Best Talent Assessment Tools for Human Resource

“The human workforce is valued at $ 1.2 quadrillion, compared to $ 521 trillion value of physical Assets,”

says Korn Ferry, an executive search, and recruiting firm. With such value being placed on people, resources that typically appreciate over time, there really is little need to underline the need for top quality talent if organizations hope to walk confidently into the future.

We couldn’t agree more.

Changing perceptions and technological advances have redefined the role of Human Resources. In the realm of talent management, HR is no longer confined to tasks such as screening, interviewing, and hiring candidates. HR Managers are transforming into Talent Acquisition Managers, Happiness Officers, People’s Operation Managers, and a lot more. They have now become the harbingers of change in dynamic business models.

What is a talent assessment tool?

A talent assessment tool is a software application used by HR professionals to evaluate candidates’ skills, abilities, and potential for specific job roles. These tools use various methods, such as psychometric tests, cognitive assessments, and skills evaluations, to provide a comprehensive understanding of a candidate’s qualifications.

Talent assessment tools use data-driven insights to help organizations make informed hiring decisions, identify high-potential employees, and tailor development programs. They enhance the recruitment process, ensuring a better match between job requirements and candidate capabilities, ultimately leading to improved organizational performance.

What challenges do they need to overcome?

“Human resources are like natural resources; they’re often buried deep. You have to go looking for them, they’re not just lying around on the surface. You have to create the circumstances where they show themselves.” (Ken Robinson)

When it comes to talent acquisition, be it a Fortune 500 company or a startup, their hiring concerns are quite similar. Apart from struggling to find skilled, committed workers, they have to deal with so much more. One in four candidates complaints about bad recruiting experiences and that hampers the brand image considerably. With companies like PepsiCo adopting location-free work arrangements to retain talent and companies like Panasonic touting ‘Learn, Live, Achieve’ as their core philosophy, job seekers now demand a better recruitment experience. The HR personnel is expected to make this happen and deal with any fallout. (Read: 7 ways recruiters can increase the offer to joining ratio & avoid drop off)

Instead of leaving you to wonder how you can get the most suitable talent for the job roles you advertise, we’ve got a near-perfect solution for you. Switch to a talent assessment tool that can resolve the fundamental concerns of managing volumes of applicants while ensuring you shortlist the right technical candidates.

Why are talent management tool important for human resource?

Newspaper advertisements and paper-based job applications are a thing of past. Brick-and-mortar offices are changing into work-from-anytime-anywhere business models. You no longer have tons of skilled candidates, and struggles of ‘talent hunts’ are real. Millennials are the “new adventure” for HR managers as they don’t often stick to a place for long anymore. Employees now demand real-time feedback and innovative recruitment campaigns.

These changes need new kinds of approaches, out-of-the-box thinking, and more. This shift in the role of HR has compelled the industry to think of technology solutions that not only help HR managers understand the right skill set easily but also help them retain and encourage the right resources while ensuring candidates enjoy personalized experiences and regular constructive feedback.

For example, to deal with a deluge of applicants and find the brightest software developer, Microsoft included a small test at the time of application. Those who had the requisite know-how and a mathematical bent of mind easily cracked a cryptic phone number in the test and were shortlisted for further rounds. A gamification of this sort increased the volume of quality candidates and helped the company reject candidates with a concrete reason, hinting at a scope for improvement.

Talent assessment tools track the applicants through their performance on a coding platform like HackerEarth and other sources and help the HR to build a personalized experience for the candidates based on their performance in each challenge they have participated. This includes mapping their journey from the time they apply for a job to their joining and service with the company.

When do you need a talent assessment tool?

More than 60% millennials believe in proper background research on organizations and the job roles they’re applying for.

HR has to make the company look good. Negative reviews can do serious damage.

This has made the job of HR managers tougher. The one-shoe-fits-all approach needs to change and they’re now responsible for painting a better picture of the organization and ensure complete transparency.

To showcase the best of company culture, Twitter did a “Join the Flock”recruitment campaign. It was a hack week for employees as they were challenged to make the best/worst recruiting video. The campaign culminated in a video that featured the company CEO, Dick Costolo, who shared the hiring information and at the same time mocked the outdated workplace and their training material. A campaign of this sort leads to better employee engagement and also gets the message across interestingly.

Managers can no longer reject candidates without giving them concrete answers. Talent management assessment tools, empowered with predictive and prescriptive analytics, empower HR with the right recommendations to aid decision-making while selecting candidates.

How do you find the best talent assessment tool?

That’s a tricky question. HR personnel is constantly dealing with the dilemma of deciding to buy a tool or develop it in-house. Most of the time, the latter case gets ruled out due to limited technical knowledge in HR departments. The right approach is to rely on experts with proven experience in the HR-tech domain. It’s important to hire vendors who understand your business models and the needs of the job profiles.

