Why We Run Online Assessments for Every Single Role

When we tell companies that every single candidate we present has gone through an online assessment, the first reaction is usually surprise. “Even for marketing roles? Even for HR? Even for sales?”

Yes. Every role. No exceptions.

The reason is simple: resumes are unreliable, and interviews are easily rehearsed. If the only things standing between a candidate and your shortlist are a CV and a conversation, you're guessing. We don't like guessing.

What Our Assessments Actually Look Like

We're not talking about a generic aptitude quiz from the 2000s. Our assessments are role-specific, carefully designed, and cover the things that actually matter for the job. Here's what we use depending on the role:

• Technical assessments for developers, data analysts, and engineering roles. These include coding challenges with automated evaluation, where we can see not just whether the code works but how it's structured and how edge cases are handled.
• Knowledge-based assessments for finance, accounting, compliance, and domain-specific roles. These test actual understanding of the subject matter, not just whether someone has the right certifications listed on their profile.
• Psychometric evaluations for leadership, management, and people-facing roles. These give us insight into how someone thinks, how they handle pressure, and what their working style looks like. It's not about labelling personality types. It's about understanding whether someone's natural tendencies match what the role demands.
• Communication and language assessments for client-facing, sales, and international roles. We test actual fluency, not just self-reported proficiency. There's a big difference between “fluent in English” on a resume and being able to hold a client call confidently.

Keeping It Honest

One of the biggest concerns with online assessments is cheating. And honestly, it's a valid concern. If a candidate can just Google the answers or have someone else take the test, what's the point?

That's why we use proctored assessments. Our platform monitors the test session in real time, detecting things like tab switching, use of other devices, and suspicious activity patterns. The sessions are recorded, so if something looks off, we can review it. It's not about being paranoid. It's about making sure the results actually mean something.

We also design our assessments so they're hard to game. Timed sections, scenario-based questions, and questions that require reasoning rather than recall. You can't cram for these the night before.

Why Not Just Rely on Interviews?

Interviews are important. We use them too. But interviews have a well-known problem: they favour people who are good at interviewing. Confident speakers, quick thinkers, people who present well. Those are useful traits, but they're not the same as being good at the actual job.

Assessments level the playing field. A shy candidate who does exceptional work but doesn't interview brilliantly will still show up in the assessment results. A smooth talker who can't actually do the work will get caught. The data doesn't care how charismatic you are.

The Candidate Experience

We hear this concern sometimes: “Won't good candidates refuse to take an assessment?” In our experience, no. Good candidates actually appreciate it. They know they'll do well, and they prefer a process that evaluates ability over a process that evaluates networking and self-promotion.

We keep the assessments reasonable. 30 to 60 minutes depending on the role. Clearly scoped. Relevant to the actual job. We're not asking a marketing lead to solve math puzzles. We're testing whether they can actually do the things they'll be doing every day.

What This Means for You

When we send you a candidate, they've already passed an assessment tailored to the role. You're not guessing about their technical skills, their domain knowledge, or their communication ability. That's been validated.

Your interview can focus on the things that assessments can't measure: whether you like working with this person, whether they fit your team's energy, whether their ambitions line up with what you can offer. The stuff that actually determines whether someone stays and thrives.

It's one more layer of confidence. And in our experience, it's the layer that prevents the most expensive mistakes.