

• Wide range of assessments for aptitude, finance, personality, business, typing, AI, technical and coding roles.
• No seat-based pricing; pricing depends only on credits, which cover all proctoring features.
• Strong proctoring suite to maintain test integrity.
• Used by clients in over 70 countries, demonstrating its global applicability.

Cons of Adaface

• No live video interviews.
• No take-home assignment support.
• Not the cheapest in the market.

Pricing of Adaface

You can start with a free trial that includes 2 sample tests and 5 credits to explore the platform. No credit card is required to begin. Plans include all proctoring features and access to all 500+ tests. The self-serve plans are:

• Individual ($180/year)
• Starter ($500/year)
• Pro ($900/year)
• Scale ($3000/year)
• Growth ($5500/year)
• Enterprise ($20,000/year)
• Unlimited ($50,000/year)

2. HackerRank: Coding skill assessment

HackerRank is a well-known platform in the tech recruiting space. It primarily focuses on assessing coding skills and is often used to screen and rank developers.

Why we picked HackerRank

HackerRank is designed to help companies evaluate the technical abilities of potential hires, particularly in coding and software development. Recruiters use it to identify candidates with the right skills for roles requiring programming expertise. The platform supports various programming languages and offers a range of coding challenges to test candidates' proficiency.

While HackerRank offers coding assessments, it's important to note that it primarily caters to technical roles. If you're looking to assess a broader range of skills, such as aptitude, personality, or business acumen, you might need to consider other assessment tools.

Key Features of HackerRank

• Coding Challenges: Provides a library of coding problems across various languages.
• Live Coding Interviews: Offers an IDE for conducting real-time coding assessments.
• Plagiarism Detection: Detects potential plagiarism in coding submissions.

Pros of HackerRank

• Large Developer Community: Popular among developers, increasing candidate familiarity.
• Role-Based Tests: Quick setup with pre-built assessments for tech roles.
• Plagiarism Checker: Helps maintain the integrity of coding tests.
• Real-World Coding: Evaluates candidates in an environment similar to actual job conditions.

Cons of HackerRank

• Limited Scope: Focuses mainly on coding; lacks assessments for soft skills or other domains.
• Lengthy Assessments: Tests can be time-consuming, potentially impacting candidate experience with typical assessment length of 2 hours.
• Googleable Questions: Default questions can be easily found online, reducing assessment validity.
• No Situational Judgment: Lacks support for situational judgment questions to assess decision-making skills.

Pricing of HackerRank

HackerRank offers several pricing tiers. They have a free trial available. Their basic plans start at $100 per month, billed annually. For enterprise plans, you'll need to contact HackerRank directly for a custom quote.

3. Maki People: Good For Culture

Let's explore Maki People, a platform aiming to help companies understand their employees and candidates better. It focuses on assessing behavioral traits and cultural fit.

Why we picked Maki People

Maki People is designed to assess culture fit and soft skills. It provides insights into a candidate's values, motivations, and how they might integrate into a team. The platform helps recruiters understand candidate's work style, communication preferences, and ability to work in different environments.

Recruiters can use Maki People to evaluate team dynamics, identify potential conflicts, and build teams that are more aligned. While it offers programming, language and aptitude tests, it lacks tests like Situational Judgement, Artificial Intelligence, typing tests, and cloud tests (except AWS). Also, it does not customize tests based on the job description.

Key Features of Maki People

• Culture Fit Assessment: Evaluates a candidate's alignment with company values.
• Personality Insights: Identifies key personality traits and work styles.
• Team Role Discovery: Determines the best role for an individual within a team.

Pros of Maki People

• Assesses culture fit and soft skills
• Offers insights into team dynamics.
• Provides reports on individual and team personalities.
• Supports integration with existing ATS systems.

Cons of Maki People

• Lacks coding question playback, limiting in-depth code review.
• No custom coding questions, potentially missing specific skill assessments.
• Doesn't offer an open API for custom integrations.
• No built-in protection against tools like Chat GPT, posing a threat to test integrity.

