Top 20 Tools to Test Remote Job Applicants You’ll Need as a Hiring Manager

Are you an employer, hiring manager, or recruiter looking to test and assess your job applicants, but finding the manual testing too slow, inaccurate, and often biased? Then check out these 20 online tools to help you identify qualified candidates and find the best matches for your team.

What is a ‘Recruitment Assessment’?

Before we dive into the specific tools to test job applicants, it’s important to understand recruitment or pre-employment assessment and what it is.

This can be a test or a questionnaire that a company can use to find out which applicant has the best hard and soft skills related to the job position, as well as the best cultural fit for the company.

Typically, this test will cover questions regarding:

• The position itself
• Industry
• Soft skills

Problems-solving and situational judgment

• Applicant’s personality and motivation
• Their communication and cognitive ability

Recruitment Assessment Tools vs Manual Assessment

One question that a hiring manager might have is: Why would they use a third-party testing tool and not simply assess them manually?

 Three key answers to this are:

1. Avoiding bias

Hiring managers are people like any other and they might find that they like one candidate better than another personally. While this is understandable on a human level, it can ultimately lead to a poor candidate choice. 

On the other hand, a remote testing tool is software and does not have such feelings.

1. Better accuracy

Secondly, as we already mentioned, a remote recruitment test or questionnaire will cover questions related to everything from the position, skills needed for it, understanding of the industry, to the applicant’s personality and communication, handling difficult or stressful situations, and so on.

No matter their experience, a human tester won’t always be 100% accurate in grading all of these, and testing tools can do a much better job.

1. Speed

Finally, while it takes time to find the right candidate and the hiring process can sometimes take months, this process can be done faster with a recruitment assessment tool that can test hundreds of applicants in minutes whereas manually it might take days.

What Features to Look for in a Recruitment Assessment Tool?

As a recruiter looking to use a pre-employment assessment tool to find qualified candidates, what are some key features that you should look for in a tool like this?

1. A variety of testing types

One test alone can’t tell you if the candidate is good or not. This is why a recruitment assessment tool needs to have a variety of testing types including technical, personality, job-specific, soft skills tests, behavioral, aptitude, psychometric and more.

1. Automated candidate ranking

Ranking candidates on their test scores can be difficult and takes time. Fortunately, testing tools usually have this useful feature that allows you to auto-sort candidates and save you time.

1. Testing templates

While you can always create a test from scratch, in most cases it’s easier and quicker to use a pre-made testing template related to the specific position or industry.

1. Bias-reducing features

Bias is one of the key problems in recruiting. This is why remote testing tools eliminate it by anonymizing candidates and focusing on their skills.

1. Anti-cheating features

Yes, some candidates will cheat, for instance, by having another browser window open to look for answers. Recruitment assessment tools use digital proctoring features like ID-based candidate verification, locking down browsers, tools to identify fake or plagiarized code, visual environment checks, and more.

1. Role-based simulations

While there’s no true replacement for a real-world scenario, simulations are the next best thing for the recruiter to see how a candidate would perform in a specific situation.

Best Recruitment Assessment Tools

Now let’s finally take a look at the 21 best pre-employment assessment tools you can use as a remote recruiter or hiring manager.

TestGorilla

TestGorilla includes a huge test library of nearly 300 tests for skills from Account management and language proficiency tests to Attention to detail and Following instructions. In addition, TestGorilla can also pre-screen candidates based on their CVs to rank them.

All tests are scientifically-validated to remove bias and help recruiters make faster and better hiring decisions when screening and assessing job candidates.

Pricing:

• Free – $0/month
• Pay as you go – $25/month
• Scale – $300/month
• Business – $2,000/month

iMocha

iMocha is an intuitive AI-powered recruitment assessment software that helps companies reduce hiring times and recruit qualified candidates.

The platform contains more than 1,000 skill tests, including Coding, Language Communication, IT Skills, Engineering, Digital Marketing, and more.

iMocha also helps with pre-employment assessment through simulators, live video interviews, and Ai-enabled proctoring features among other features.

Pricing:

Get a quote from iMocha

eSkill

eSkill is a pre-employment screening and assessment platform that offers over 800 standard tests as well as the ability to create your own custom tests related to your job or industry.

