To evaluate the performance of an employee in your company, you may have to conduct one or more employee assessments. The good news is that there are different types of employee assessments to suit the varying skills and teams in your company.

Each of these assessments is designed to help employers and hiring managers review employee performance and ensure their teams are constantly developing and growing.

In this article, we’ll be discussing the different types of employee assessments, their importance, how they differ from pre-hiring assessments, and where to get them.

What is an employee assessment?

What is an employee assessment?

An employee assessment is a type of test that measures or reviews an employee’s skill in a certain field.

Many companies use employee assessments as a means to evaluate employees’ productivity and performance as part of their annual performance appraisals.

But this is not the only case where employee assessments are used. Companies also use these assessments when an employee is up for promotion.

Pre-hiring tests vs employee performance assessments

Pre hiring tests vs employee performance assessments

We’ve mentioned that there are different types of employee assessments and not all of them are for your currently-employed employees.

Many pre-hiring assessments fall under the broad umbrella of employee assessments. The fact is, to promote employees in your organization to managerial roles, you may need to conduct pre-hiring assessments to evaluate their abilities and cognitive skills.

Pre-hiring assessments, as their name suggests, are conducted before a company hires an employee. Psychometric assessments are the most popular type of pre-hiring assessments.

Employee assessments vary between career aptitude tests to leadership tests to mental ability tests, among others.

Why are employee assessments important?

Why are employee assessments important?

Employees are constantly on the look-out for the next big role or jump to a higher position.

Employee assessments not only help them achieve that but also provide them with details about their personality and skills and what’s needed to meet those higher job requirements.

In other words, employee assessments aren’t just helpful to HR people. They help both hiring managers and the employees themselves in many ways.

1)  Evaluate top performers 

Hiring managers and HR can use employee assessments to see who the top performers in their teams and companies are. Having many top-performing employees means a company can achieve and exceed its targets and accordingly achieve great success.

Recognizing and rewarding these top performers through employee engagement and empowerment techniques can go a long way into boosting the company’s morale.

It also helps you motivate them and ensure they’re constantly developing both personally and professionally.

2)  Set new goals

Using employee assessments or performance evaluations helps you see how the company is performing. This helps you set new targets and growth KPIs.

The other side is also true. If you find that your employees are under performing or, at least, not performing to the level of your expectations, you may need to upskill them with workshops and courses or automation and technology.

In this case, using employee assessments helps you improve their skills and motivate them to meet business targets. Having a reward and recognition system in your company can increase employee retention and improve employer branding.

3)  Discover required employee training

By reviewing employee performance and conducting appraisals and assessments, you can get a clear picture of your employees’ needs. This helps you understand what skills they need to acquire to perform their jobs better.

The next step is to help acquire those skills through online or physical courses, workshops, or in-house training.

What are the different types of employee assessments?

Different types of employee assessments

To understand how these different types of employee assessments work and help employers, HR people, and hiring managers, let’s divide them into categories.

1)  Language assessments

One widely-common type of employee assessment is the language assessment. Many companies also conduct language assessments as part of their pre-hiring tests to assess candidates’ language skills.

Language assessments are a requirement in some positions more than others. For example, sales people who have to work with foreigners need high-level language skills to succeed. If their language skills are lacking so will their deals and sales.

For employee assessments, companies often conduct language assessments when they:

• Want to promote an employee
• Move an employee to another team
• The job requires them to, at least, be able to understand two languages.

2)  Skills assessments

A skills test measures an employee’s strength and ability in a certain field. Unlike physical ability tests, skills assessments rely on soft skills like negotiation, presentation, coherence, and others.

Sales tests are a popular type of employee assessment and pre-hiring test.

3)  Cognitive and psychometric assessments

There are several types of psychometric tests. You can use one or more of them either in the pre-hiring stage or later on after the employee is hired.

Psychometric assessments focus on an employee’s cognitive skills such as seeing patterns, having emotional intelligence, among other skills.

They also indicate whether a candidate is a good fit for a certain role or not.

4)  Physical endurance tests 

Physical ability tests, also known as physical endurance tests, are tests that assess an employee’s physical resistance and endurance. These tests are required in jobs where physical strength is important.

Gyms, physical fitness centers, and many construction jobs require a degree of physical endurance. To test this endurance, you’ll need to conduct a physical endurance test.

5)  Emotional intelligence tests

Emotional intelligence plays a massive role in leadership and can contribute to employee development, morale, and self-esteem.

Emotional intelligence is the “ability to perceive, interpret, demonstrate, control, and use emotions to communicate with and relate to others effectively and constructively.” (Very Well Mind)

Find your employee assessment needs with Tawzef

To remain competitive, your company needs to conduct various types of employee assessments regularly and across teams.

But it’s not always easy to figure out which employee assessments are relevant to which team or department and what these assessments should include. It’s also essential you know how to evaluate the assessment and employee’s performance.

Once you uncover this information, the next step is to find a reliable source to provide you with the course and materials.

After all, the key to effective employee assessments is knowing what are the next steps needed and performing them.

To help companies hire better and faster, Tawzef provides a host of pre-hiring tests and employee assessments.

In addition, if your team lacks the skills needed to conduct and evaluate employee assessments, Tawzef’s HR consultancy services can help you too.