Top Pre-Employment Tests and Screening Tools to Improve Hiring

Finding the right talent in the competitive job market today is an art and science. Resumes tell it all, but only partially; interviews, though valuable, are subjective and limited. It is on this premise that increasingly more HR departments are utilizing pre-employment tests and pre-employment screening solutions to introduce order and transparency into the hiring process.

These tools help employers move beyond guesswork. They offer real, measurable data about a candidate’s ability, personality, and potential fit. From communication and problem-solving skills to cultural fit, the right hiring assessment tests can be a game-changer.

Hiring managers and recruiters are under pressure to hire more quickly, more intelligently, and more fairly. With so many applicants and so little time, though, calling it right isn’t always so easy. That’s where applicant skills testing comes into play — it delivers a clear indication of who can get the job done and not just hype about it.

Here, we are going to talk about some of the top and most trusted tools available. Each one offers various pre-employment tests and screening features that can help improve your hiring decisions and allow you to build stronger, more efficient teams:

• TestGorilla – Offers a wide library of customizable assessments to test cognitive ability, personality, and job-specific skills.
• Criteria Corp – Provides scientifically validated tests that measure aptitude, personality, and emotional intelligence.
• Codility – Focuses on assessing the coding and technical skills of developers through real-world challenges.
• Harver – Specializes in volume hiring with data-driven assessments tailored for role-specific competencies and cultural fit.
• eSkill – Allows employers to create job-specific tests using thousands of modular questions across industries.
• ThriveMap – Creates realistic job previews to evaluate how candidates would actually perform in specific roles.
• Pymetrics – Uses neuroscience-based games and AI to assess soft skills, cognitive traits, and emotional intelligence for better role fit.

Each of these platforms has unique strengths, and choosing the right one depends on your organization’s needs, the roles you’re hiring for, and the candidate experience you want to create. 

TestGorilla

TestGorilla was launched in 2020 as an online pre-employment testing platform designed to streamline the hiring process by providing data-driven insights into candidates’ skills and aptitudes. Despite being relatively new, the platform has already become widely popular, with more than 1,500 companies worldwide leveraging it, among them famous companies like the NHS, PepsiCo, Sony, and Bain & Company.

What makes it great:

TestGorilla boasts a large talent pool of over 400 scientifically validated pre-employment tests with wide coverage of capabilities from cognitive to personality. It is most sought after for being simple to use, having customizable tests, and robust anti-cheating features such as copy-paste disabling, full-screen verification, and timed tests. Features like these enable the possibility of offering integrity to the applicant skills testing process.

Notable tests to try:

• Cognitive ability test:

This test assesses the overall intellectual capacity of a prospect, such as problem-solving capacity, logical aptitude, and arithmetic capacity. It’s designed to predict career success by assessing a prospect’s speed and productivity in processing information. 

• Time management test:

A situational judgment test that measures how prospects multitask, organize their work, and assign deadlines. It’s actual life-work situations that are employed to measure the performance and proficiency of a prospect in time-constrained situations.

• Culture add test

This test measures the extent to which a candidate’s values and behaviors are compatible with a company’s culture. In contrast to the usual culture fit tests, the Culture Add Test emphasizes what different insights a candidate can provide to add to the current team dynamics.

• Attention to detail (visual) test

This test measures the ability of a candidate in identifying errors, inconsistency, and gaps in information in text data. It is best applied in accuracy jobs, like editing, data entry, and quality check.

Conclusion

TestGorilla is a powerful pre-employment screening solution that balances extensive test selection with usability and test integrity. Due to its extensive collection of tests and versatile features, it can easily be utilized as an organizational screening testing tool for hiring to streamline their pre-hire screen tests and improve their hiring decisions.

Criteria Corp (HireSelect)

Criteria Corp was established in 2006 by David Sherman and Josh Millet. Criteria Corp is a Los Angeles-based web-based pre-employment testing company offering solutions to organizations. HireSelect is their flagship platform that helps companies make improved hiring decisions through scientifically valid assessment. Criteria Corp has been expanding its international presence over the years, serving clients in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Why it’s great

Criteria Corp combines science and technology to test candidates based on success-defining qualities. With tests that are based on industrial-organizational psychology, the platform is ideal for employers looking to test both aptitude and personality effectively. HireSelect comes with a user-friendly interface, as well as customizable tests and robust analytics, to simplify the hiring process. The platform also integrates with many Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), further asserting its worth in various hiring processes.

