After sourcing, the tech screening process for IT recruitment is the second most time-consuming stage. No one wants to waste time on weak candidates who don’t have the skills, personality, or cultural fit. That is where tech screening comes in.
There are several different assessment and screening tools that can help you get through your IT recruitment process smoother. These tools will save you time and money.
In the case of IT recruiting, screening is not only a matter of confirming information in a resume or verifying behavioral or decision-making traits. It also often includes tech screening. There are tools out there that help you with video interviews, technical skills and psychometric tests, and background checking. Use them to get high-quality technical hires as fast as possible.
Have a look at these tech screening tools and check them out. They’ve helped many IT recruiters with improving their selection process.
1. Video Interview tools for technical screening
Have you ever had a situation when you met someone for an interview and knew instantly this person is not who you are looking for? Talking face-to-face is the best way to find out if the candidate fits your expectations. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools for video interviews to save time.
Some useful tools for conducting video interviews during your tech screening process are:
RecruitLoop
RecruitLoop offers automated video interviews for free. These interviews are one-way only. You create a questionnaire and send it to your candidates who record their answers on RecruitLoop’s platform. Your page is under your brand with your logo. You have an access to your notes and videos anytime. You can also share them with your team. You can rate and tag your candidates. The answers are recorded so they can be made regardless of the time zones. Moreover, candidates answer the same set of questions which helps you compare candidates and their answers. You can make several questionnaires when screening for multiple positions. Your candidates just need to have a webcam to complete the interview.
SparkHire
SparkHire is an automated and live video interviewing platform. For automated interviews, it works like RecruitLoop – you create a questionnaire and your candidates record their answers on the platform. Recording can be done by webcam or mobile app. You can put the link to the interview in the email, on your website, etc. Live interviews allow you to conduct and record the face-to-face interview. Comment, rate, and tag your candidates’ records and share them with your team. Easily keep your candidates up-to-date with their hiring status. You can send the rejection email straight from the platform. You can also custom your site on a platform with your brand color, logo, welcome video, and photos.
Zoom
Zoom is not a typical interview tool and it primarily aims at video conferences, but you can use it also in your screening process. It’s useful for group interviews when you want to interview more people at once or there are more people involved in the recruitment process. You can also record the interviews.
Zoom works on mobile, tablet, and other different devices so it is a flexible tool for your candidates. There is also a possibility of sharing screens so you can ask your candidates to do some tasks and watch their movements.
VidCruiter
VidCruiter provides video interviewing technology for companies looking to hire candidates. They offer pre-recorded video interviews and customized technology that can conform to the recruitment processes companies already have in place.
Learn about DevSkiller’s integration with VidCruiter
2. Technical screening process with online coding tests
In IT recruitment, skills testing is essential to prove your candidates really know what they claim to know during your tech screening process. It is important at this stage not to waste the time of your IT team on weak candidates. You can do it either through online coding tests or a technical interview.
TalentScore di DevSkiller
DevSkiller is an online platform for assessing a programmer’s skills in an automated and effective way. The tool can be an essential and integral part of a modern tech screening process.
With TalentScore you are not limited to testing your candidates’ knowledge of programming languages, but you can also verify the actual skills of the candidate in certain frameworks and libraries. DevSkiller helps you verify programming skills with online coding tests which consist of real-life programming tasks and code review challenges. It is easy to use for recruiters and provides them with automated coding scoring. With DevSkiller, you get 3 ways to assess coding skills: you can use ready-to-use assessment, generate your own from a predefined catalog of coding tasks or create your own coding assessments using your own codebase.
TechScreen
What better tool for effective tech screening than TechScreen? The tool provides detailed technical interviews even if you are a non-technical recruiter. Their algorithm measures and evaluates the accuracy of the answers and technical competence. There are three types of interviews: non-scoring interview (can be conducted without technical knowledge), scoring interview (TechScreen gives you guardrails), and custom interview (you can create your own questions or select them from their library).
It allows you to be seen as a peer as TechScreen guides you through the programming languages, frameworks, and other technical issues. Even if you don’t have enough technical knowledge you can assume the answers of your candidates.
3. Psychometric Testing
Psychometric tests help you discover what kind of people your talents are. These tests show their strengths and weaknesses, what motivates your candidates, how they behave, and how quickly they get the right answers. The results of psychometric testing shouldn’t be your only decision-making tool as it has some drawbacks too.