Tools using Machine Learning and BigData Analytics are considered better and more reliable as compared to tools which lack data analysis and in depth candidate report. Organisations can use Social Media Analytics and other forms of data analysis to get an in-depth knowledge of candidate behavior. These tools give you solutions like work samples and simulations, cognitive ability tests, personality, or conscientiousness tests, structured interviews, unstructured interviews and a lot more effective forms of candidate examination. (Read: How to pick right assessment tool?)

5 best talent assessment tools

HackerEarth HackerEarth is a comprehensive coding assessment platform that helps organizations identify and evaluate technical talent through coding challenges, hackathons, and real-world projects. Its user-friendly interface and robust features make it a popular choice for both recruitment and employee development. The platform offers automated grading, anti-cheating measures, and detailed analytics, ensuring accurate and fair assessments. Additionally, it provides real-world projects that simulate on-the-job tasks, helping to assess practical skills and problem-solving abilities.
Criteria Corp Criteria Corp offers a wide range of pre-employment tests designed to measure cognitive aptitude, personality, and skills. Their scientifically validated assessments help organizations predict job performance and ensure a good fit between candidates and roles. The platform’s user-friendly interface and detailed reporting make it a valuable tool for HR professionals.
SHL SHL provides a variety of talent assessment solutions, including cognitive ability tests, personality assessments, and situational judgment tests. Their tools are backed by extensive research and are used globally to improve hiring decisions, identify high-potential employees, and support talent development initiatives.
iMocha iMocha is an advanced skills assessment platform that offers a wide range of tests covering technical, cognitive, and soft skills. It features an AI-powered proctoring system, automated grading, and detailed analytics to ensure comprehensive and unbiased assessments. The platform supports over 500 skill assessments, making it versatile for various industries.
Mettl Mettl is a robust online assessment platform that provides a suite of tools for pre-employment testing, employee development, and certification. It offers customizable assessments, real-time proctoring, and detailed reporting. Mettl’s platform is highly scalable and supports a wide range of assessment types, including cognitive, technical, and behavioral tests.

How do HR analytics technologies help?

According to PwC’s Global HR Tech survey 2017, only 14% employers are very satisfied with the HR analytics technologies they have on board. This throws open massive opportunities for HR managers and domain experts to come up with viable solutions for talent management. Here are a few recommendations to improve your HR technology support and planned implementations.

Draft a report which gives insights beyond basic operational and compliance statistics
Do not be afraid to integrate data from external resources
Select the right metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and place them in easy to understand dashboards
Invest in applying Big Data concepts
Leverage Cloud Technology to safeguard data for predictive and prescriptive analytics
Increase the use of analytics and data-driven decisions

What are the benefits of talent assessment tools?

Like we said earlier, talent assessment tools are the need of the hour. Technology is now the key enabler in businesses and helps in strategic decision making. The biggest benefit is that these tools help you counter the volume of applicants with a lot more ease. Machine Learning algorithms shortlist the best candidates on the parameters you want and leave you with results that are to the point. This also confers a global mindset to the organizations by ensuring the best applicant experience for their potential candidates.

Real-time feedback, which you get from talent assessment tools, plays a crucial role in ensuring an employee’s progress and loyalty. Gamification is another advantage as it helps employers up their game in terms of employee engagement. The best example of gamification for recruitment and employee engagement possibly comes from Marriott Hotels. The global hotel chain designed virtual tours and video games on their website to attract potential employees through their websites. The players completing some of the “tasks” were shortlisted and later called for interview.

What is the next step?

The future belongs to those who will lead the change and that can happen only if you acquire and retain the right talent. Join the bandwagon of change and get your talent assessment tool today to see your organization scale up in your quest for transformation.

Signing off with a thought from industry leader Jay Samit, Independent Vice Chairman of Deloitte Digital:

“To thrive, all businesses must focus on the art of self-disruption. Rather than wait for the competition to steal your business, every founder and employee need to be willing to cannibalize their existing revenue streams in order to create new ones. All disruption starts with introspection.”

HackerEarth Recruit – A talent Assessment Platform

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PS: For more such insights on tech recruitment, we invite you to join our LinkedIn group – “Yours Truly HR”

Revolutionizing Mobile Talent Hiring: The HackerEarth Advantage

The demand for mobile applications is exploding, but finding and verifying developers with proven, real-world skills is more difficult than ever. Traditional assessment methods often fall short, failing to replicate the complexities of modern mobile development.

Introducing a New Era in Mobile Assessment

At HackerEarth, we're closing this critical gap with two groundbreaking features, seamlessly integrated into our Full Stack IDE:

Now, assess mobile developers in their true native environment. Our enhanced Full Stack questions now offer full support for both Java and Kotlin, the core languages powering the Android ecosystem. This allows you to evaluate candidates on authentic, real-world app development skills, moving beyond theoretical knowledge to practical application.