Notable tests to try:

• Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT):

The test measures a candidate’s problem-solving, learning, and critical thinking. The test is a 15-minute, 50-question test that provides a stable measure of overall intelligence and job performance potential.

• Employee Personality Profile (EPP):

The EPP assesses personality factors relevant to job behavior, such as motivation, interpersonal relationships, and work orientation. It is employed to forecast the fit of a candidate for a specific job role and organizational environment.

• Emotify

Emotify is an assessment tool based on a pre-designed game that tests emotional intelligence by assessing the candidate’s capacity to perceive, understand, and control emotions. This examination reveals information on interpersonal skills and emotional awareness, both of which are essential for teamwork and customer-facing roles.

Conclusion:

Criteria Corp’s HireSelect solution is special in that it approaches pre-hire testing through a fact-based methodology. By offering an assessment suite that determines cognitive function, personality traits, and emotional intelligence, it enables organizations to make smart, data-driven decisions regarding hiring. Its user-friendliness and integratability also render it a valuable resource for optimizing the hiring process in any number of sectors.

Codility

Founded by Tomasz Walen and Grzegorz Jakacki in 2009, Codility is a cloud-based technical hiring platform whose vision is to assess and streamline the developer hiring process. The firm, based in London, England, raised $22.1 million in capital from four investors in two rounds. Codility now has more than 1,200 customers worldwide, including industry leaders like Microsoft, PayPal, Slack, and Tesla, and helps them build high-performance engineering teams.

Why it’s great:

Codility is particularly tailored for technical teams who are looking to test developers in an efficient and effective manner. Codility offers multiple types of applicant skill tests, including real-world coding challenges and live coding interviews. Its capabilities verify the skills of the candidates before they proceed to the interview process so that the hiring managers are able to make decisions effectively. Codility’s platform supports a very wide range of programming languages and technologies, thereby becoming universal for technical job roles.

Codility

Notable tests to try:

• CodeLive for Live Coding Interviews:

CodeLive is Codility’s live interview platform that facilitates live coding sessions between interviewers and candidates. It provides a live coding environment, allowing real-time collaboration and assessment of a candidate’s problem-solving and coding abilities.

• Algorithm and Data Structure Tests:

Codility offers a series of algorithm and data structure-oriented tests to verify the candidate’s ability to solve complex problems in a proper and efficient manner. These tests hold more significance in positions requiring good analysis and coding skills.

• Language-Specific Skills Tests (e.g., Python, JavaScript, Java):

The site provides language-specific tests, such as Python, JavaScript, and Java. They ascertain the ability level of the candidate in the language to be employed in the work, providing an appropriate fit for the technical requirements of the work.

Conclusion

Codility is a full-fledged pre-hire technical screening hiring software. Its focus on in-job coding challenges, live team coding interviews, and language-based assessment makes it a very strong platform for companies that wish to augment their hiring interview tests and hire excellent engineering candidates.

Harver

Harver is a platform for e-employment testing that was built to automate the hiring process, particularly in cases of high-volume hiring. Through data-driven technology, Harver enables businesses to efficiently evaluate large groups of candidates and make objective, predictive hiring decisions. Harver is used in various industries like retail, hospitality, and customer service to maximize hiring quality and velocity.

What makes it great

Harver excels at optimizing high-volume recruitment with its suite of automated, unbiased pre-hire screening technologies. The solution offers configurable assessments that are tailored to specific job functions, which are proper and precise for the evaluation of candidates. With the addition of realistic job previewing and interactive testing, Harver not only assesses candidate fit but also informs candidates about the job precisely, thus enhancing the candidate experience. This approach assists in reducing early attrition by providing a fit between candidate expectations and reality for roles.

Notable tests to try:

• Situational Judgment Test (SJT):

Harver’s SJT presents candidates video-based, role-specific situations to try their hand at decision making and problem solving. By gauging responses to actual workplace scenarios, this test predicts a candidate’s future job performance and cultural fit in the firm. It is also an authentic job preview, enabling candidates to assess on their own whether they are a good fit for the role.

