6 things to look for in your coding assessment tool

The process of hiring is not the same as it was a few years ago. Enterprises today have been forced to rethink and revamp their recruiting strategies. With everything going digital, the demand for top tech talent has shot up and the need to assess candidates to find the best fit has become more significant than ever. Hence, testing candidates’ technical and soft skills has also gone digital. Online coding assessment tools built with the latest technology have found their way into the recruitment process, helping recruiters find the best technical candidates for the roles open in their organisation. They also help save the all-critical cost and time for the organisation.

First things first…What is an online coding test?

Businesses have become extremely competitive today. Large enterprises vie for the best candidates from the available talent pool. With technological advancements, the demand for technically skilled candidates has shot up. Organisations could lose large amounts of money and precious time hiring candidates who may not be technically sound. It is the need of the hour to hire candidates who add value to the organisation in terms of technical skills.

Coding assessments help achieve that. Coding tests help recruiters assess the technical skills of a candidate with precision. Recruiters can do this by asking the candidates to solve a particular problem or issue. This will help recruiters gauge a candidate’s performance, skills and expertise as also his or her readiness to fulfil the requirements of a particular job role.

What type of assessment tool to choose?

The market today is flooded with many tools that may claim to satisfy your organisation’s coding assessment requirements. But watch out before investing in a tool. Not every tool may be suitable for your business. Among the various tools available in the market, how do you choose the right tool that is best suited to your organisation? What features should a good coding assessment tool include?

Primarily, a good assessment tool helps you find candidates who are a right fit for your organisation, with precision. Therefore, it is important to select the right type of assessment tool to invest in. If this is done right, you can assess the technical skills of candidates accurately.

Let’s take a look at some must-have features in an assessment tool before investing in one.

Expansive list of skill sets and programming languages to test:-

The main aim of a coding assessment tool is to test candidates’ technical knowledge. Therefore, it is obvious that a coding assessment tool should necessarily have an expansive range of programming languages built-in to test and assess candidates for a variety of job roles such as Android developer, iOS developer, data scientist etc,. The tool should come pre-built with technology questions and problems to test in-depth skills on coding concepts and development.

Effective proctor settings with the ability to generate reports:

One of the more important functions of a good coding assessment tool is to enable live or auto proctoring and generate detailed reports. Proctoring of an assessment enables fraud-detection, if any, and helps maintain integrity, which, in turn facilitates zeroing in on the right talent pool for the organisation. The entire assessment should be recorded for further analysis, where appropriate candidates can be filtered to the next stage of the hiring process.

The report should also come with the ability to generate detailed reports based on the recording of an assessment session to help recruiters select only the best candidates.

Auto-evaluation of the candidate:

With many candidates taking up coding assessments, it would be a mammoth task for the recruiters to mark or evaluate the candidates manually, based on their test responses. Hence, a good assessment tool should have an auto-evaluation option that can help recruiters analyse large volumes of candidates at once. Auto-evaluation also enables quick communication with the candidates, which will further help build a good brand value for the organisation.

In-built audio/video function:

With hiring happening remotely, an effective coding assessment tool should come with an in-built audio/video functionality to enable easy communication between the recruiters and the candidates. The ability to reach out to the candidates to ask questions or the interviewer to clarify queries would make the entire assessment process more effective. This will greatly help build a positive candidate experience.

A wide variety of question formats:

A versatile tool should have a wide variety of question formats for the recruiters to choose from. A combination of subjective questions and MCQs could work effectively in selecting candidates with the right skills. Different formats of questions help test candidates on critical knowledge and analytical skills. Additionally, there should be real-world problems that could effectively test candidates’ problem-solving ability.

Integration with the organisation’s ATS:

Over the years, recruiters and hiring managers have become dependent on spreadsheets and emails to track potential candidates. With advancements and adoption of new technology, there may be loss of data that could lead to confusion and chaos. Therefore, it is necessary for the coding assessment tool that you choose to have the ability to seamlessly integrate with any available applicant tracking system (ATS) with no additional effort required from the recruiter’s end to easily enjoy the benefits of using the tool.

These are some must-have features that an enterprise should definitely consider before deciding on an assessment tool for its hiring needs. But this is not all. Apart from the features discussed above, an assessment tool should also satisfy the following points.

• Setting up and using the assessment tool should be easy and straightforward. Recruiters do not have the leisure to set aside time to figure out how to run coding challenges for the candidates.
• The tool should contribute towards building a positive candidate experience. Ask yourself, is the tool that you would like to invest in providing a great experience for the candidates and recruiters?
• The tool should be customisable to the needs of your organisation. Does the tool have customisation options to let you set up bespoke challenges apart from the ones that are already available?
• The tool should be robust enough to let multiple candidates take assessments at the same time. It should also allow multiple reviewers to collaborate on the tool simultaneously.
• An effective tool should come with a good support team. Ensure the availability of effective and quick support in case of problems or glitches.
• When the organisation is investing huge amounts in a tool, it should provide the necessary functionalities and get you great value for the money that you spend..

How a right assessment tool helps candidate experience

A right assessment tool can work wonders for the recruitment team and the organisation at large. A good coding assessment tool helps organisations pick the very best candidates from the available talent pool. An effective tool helps streamline the recruitment process and create a positive experience for the candidate, thereby improving the brand value of the organisation.

Conclusion

Coding assessment tools have revolutionised hiring strategies across the globe. Gone are the days when recruiters onboarded candidates based on vague job descriptions. Gone are the days when candidates accepted job offers blindly. With the advent of advanced tools such as coding assessment tools, the entire process of recruitment can be streamlined. The adoption of assessments is going up among corporates. The receptiveness of candidates to undergo assessments has increased too. Therefore, it is vital for the organisation to choose a tool that will contribute to a smooth hiring process and ease the work for their recruitment team.

Hirepro’s automated coding assessment tool has been built by industry experts to assess freshers and advanced hires. Drop in an email at sales@hirepor.in to know more about their offering.