Pricing of Maki People

Maki People does not display their pricing publicly and does not offer a free trial. You need to contact their team to get custom pricing information. In contrast, platforms like Adaface offer transparent pricing and a free trial to explore the platform's capabilities.

4. TestGorilla: Library and proctoring

Let's explore TestGorilla. It's known for a large test library and proctoring features, often used for initial candidate screening.

Why we picked TestGorilla

TestGorilla is primarily used for skills assessment through a wide range of pre-made tests. Companies use it to evaluate candidates across various skills, from aptitude and personality to job-specific knowledge. It helps streamline the initial screening process by quickly identifying candidates who meet the basic requirements for a role.

However, TestGorilla's reliance on pre-made tests can be a limitation. While they offer a broad selection, the lack of customization beyond adding your own questions and creating custom tests based on specific job descriptions might mean the assessment doesn't perfectly align with your unique needs. Companies seeking highly tailored assessments or those requiring specific question types such as Excel simulation based questions, situational judgment tests, or AI tests might find its capabilities limited.

Key Features of TestGorilla

• Ready-to-use tests across various domains
• Webcam and IP proctoring to prevent cheating
• Candidate management and reporting features

Pros of TestGorilla

• Wide variety of tests available, covering many roles.
• Strong proctoring features to maintain test integrity.
• ATS integrations for a streamlined workflow.
• Offers a free trial to test the platform.

Cons of TestGorilla

• Limited customization options beyond adding your own questions.
• Lacks custom data location support for enhanced security.
• No custom API for deeper integrations with other HR tools.
• No plagiarism detection for coding assessments.

Pricing of TestGorilla

TestGorilla offers different pricing tiers based on company size, with monthly or annual billing options. While they offer a free trial, enterprise pricing requires contacting their sales team for a custom quote. They don't offer unlimited plans that might be restrictive for companies with high-volume hiring needs or with fair use policy restrictions.

5. Codility: Solid coding assessments platform

Codility is a platform focused on assessing the coding skills of candidates. Let's take a closer look at what it offers and whether it's the right fit for your hiring needs.

Why we picked Codility

Codility is designed to help companies evaluate developers' coding abilities through online assessments. It offers a range of coding tasks and challenges that simulate real-world programming scenarios. Recruiters can use Codility to identify candidates with the skills needed for specific roles, particularly in software engineering.

The platform provides tools for creating custom coding tests or using pre-built assessments from its library. Candidates complete the tests online, and Codility automatically scores their performance based on factors like code correctness, efficiency, and test case coverage.

Key Features of Codility

• Code scoring: Automated scoring of coding tests, providing insights into candidate performance.
• Real-time Collaboration: Allows candidates and interviewers to interact within the platform.
• Customization: Offers the ability to create custom coding tasks tailored to specific job requirements.

Pros of Codility

• Wide range of coding languages supported.
• Strong proctoring features to prevent cheating.
• Automated scoring saves time for recruiters.
• Integration with some popular ATS platforms.

Cons of Codility

• Focus is primarily on coding skills, lacking assessments for other skills like aptitude or personality.
• Limited options for assessing skills beyond coding, such as business acumen or communication.
• Customization is limited; you can add your own questions, but creating customized tests per job description isn't supported unlike Adaface.
• No support for excel simulation based tests.

Pricing of Codility

Codility offers several pricing tiers. The Starter plan begins at $1200 per year. For larger organizations, the Growth plan requires contacting the Codility team for a custom quote. They offer a free trial, but it requires filling out a form and waiting for approval, unlike Adaface Assessments Pricing where you can explore pricing instantly.

6. TestDome: Job skill certifications

Now, let's explore TestDome, a platform focused on helping you certify job skills. Their tests aim to provide a clear picture of a candidate's abilities.

Why we picked TestDome

TestDome is designed to assess candidates across various job roles, offering certifications to validate skills. It helps recruiters identify job-ready candidates, ensuring they possess the skills mentioned in the job description. You can also add your own questions to their pre-built tests.