Say goodbye to setup drama and tool-switching. Candidates can now build, test, and debug Android and React Native applications directly within the browser-based IDE. This seamless, in-browser experience provides a true-to-life evaluation, saving valuable time for both candidates and your hiring team.

Assess the Skills That Truly Matter

With native Android support, your assessments can now delve into a candidate's ability to write clean, efficient, and functional code in the languages professional developers use daily. Kotlin's rapid adoption makes proficiency in it a key indicator of a forward-thinking candidate ready for modern mobile development.

Breakup of Mobile development skills ~95% of mobile app dev happens through Java and Kotlin — This chart illustrates the importance of assessing proficiency in both modern (Kotlin) and established (Java) codebases.

Streamlining Your Assessment Workflow

The integrated mobile emulator fundamentally transforms the assessment process. By eliminating the friction of fragmented toolchains and complex local setups, we enable a faster, more effective evaluation and a superior candidate experience.

Old Fragmented Way vs. The New, Integrated Way — Visualize the stark difference: Our streamlined workflow removes technical hurdles, allowing candidates to focus purely on demonstrating their coding and problem-solving abilities.

Quantifiable Impact on Hiring Success

A seamless and authentic assessment environment isn't just a convenience, it's a powerful catalyst for efficiency and better hiring outcomes. By removing technical barriers, candidates can focus entirely on demonstrating their skills, leading to faster submissions and higher-quality signals for your recruiters and hiring managers.

A Better Experience for Everyone

Our new features are meticulously designed to benefit the entire hiring ecosystem:

For Recruiters & Hiring Managers:

Accurately assess real-world development skills.
Gain deeper insights into candidate proficiency.
Hire with greater confidence and speed.
Reduce candidate drop-off from technical friction.

For Candidates:

Enjoy a seamless, efficient assessment experience.
No need to switch between different tools or manage complex setups.
Focus purely on showcasing skills, not environment configurations.
Work in a powerful, professional-grade IDE.

Unlock a New Era of Mobile Talent Assessment

Stop guessing and start hiring the best mobile developers with confidence. Explore how HackerEarth can transform your tech recruiting.

A New Era of Code

Vibe coding is a new method of using natural language prompts and AI tools to generate code. I have seen firsthand that this change makes software more accessible to everyone. In the past, being able to produce functional code was a strong advantage for developers. Today, when code is produced quickly through AI, the true value lies in designing, refining, and optimizing systems. Our role now goes beyond writing code; we must also ensure that our systems remain efficient and reliable.

From Machine Language to Natural Language

I recall the early days when every line of code was written manually. We progressed from machine language to high-level programming, and now we are beginning to interact with our tools using natural language. This development does not only increase speed but also changes how we approach problem solving. Product managers can now create working demos in hours instead of weeks, and founders have a clearer way of pitching their ideas with functional prototypes. It is important for us to rethink our role as developers and focus on architecture and system design rather than simply on typing c

The Promise and the Pitfalls

I have experienced both sides of vibe coding. In cases where the goal was to build a quick prototype or a simple internal tool, AI-generated code provided impressive results. Teams have been able to test new ideas and validate concepts much faster. However, when it comes to more complex systems that require careful planning and attention to detail, the output from AI can be problematic. I have seen situations where AI produces large volumes of code that become difficult to manage without significant human intervention.

AI-powered coding tools like GitHub Copilot and AWS’s Q Developer have demonstrated significant productivity gains. For instance, at the National Australia Bank, it’s reported that half of the production code is generated by Q Developer, allowing developers to focus on higher-level problem-solving . Similarly, platforms like Lovable enable non-coders to build viable tech businesses using natural language prompts, contributing to a shift where AI-generated code reduces the need for large engineering teams. However, there are challenges. AI-generated code can sometimes be verbose or lack the architectural discipline required for complex systems. While AI can rapidly produce prototypes or simple utilities, building large-scale systems still necessitates experienced engineers to refine and optimize the code.

The Economic Impact

The democratization of code generation is altering the economic landscape of software development. As AI tools become more prevalent, the value of average coding skills may diminish, potentially affecting salaries for entry-level positions. Conversely, developers who excel in system design, architecture, and optimization are likely to see increased demand and compensation.
Seizing the Opportunity

Vibe coding is most beneficial in areas such as rapid prototyping and building simple applications or internal tools. It frees up valuable time that we can then invest in higher-level tasks such as system architecture, security, and user experience. When used in the right context, AI becomes a helpful partner that accelerates the development process without replacing the need for skilled engineers.

