The current workforce world requires modern hiring. In addition, with the advent of AI and Machine Learning, technical recruitment has evolved and has become more competitive.
This resulted in high demand for quality tech candidates with the appropriate technical skills. In the hiring scenario, the skills gap translates to a talent pool shortage. Resumes can only tell you so much about the candidate. Therefore, technical recruiters must ask pertinent skill-centric questions during the screening process.
That is precisely where coding skills assessments or programming assessments come in. The assessments consist of different types of questions for various technical roles. Ultimately, helping technical recruits and hiring managers to make informed decisions on hiring the right fit.
What is coding assessment?
A coding assessment, also known as a coding skills assessment or programming assessment, is a set of MCQs or simulation-based questions that assess the candidates’ technical skill set for the advertised position.
The coding assessments are conducted primarily during the screening stage and later during interviews. Depending on the needs, coding tests or programming assessments can be take-home assignments or online tests. The aptitude tests are unable to assess the candidates’ technical skills accurately. Coding tests solve that problem by identifying the exact technical skills required for the job role.
The correct coding assessment has the full potential to evaluate the right candidate. Whether a developer or an engineering role, the beauty of coding assessment is about knowing the exact difference between the skills needed for each role.
Additionally, coding assessments help improve the retention rate and indulge in unconscious bias during hiring. Finally, it is a scientifically-backed approach because it generates data-driven results.
Challenges faced while hiring tech talents
1. Highly dependent on the tech team
The backbone of the IT industry is the tech team. Developers, engineers, testers, data scientists, algorithm experts, and so much more are; it takes a village to keep the IT dream moving. Amidst the ongoing responsibilities, asking them to assess candidates’ coding skills can lead to delays. This, in return, can cost the company quality talent. Coding skills assessments can solve this dependency issue by correctly evaluating the required skills with no human error and much faster.
2. Lack of quality candidates
The lack of quality candidates is prevalent because of the skills gap. Fueling the extreme competition in the tech space where everyone wants to hire the best talent. Imagine the right fit who gets lost within the sea of resumes or slipping out on the best fit due to a smaller talent pool. Let the coding test do the work. It can provide detailed real-time results of the candidates’ technical skills, making it easy for the recruiters to make decisions.
3. Miscommunication with the hiring managers
Not an uncommon sight but can cause hindrance to the hiring process. Going through tons of resumes and interview calls all day long can be draining and slows down a team’s productivity. Coding skills assessments can be a great system to put the system in order. Recruiters can easily create customized tests after which the sifted quality candidates are further interviewed by the hiring managers, saving time and energy.
4. Inadequate skill evaluation process
Technical skills should be precisely assessed, establishing a standardized system by conducting coding tests. It helps effortlessly assess the technical skills during the screening and interview rounds. Technical hiring can be tedious, but a comprehensive coding test is a way to hire the best tech talent.
5. Unhealthy biased selection
Hiring based on only similar interests or how well the conversation went. All of it can be a form of biased selection. And may result in unequal opportunities for the rest of the candidates. Avoid this hiring issue by using coding skill assessments. It gives every candidate the chance to showcase their technical skills and the hiring team the details and insights for choosing the right fit for the organization.
6. Expensive bad hires
An absolutely costly affair; all the efforts and hours put in during the hiring journey are in vain. Additionally, you will have to repeat the sourcing, screening, hiring, and onboarding journey to fill the vacancy. This can severely affect the productivity of the team. Although bad hires are inevitable, opting for coding assessments can help reduce the risk. You wouldn’t be wasting time assessing unnecessary skills and will get to figure out the talent’s technical knowledge that aligns with the business outcome of the organization.
The right way to conduct coding assessments
Some factors should be taken into account when conducting coding assessments.
- Make sure that the coding tests are not lengthy because these could lead to disinterest resulting in negative candidate experience
- It should be able to test all the skills required for the job role
- Presence of helpful guidance like using code stubs for the respective programming test
- Setting up different levels of coding tests(background knowledge and simulation-based) rather than one extended tedious test
- Implement clear instructions regarding the language and the framework used during the test
- Proper structuring of the marking scheme according to the difficulty levels wherein only hidden test cases should have scores assigned
How to choose the right coding assessment platform?
The recruiting software market is growing at an astronomical rate, so there are many options and confusion. Therefore, to choose the right coding assessment platform, you must consider parameters specific to the organization. Keeping the business outcome in mind, alignment of these parameters takes place.
So let’s look at some of them to understand how to choose the right coding assessment platform.
– Vast library of question banks to choose from
– Able to provide work simulation through coding tests
– Easily customizable templates as per the organization’s needs
– Proper handling of proctoring regulation
– Should be easily scalable
– Automate the technical hiring journey
▶️Read more: Best technical screening tools of 2023.
Conclusion
Coding skills assessments are a great way to assess a candidate’s technical skills. The coding tests give technical recruiters and hiring managers clarity on whether or not they should offer the position. In technical recruiting, every step should be quantified and measured; coding tests allow the test makers to assess the candidates on different aspects of their technical skills. Use different types of questions, keep an eye on the scoring scheme, and have a thorough understanding of the job role.
Ready to conduct coding assessments?
With an extensive library of 150k+ unique questions for more than 2000 technical skills and precise candidate report analysis for faster decision-making. WeCP was able to hire 10,000+ solid engineers for Mindtree.
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