• Personality and Behavioral Assessments

These assessments measure traits such as conscientiousness, flexibility, and interpersonal skills. By understanding the behavioral tendencies of a candidate, employers can predict their performance in groups and in dealing with workplace problems, fitting into business culture and job requirements.

• Multitasking and Typing Simulations:

Designed for roles that require efficiency and accuracy, these simulations check the candidate’s typing speed and multitasking abilities. These tests are most effective for customer support and service jobs, which require multitasking.

• Language Proficiency Tests:

Harver offers language skill tests to gauge the level of proficiency of a candidate in a specific language, especially grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. The tests offer guarantees that the candidates are suitable for the linguistic environment required in jobs that demand communication with clients or colleagues.

Conclusion:

Harver is an end-to-end pre-employment screening solution that is tailored to fit businesses who want to optimize their high-volume hiring processes. By integrating realistic job previews and scientifically validated assessments, Harver enhances the predictive validity of hiring assessment tests to not only ensure that candidates have the required skills but also that they are a cultural and role expectation fit for the business.

eSkill

eSkill is an extremely versatile pre-employment testing solution that allows HR departments to design highly customized tests for nearly any job role or industry. Founded in 2003, eSkill has emerged as a trusted solution for organizations needing flexibility and precision in evaluating candidates’ skills. It’s being widely used in sectors like healthcare, finance, customer service, HR, and education.

What makes it great:

What sets eSkill apart is its versatility. It’s a go-to pre-employment testing solution for companies that must test real-world, job-specific competencies. Instead of generic quizzes, you can create custom tests from a library of over 800 modular topics. They can be mixed and matched to create exact-fit tests for the job you’re hiring for. That means better hiring decisions and a better candidate experience.

You also get access to features like video response questions, simulation-based tests, and compliance-ready reporting. Plus, the platform supports integration with major ATS and HR platforms.

Notable tests to try:

• Customer Service Scenarios

These situational tests present candidates with real-life customer interactions. They measure problem-solving, empathy, and communication skills — essential for roles that require direct customer contact. The tests help identify applicants who can handle pressure and keep customers satisfied.

• Accounting & Finance Assessments

Developed for jobs in bookkeeping, payroll, or financial analysis, these tests cover everything from simple math to higher-level accounting principles. They’re ideal for screening applicants with strong attention to detail and numeracy — two musts in finance jobs. 

• Microsoft Office Proficiency Tests

These assess a candidate’s hands-on knowledge of programs like Excel, Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint. You can examine specific tasks like pivot tables or document formatting — perfect for jobs where computer literacy is critical.

• Healthcare-Specific Skills

eSkill’s healthcare assessments measure customers’ understanding of clinical terminology, patient care, HIPAA compliance, and medical billing. They are ideal for pre-screening candidates in medical offices, clinics, and hospitals where accuracy and compliance with regulations matter most.

Conclusion:

eSkill is a very good applicant skills testing solution, especially if you’re hiring across multiple departments with different needs. With its large test bank and customization capability, it matches your hiring assessment tests to the exact skills you want to test — making your hiring process smarter, faster, and more consistent.

ThriveMap

ThriveMap is an innovative pre-employment test solution that stands out on realism. The UK-based ThriveMap helps businesses move beyond antiquated testing using realistic, narrative-based tests that mirror the true experience of a typical workday. A younger company to be in the market, they have already stirred by greatly improving candidate experience and reducing early turnover.

What makes it great:

ThriveMap’s approach flips the script. Instead of asking if a candidate is capable of doing a job, it asks — will they even enjoy it? That’s a huge deal for high-turnover jobs or those that demand highly specialized skills of softness.

By creating customized “day in the life” scenarios, ThriveMap offers a form of applicant skills testing more in the nature of a job preview than a test. Candidates are guided through realistic tasks, challenges, and decisions they would face in the role. The result? Better alignment, better engagement, and fewer post-hire surprises.

It’s especially useful for operational, frontline, and customer-facing roles, where job fit and transparent expectations are critical.