TestDome’s approach centers around verifying skills through tests. While this is beneficial, remember that modern hiring often involves assessing a broader range of skills. For instance, platforms like Adaface use conversational assessments to evaluate both technical skills and soft skills in a single, candidate-friendly experience.

Key Features of TestDome

• Ready-made tests: Access a library of pre-built tests for various roles.
• Skill certifications: Certify candidates based on their test performance.
• Add your own questions: Option to include custom questions in existing tests.

Pros of TestDome

• Wide range of job skill tests.
• Tests can be used for certification.
• Good proctoring features to prevent cheating.
• Automated scoring saves time.

Cons of TestDome

• Limited language support.
• Lacks custom test creation from scratch.
• No Excel or workbook simulation questions.
• No social listening for potential question leaks.

Pricing of TestDome

TestDome offers a free trial. Their pricing starts at $20 per candidate, with a minimum purchase required. For detailed pricing plans, it's best to visit their website.

7. Alva Labs: Best for personality

Let's explore Alva Labs. This platform combines personality and aptitude assessments to provide a holistic view of candidates.

Why we picked Alva Labs

Alva Labs focuses on understanding a candidate's potential through personality questionnaires and logical reasoning tests. Their platform aims to predict job performance and cultural fit by evaluating traits and cognitive abilities. This approach can be helpful for roles where personality and problem-solving are key.

Key Features of Alva Labs

• Personality assessments based on the Big Five model.
• Logical reasoning tests to measure cognitive abilities.
• Structured interview guides based on assessment results.
• ATS integrations

Pros of Alva Labs

• Data-driven insights into candidate personality.
• Helps assess candidate-job fit.
• Structured approach to interviews.
• Ready-to-use tests

Cons of Alva Labs

• Lacks coding questions to assess hands-on skills.
• Limited business and role-specific assessments outside IT.
• Tests can be lengthy, affecting candidate experience. The typical assessment length is 2 hours.
• No custom question creation, limiting adaptability to specific needs. Compared to Adaface's Pre-Employment Assessment Test Library For 500+ Skills, Alva Labs does not offer tests for finance, AI, language or typing.

Pricing of Alva Labs

Alva Labs offers a free trial. Their starter plan begins at $289 per month. For enterprise pricing, you need to contact Alva Labs directly.

8. HireVue: Video Interviewing Pioneer

Let's explore HireVue. They're known for using video in their hiring process, aiming to make things smoother and faster.

Why we picked HireVue

HireVue focuses on video interviewing and assessments. It lets companies screen candidates remotely through on-demand and live video interviews. This can speed up early-stage hiring and reduce scheduling hassles.

The platform also includes AI-driven analysis of candidate responses. While HireVue offers coding assessments, they lack the breadth of skill tests found in other platforms like Adaface, particularly in areas like business skills, finance, and AI.

Key Features of HireVue

• On-demand video interviews
• Live video interviews
• AI-driven analysis

Pros of HireVue

• Structured interviews ensure consistency.
• AI analysis aims to remove bias.
• Integrates with major ATS platforms.
• Good for initial screening at scale.

Cons of HireVue

• Limited assessment types beyond video and coding.
• No support for custom question creation.
• Lacks detailed reporting and analytics.
• Can feel impersonal to candidates.

Pricing of HireVue

HireVue does not offer upfront pricing. To get a quote, you need to contact their sales team directly. They also do not provide a free trial.

9. Coderbyte: Coding challenges, career prep

Now, let's take a peek at Coderbyte. It's been around for a while, offering coding challenges and courses.

Why we picked Coderbyte

Coderbyte is a platform focused on helping developers improve their coding skills. It provides coding challenges, courses, and career preparation resources. Users can select from various challenges to hone their abilities in specific programming languages and data structures.

Primarily, Coderbyte serves as a tool for both individual developers looking to sharpen their skills and companies seeking to assess the coding abilities of potential hires. The platform offers coding assessments that evaluate a candidate's proficiency in solving algorithmic problems and writing clean, functional code.