There are two groups of psychometric tests. The first is aptitude and ability tests. The second is personality questionnaires. The first group measures a person’s ability to perform or carry out certain tasks. The second one measures a person’s manner of doing things, and how this person interacts with the environment and other people. Both groups can consist of these kinds of tests:
- Personality tests let you assess if your candidate’s personality characteristics match the position they have applied for
- Numerical reasoning tests tell you how the candidate deals with numbers and numerical data
- Abstract reasoning or lateral thinking tests check your candidate’s ability to learn and adapt to new things, decision-making, problem-solving, and shows you if your candidate can smoothly identify rules and patterns in data
- Verbal reasoning questions are questions that show you whether your candidates can logically draw conclusions, quickly identify important issues, and explain them clearly to others.
AtmanCo
AtmanCo conducts its own original psychometric scientifically validated assessment test. The test measures 11 different dimensions on a scale of 1 to 9. Valid results should be the same over time. The test was created to help recruiters and HR professionals. In addition to Atman test, AtmanCo offers a behavioral-based pre-generated interview guide. It helps you identify the best candidate and the hardships this person may have. The questions are created using the results of Altman test. Using both test and a custom interview is more effective, reliable and bias-free and it leads to quicker decisions.
Pymetrics
Pymetrics is a platform with fun and quick games which help you to find the person who fits the desirable cognitive and emotional profile of your perfect employee. The games are based on neuroscience research and using big data, they assess 50 key cognitive and emotional traits. They are non-directional which means they measure if traits are beneficial in a particular profession. The games are anti-biased so it helps you avoid a biased decision.
If you don’t know what profile your perfect employee should have, you can use prebuilt industry profiles to find it out.
Rightpeople
RightPeople offers a variable set of psychometric tests for any industry. They collect more data to create a more accurate picture of the candidate. Tests are legal and culturally relevant. According to your requirements, they design customized tests for you or you can use their standard one. The results are analyzed and available on the platform or sent to you via email. The tests cover areas such as cognitive ability/intelligence, personality assessment, safety, integrity and reliability, time management, shift work, customer service, and work values.
4. Reference / Background checking
Background checking helps you find people who are great not only on paper or during the interview but also in real life. It also helps you ensure you are protecting your company’s data. References are the best tool to confirm words with reality. Use these tools to make sure you are talking to a real previous employer and if you have such a chance, try to check at least two references.
Checkr
Checkr provides a fast and mobile-friendly background check for your candidates. You can use it to do an identity check (identity verification, address history), criminal record check, driver check, drug check, and credit check. One of the most useful checks are national and international verifications of employment (over the past three employers or the last seven years with additional information about employment), education (confirmation of degree received, the course of study, and dates of attendance) plus licenses and certification checks.
HireRight
HireRight does the comprehensive customized background check in more than 240 countries and territories, supporting applicants in 20 languages. It provides you with flexible tools to make the check fast and smooth regardless of your company’s size, allowing you to speed up your tech screening process. This means even a small company can verify the multinational backgrounds of their candidates. Among the checks are criminal background checks, identity checks, drug & health screening, candidate experience, education checks, global screening, and driving records checks.
HireRight boast of its 95% satisfaction rate from candidates as it takes the anxiety out of a background check.
VidReferencing
Automated reference checking from VidRecruiter works similar to automated video interviews. You create a customized questionnaire you want to be filled in as a reference and ask your applicants to contact their references on your behalf. They don’t know what is reported. The format of the reference may be video, audio, or written. It is up to the references which one they choose. You can track all files and you can rate the references. You have also proof you did your job best as a recruiter. VidRecruiter also provides live and automated video interviews.
5. Social Media Screening process
Show me your profile and I’ll tell you who you are. IT candidates spend a lot of their time online so their online presence tells you a lot. Although basing your tech screening decision on social media profiles is perceived as controversial, still to some extent social media profiles can be treated as extended resumes and you can find some more information on your candidates and get to know them better. Do they fit your company culture? What do they like? What is their personality? Are they controversial? Do they have any other skills? Checking Social Media accounts help to answer these questions and even prevent some future problems. Don’t forget that the account privacy setting doesn’t let you see all the information and your perception can be biased. Use Social Media checks wisely, while respecting the privacy of your candidates.
As you can see, there are various tools that can assist you in your IT screening process. Smart usage of these tools saves your time and streamlines your decision-making. Tech talents also appreciate you more when you act like you value their precious time. That’s why finding the best candidates as fast as possible is a win-win situation in tech recruitment. Using technologies (video interviews, online technical tests, psychometric testing, etc.) always makes you look more tech-savvy and will help you create a better candidate experience.
Foto di Scott Graham su Unsplash