This is revolutionizing our craft, much like the shift from machine language to assembly to high-level languages did in the past. AI can churn out code at lightning speed, but remember, “Any fool can write code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.” Use AI for rapid prototyping, but it’s your expertise that transforms raw output into robust, scalable software. By honing our skills in design and architecture, we ensure our work remains impactful and enduring. Let’s continue to learn, adapt, and build software that stands the test of time.

Ready to streamline your recruitment process? Get a free demo to explore cutting-edge solutions and resources for your hiring needs.

What is Systems Design?

Systems Design is an all encompassing term which encapsulates both frontend and backend components harmonized to define the overall architecture of a product.

Designing robust and scalable systems requires a deep understanding of application, architecture and their underlying components like networks, data, interfaces and modules.

Systems Design, in its essence, is a blueprint of how software and applications should work to meet specific goals. The multi-dimensional nature of this discipline makes it open-ended – as there is no single one-size-fits-all solution to a system design problem.

What is a System Design Interview?

Conducting a System Design interview requires recruiters to take an unconventional approach and look beyond right or wrong answers. Recruiters should aim for evaluating a candidate’s ‘systemic thinking’ skills across three key aspects:

How they navigate technical complexity and navigate uncertainty
How they meet expectations of scale, security and speed
How they focus on the bigger picture without losing sight of details

This assessment of the end-to-end thought process and a holistic approach to problem-solving is what the interview should focus on.

What are some common topics for a System Design Interview

System design interview questions are free-form and exploratory in nature where there is no right or best answer to a specific problem statement. Here are some common questions:

How would you approach the design of a social media app or video app?

What are some ways to design a search engine or a ticketing system?

How would you design an API for a payment gateway?

What are some trade-offs and constraints you will consider while designing systems?

What is your rationale for taking a particular approach to problem solving?

Usually, interviewers base the questions depending on the organization, its goals, key competitors and a candidate’s experience level.

For senior roles, the questions tend to focus on assessing the computational thinking, decision making and reasoning ability of a candidate. For entry level job interviews, the questions are designed to test the hard skills required for building a system architecture.

The Difference between a System Design Interview and a Coding Interview

If a coding interview is like a map that takes you from point A to Z – a systems design interview is like a compass which gives you a sense of the right direction.

Here are three key difference between the two:

Coding challenges follow a linear interviewing experience i.e. candidates are given a problem and interaction with recruiters is limited. System design interviews are more lateral and conversational, requiring active participation from interviewers.

Coding interviews or challenges focus on evaluating the technical acumen of a candidate whereas systems design interviews are oriented to assess problem solving and interpersonal skills.

Coding interviews are based on a right/wrong approach with ideal answers to problem statements while a systems design interview focuses on assessing the thought process and the ability to reason from first principles.

How to Conduct an Effective System Design Interview

One common mistake recruiters make is that they approach a system design interview with the expectations and preparation of a typical coding interview.
Here is a four step framework technical recruiters can follow to ensure a seamless and productive interview experience:

Step 1: Understand the subject at hand

Develop an understanding of basics of system design and architecture
Familiarize yourself with commonly asked systems design interview questions
Read about system design case studies for popular applications
Structure the questions and problems by increasing magnitude of difficulty

Step 2: Prepare for the interview

Plan the extent of the topics and scope of discussion in advance
Clearly define the evaluation criteria and communicate expectations
Quantify constraints, inputs, boundaries and assumptions
Establish the broader context and a detailed scope of the exercise

Step 3: Stay actively involved

Ask follow-up questions to challenge a solution
Probe candidates to gauge real-time logical reasoning skills
Make it a conversation and take notes of important pointers and outcomes
Guide candidates with hints and suggestions to steer them in the right direction

Step 4: Be a collaborator

Encourage candidates to explore and consider alternative solutions
Work with the candidate to drill the problem into smaller tasks
Provide context and supporting details to help candidates stay on track
Ask follow-up questions to learn about the candidate’s experience

Technical recruiters and hiring managers should aim for providing an environment of positive reinforcement, actionable feedback and encouragement to candidates.

Evaluation Rubric for Candidates

Facilitate Successful System Design Interview Experiences with FaceCode

FaceCode, HackerEarth’s intuitive and secure platform, empowers recruiters to conduct system design interviews in a live coding environment with HD video chat.

FaceCode comes with an interactive diagram board which makes it easier for interviewers to assess the design thinking skills and conduct communication assessments using a built-in library of diagram based questions.

With FaceCode, you can combine your feedback points with AI-powered insights to generate accurate, data-driven assessment reports in a breeze. Plus, you can access interview recordings and transcripts anytime to recall and trace back the interview experience.

Learn how FaceCode can help you conduct system design interviews and boost your hiring efficiency.

Best Talent Assessment Tools for Human Resource 2024