Notable tests to try:

• Custom “Day in the Life” Simulations

These take candidates through simulated scenarios based on the real job — emails to respond to, tasks to schedule, customer calls to handle. It’s a great way to test hard and soft skills as well as give candidates an idea of the job.

• Task Sequencing and Prioritization Tests

These test how candidates organize their workload, spot bottlenecks, and make timely choices. Ideal for high-pressure environments where multitasking is critical.

• Behavioral Matching to Company Culture

ThriveMap trusts in subtle signs and scenario-based answers to gauge if a candidate’s values and actions match your company’s culture. This means that new hires not only perform well — but fit well.

Conclusion

If you wish to increase retention and build better candidate experiences, ThriveMap is a next-generation pre-employment testing system. Its simulation-based, job-specific hiring assessments bring authenticity into your hiring pipeline — hiring candidates not only capable but enthusiastic.

Pymetrics

Pymetrics is a neuroscience-fueled pre-hire test that helps to uncover cognitive, emotional, and social skills of applicants via gamification. Founded in 2013 in New York, Pymetrics caters to global companies like Unilever, Accenture, and LinkedIn. Employers utilize its science-based approach to make more informed, fairer hiring decisions by putting people into roles where they will excel. In 2022, Pymetrics was acquired by Harver, enhancing its ability to offer even more predictive, data-driven hiring solutions. This acquisition brings together Pymetrics’ unique approach with Harver’s comprehensive talent assessment tools, helping organizations further refine their hiring processes.

What makes it great:

Pymetrics is unique in that it does not rely on resumes or experience alone. Instead, it tests potential — measuring how job applicants think, react, and solve problems through fast, interactive games.

It uses artificial intelligence and neuroscience to deliver fact-based insights into traits like risk tolerance, focus, memory, and emotional intelligence. It’s especially helpful for companies wanting to build more diverse hiring pipelines and uncover previously undiscovered talent.

Every test score is compared to high-performing employee benchmarks, allowing employers to predict who will excel in specific roles. It’s a new way of using hiring tests that makes them more predictive and less judgmental.

Notable tests to try:

• Gamified Cognitive and Emotional Tests

Pymetrics’ core product is a set of neuroscience-based games that test attention, memory, and learning style. They’re short, simple to administer, and science-based.

• Emotional Intelligence & Social Characteristics Tests

They screen for empathy, fairness, and decision-making style — great for jobs where interpersonal skills are the top priority.

• Behavioral Matching Algorithm

Applicants are then assigned to jobs best suited for their natural behaviors once they’ve completed the games. Employers can compare candidate profiles with high-performing employee models to improve hiring accuracy.

Conclusion

Pymetrics is a future-focused solution for companies that want to look beyond the resume and focus on raw talent and fit. Its gamified, neuroscience-driven applicant skills testing method is not only engaging for candidates — it also brings rich, bias-free insights to your hiring decisions.

If you’re looking for a pre-employment test platform that values potential over pedigree, Pymetrics is definitely worth exploring.

Comparison of the top pre-employment testing tools

Final thoughts

Relying on gut feelings or making guesses about a candidate’s potential is no longer a viable approach in recruitment. Career paths are not written on tarot cards, and the hiring decision should no longer rely on gut feelings. Instead, pre-hire screening tools and recruitment tests quantify definite, fact-based data that drives every step of your hiring process.

In this article, we’ve highlighted a selection of tools that stand out for their ability to measure not just skills, but the essence of what makes a candidate a true fit. From TestGorilla’s vast library of validated tests to Codility’s hands-on coding challenges, each platform offers a tailored approach to evaluating job-specific competencies. Harver and ThriveMap are in on the role-simulation secret, where what you see happen in the hiring process is what you get in the workplace. eSkill and Criteria Corp push further to develop specialized skills testing, and Pymetrics takes a leap further into possibility with gamified neuroscience.

Whether you’re considering technical competence, emotional intelligence, or cultural fit, these instruments allow you to assess candidates on a multi-dimensional basis — and it’s not interviews or resumes. They offer you the capacity to predict success with confidence, not guesswork.

Choosing the right hiring assessment tests means making decisions that ring true beyond the technical skills. It’s about building a team that gets the job done, stays motivated, and is aligned with your company’s vision and values.