The skill assessment platform plays a very important role when it comes to selecting the right talent. This is a fact we all know, but what people fail to remember is it saves a huge amount of time for the key employees in the organization. I have heard several CTOs claiming that 70% of their engineering resources are spending their time evaluating the applicants.
Now, while some can argue that evaluating the applicants is an important process and cannot be delegated, most seasoned leaders have learned to adopt a skill assessment platform to save the time of their team. The CXO sees this as a way to cut down the opportunity cost.
  Looking for Skill Assessment Software? Check out the best skill assessment software.
Having said this, a team that evaluates a good assessment platform is often comprised of the HR & Finance team. Over the years at Xobin, we have interacted with more than 1000 teams and have assisted them with onboarding recruitment tools into their organization.
From our experience we have seen different types of buyers and here are some of the mistakes which we think potential buyers should avoid while buying a skill assessment platform.
Mistake 1: Having very little time to make the decision
Most people usually start looking for a tool too late. For Example, I’ve encountered customers who would have planned a big drive the next day and would be looking to buy a platform today.
Any SaaS tool for that matter requires a good amount of time to research. In this article, we have compiled a list of things that you need to check in a good skill assessment platform, make sure you go through the list before you make a decision.
Mistake 2: Improper requirement Estimation (Overestimation of the requirement)
Most of the assessment platforms in the market will ask you to buy a set of assessment invitations together and they would usually bundle it in packages of 100 invites. So, usually, they would price 4$ / Invite and charge you 400 USD for a pack of 100 Invites valid for 1 year. This would make it very tempting to increase your requirement to 1000 Invites and then ask for a discount to make it as 3$ / Invite.
While paying 3000 USD you make think of having a good deal hand, but, little would you know that 30% of the invited would simply go unused and there is not going to be any carry forward option for you. Also, 70% of the invites you use may not be “Really” used, if the candidates do not take up the assessment and if the platform you’re using counts every invite even if the test isn’t completed.
Best HR Software Solutions
Campus Recruitment Software
With our online campus recruitment software screen, hire top talents hassle-free. Everything is under one platform, from test creation to the candidate's evaluation.
Rating 5.0
Based on 321 user ratings
API Integration by Xobin
Get integrated and harness the strength of robust assessments with Xobin APIs. Save sweat and time and focus on your core offering, not building your assessment stack.
Rating 5.0
Based on 321 user ratings
Coding Skill Assessment Software
With our 100+ coding assessments on various languages such as Java, Python, JavaScript, React, Angular, etc., evaluate and hire the best-talented developers.
Rating 5.0
Based on 321 user ratings
Pre-Employment Testing Software:
Get access to the vast library of validated tests to screen candidates using online assessments. Simplify your recruitment process with our cloud-based Pre-employment Testing Software.
Rating 5.0
Based on 321 user ratings
The salesperson you talk with will clearly not let you buy lesser quantities if he knows your real requirement. So you would end up wasting invites.
Tip: Xobin offers unlimited assessments at 166 USD / Month. We do not charge per invite, instead, we limit the number of simultaneous test takers to 95. You can even conduct 10,000 Assessments for 166 USD.
Mistake 3: Prioritizing features over the content
Assessments platforms are going to try their best with luring you with attractive features, but down the road, you would realize that the real best feature you would ever need is a library of great questions. The first 2 questions you need to ask is “How have you validated and tested these questions ?” “What’s the frequency of new questions in a particular domain ?”
Plaguing problem of most of the platforms is question leakage. Most of their questions would be leaked on the internet by some disgruntled candidates. The only valid way to overcome this problem is by continuously adding new questions to a domain and random time intervals.
While some features like webcam/Offtab proctoring, question randomization are extremely important. You shouldn’t put your guard down when checking the quality and continuous inflow of questions.
Mistake 4: Underestimating Scale
Concurrent and simultaneous usage is a given if your looking to use the platform for conducting campus drives or recruitment event. The platform should have a good and healthy experience of conducting large-scale events.
Most of the platforms that specialize in offering you a chatbot or gamified assessments, may not have experience in delivering a good candidate experience at scale. Apart from technological checkups, make sure to quiz the capability to offer support to the candidates as well.
While offering support to the customer is given, it’s important to check the quality of the support being offered to the candidate when say 1000 candidates are taking up the test. Make sure the candidate support team works across different time zones.
Mistake 5: Overlooking ability to integrate with other tools
API/ Integration may not be your current requirement. But remember that HR is a function that requires more than 1 tool and it is always handy if all your tools can work together with a common goal. The ability to integrate with other workflow management tools and ATS can prove to be a great asset. Examples of such tools are – Zapier, Workato, Greenhouse, Zoho Recruit Etc.
