Pre-employment testing
Pre-employment testing gives hiring managers additional information to consider when making key recruitment decisions that supports anecdotal evidence provided by candidates throughout other elements of the selection process.
Use of tests can help to compare the candidate with the requirements of the job in a fair and objective way.
Common tests or assessments used as part of the selection process alongside an interview include:
- presentations
- in-tray exercises
- case study and scenario exercises
- psychometric assessment (for example, ability, aptitude, personality or work preferences).
Please note:
Psychometric tests must only be administered by a qualified person, therefore should only be used following prior discussion with HR.
Where additional assessment is used, candidates must be given adequate notice and sufficient details of tests to be completed, so candidates know what to expect of them during the selection process.
Please consult the staff recruitment guidelines in Appendix 1 of the Staff Recruitment and Selection Policy for mandatory assessment requirements and recommendations.
Academic roles
A key strand of the Framework for High-Quality Teaching and Learning is ensuring staff are appropriately qualified to teach. As part of the recruitment and selection process for all academic roles, it is expected candidates will complete an observed teaching session as an essential requirement of the interview process.
The primary goal of the teaching episode is to ensure candidates can evidence their ability to deliver an effective teaching and learning activity. Furthermore, candidates should be able to demonstrate they can relate to students and staff as part of their session.
The Teaching episode guidance template (Word, 37KB) provides further information and a form for recording.
Online skills assessments
The HR Resourcing team have partnered with skills testing platform SkillsArena to enable online pre-employment skills testing for shortlisted candidates.
A wide range of assessments covering many role types are available, some examples are:
- Pre-built skills assessments
- Microsoft Office/IT Literacy simulation tests
- Literacy and Numeracy
- Data Entry
- In-Tray Exercises
- Personality Profiling
- ‘Create your own’
- Include your own questions or scenarios for candidates to respond to.
If you choose to use a skills test from the SkillsArena platform, there is no cost to individual schools or departments, the majority of tests available are included in our subscription and are therefore would not be chargeable to schools or departments. There are some additional bespoke tests and assessments that are chargeable, however would not be arranged without prior discussion and approval.
The HR team will manage the test administration process. Some in-tray exercises require scoring locally due to differing requirements by organisation or role or if a 'create your own' exercise is developed.
Please note:
Sufficient time would need to be built into the process to allow administration of the tests and a reasonable amount of time for candidates to complete the assessments prior to attending an interview. A user-friendly report can be provided to the hiring manager for review, containing candidate scores.
Links to some relevant test overviews are available below. The full test directory can be found on the SkillsArena directory webpage.
Please speak to a member of the HR Resourcing Team to discuss potential tests for your next selection process.
Email: HRAssistant@ljmu.ac.uk
Telephone: 0151 351 9555