Key Features of Coderbyte

• Coding challenges across various languages
• Career preparation courses
• Assessment tools for evaluating candidates

Pros of Coderbyte

• Extensive library of coding challenges
• Supports multiple programming languages
• Automated scoring and feedback
• Code playback feature for review

Cons of Coderbyte

• Focus primarily on coding skills; lacks aptitude, personality tests, or business skill assessments.
• No custom branding options available
• No direct ATS integrations
• Lengthy tests can lead to drop off in candidate completion rates.

Pricing of Coderbyte

Coderbyte offers tiered subscription plans. For precise pricing details, it's best to visit their website. They have subscription plans such as Starter plan at $199/month and scale plan at $1,699/year. Coderbyte does offer a free trial period.

10. Testlify: Ready-to-use skills tests

Alright, let's talk Testlify. It's a platform aiming to simplify candidate screening with a library of pre-built assessments. Let's dig in.

Why we picked Testlify

Testlify helps businesses evaluate candidates using its library of ready-to-use tests, covering a range of skills from aptitude to personality. Recruiters can use these tests to filter applicants early in the hiring process.

While Testlify offers a broad range of tests, it's important to note that they don't offer the option to tailor tests based on specific job descriptions. For a truly custom assessment experience, consider platforms like Adaface that design assessments around your unique hiring needs.

Key Features of Testlify

• Ready-made tests: Large library for skills assessment.
• Custom questions: Option to add your own questions to assessments.
• Proctoring: Webcam, window, IP, and location proctoring.

Pros of Testlify

• Wide range of ready-to-use tests.
• Option for custom questions.
• Offers a free trial to explore the platform.
• Provides integrations with popular ATS solutions.

Cons of Testlify

• Lacks custom coding questions for tech roles.
• No support for excel simulation based questions.
• Doesn't offer custom assessments based on the job description.
• Team seats cost extra, adding to the overall expense.

Pricing of Testlify

Testlify offers tiered pricing plans, starting with a 'Starter' plan at $49/month (billed annually). They also offer 'Scale' and 'Growth' plans with increased features and assessment volume. For larger enterprises, custom pricing and add-ons like integrations and team seats are available. They offer a free trial for you to test out if it suits your needs.

Choosing the Right New Hire Assessment Tool

We've journeyed through a landscape of tools, each promising to streamline your hiring. But remember, the perfect tool isn't just about features; it's about fit.

One thing to consider is the range of skills that need to be tested. Many platforms focus heavily on technical skills, which is great, but what about those crucial soft skills or role-specific knowledge? A tool that can assess a wide spectrum of abilities, like Adaface, offers a more rounded view of a candidate.

There are several assessment providers to consider, with Adaface being a strong contender for its customizable assessments. Other tools each have their own strengths, so consider each one carefully.

Ultimately, the best tool aligns with your specific hiring needs, company culture, and the roles you're trying to fill. Consider your usecase carefully.

• Adaface: Offers customizable assessments for a wide range of skills, including technical, aptitude, and personality tests. It stands out with it's custom built questions and ATS Integrations.
• HackerRank: Primarily focused on technical skill assessments, but default questions are easily googleable. Lengthy assessments which take more than 2 hours.
• Maki People: While it covers a range of tests, including programming and aptitude, its pricing details are not easily accessible.
• TestGorilla: Offers a wide variety of tests, but lacks custom question options and plagiarism detection.
• Codility: Geared towards programming skills, it is limited in scope and only provides coding questions.
• TestDome: Provides various tests, including programming and aptitude, but lacks company branding options and candidate benchmarking.
• Alva Labs: Covers programming and aptitude, but lacks custom questions and has limited information on anti-cheating measures.
• HireVue: Known for its video interviewing platform and AI analysis, but lacks custom questions and detailed candidate support documentation.
• Coderbyte: While providing programming tests, it lacks ATS integrations and detailed reporting features.
• Testlify: Offers a range of tests and customization, but lacks AI tests and detailed candidate analytics.

Ready to see how Adaface's online assessment platform can transform your hiring?