As well as skill testing, eSkill also includes personality and behavioral tests for candidates, allows candidates to self-record their video interviews, and as well as skill gap assessment tools to identify areas where the candidate is lacking.

Pricing is only available for the Small Business Plan, which costs $100 per month and is billed annually, and for all other plans, it is upon request.

Pricing:

• Small Business Plan – $100/month (billed annually)
• Staffing – Contact sales
• Basic Subscription – Contact sales
• Premium Subscription – Contact sales
• Enterprise Subscription – Contact sales

HR Avatar

HR Avatar is a user-friendly pre-employment test platform that offers 200+ tests including skill tests, personality tests, competency tests, and more.

It also has live and recorded video interviews, automated reference checks, digital proctoring, advanced reporting, and 2D character simulations.

Once the candidate signs up for a test, they are walked through the testing process by an avatar and the hiring manager receives a detailed report via email with candidate scores and how they would fit the position.

Pricing:

• 1 Candidate Credit Pack – $50
• 10 Pack – $350
• 25 Pack – $785
• 50 Pack – $1,430
• 100 Pack – $2,660
• 500 Pack – $12,300

Criteria

Criteria is a scalable testing platform suited for both SMBs and large enterprises that uses gamification to make assessment candidate assessment more engaging.

The platform includes a wide range of psychometric personality, job readiness, cognitive ability, and risk tests.

Criteria also offers a 21-day free trial for up to 20 tests for new users after which pricing is upon request. 

Pricing:

Talk to Criteria’s sales team for a custom price quote or get a free trial.

Harver

Harver is a pre-employment assessment solution that includes tests for a variety of industries including Hospitality, Financial, Retail, Remote Working, and so on.

The platform is also built to handle volume hiring by streamlining the hiring process through automation and identifying the best candidates for the company’s needs.

Finally, according to Harver, their platform is able to improve recruiter efficiency 6X, has an almost perfect candidate satisfaction score of 94%, and reduces hiring time by 40%.

Pricing:

Book a demo.

Alva

Alva puts emphasis on psychometric tests rather than on sifting through CVs to help employers find qualified candidates for their jobs.

The platform also promotes diversity and inclusivity to give each candidate the same objective chance, regardless of sex or race for example.

Finally, tests take only 20-25 minutes to complete on mobile or desktop and candidates can share their results with one click.

Pricing:

• Pay as you go – €9/candidate
• Grow – €299/month
• Scale – €1,199/month
• Enterprise – Talk to Sales

Vervoe

Vervoe is an AI-powered recruitment assessment platform that puts the candidate’s interview first and their background second in screening applicants.

Its assessment library includes over 200 tests for popular skills like Analytical, Problem Solving, language proficiencies, Medical Assessment, Legal and more.

Each assessment can be customized to better fit the employer’s needs to include the relevant technical, communicative, cognitive, aptitude, and industry-specific skills.

Pricing:

• Pay & Go – $19/month
• Growth – $250/month
• Enterprise – Talk to Sales

Mercer Mettl

Recognized as the best software and global leader in 2022 in Assessment Technology by G2, Mercer Mettl offers a wide range of online assessment tools for pre-employment including Communication, Sales, Technical, Psychometric and Aptitude assessments.

In addition to this, the AI-powered digital pre-employment platform also excels at proctoring, using three-point user authentication, browser lockdown, and finally, human proctoring.

Pricing:

Contact sales to get a quote.

HighMatch

The goal of hiring a new person isn’t just to hire someone with the best skills, but someone who will best match the new company. 

For this reason, HighMatch emphasizes the candidate’s personality, communication skills, culture, and more as primary in relation to the hiring process and finding the best match for the company.

Pricing:

Request a quote from the sales team.

Wonderlic WonScore

Powered by AI, Wonderlic WonScore helps hiring managers in their never-ending quest to find the most qualified candidates for their companies.

This science-backed recruitment assessment platform uses the I-O (Industrial-Organizational) psychology approach, which focuses on “helping employers treat employees fairly, helping make jobs more satisfying and workers more productive”.

Finally, Wonderlic is one of the most enduring names in psychometric assessment as the Wonderlic Personnel Test was first introduced in 1937, which then led to WonScore.

Pricing:

Schedule a demo.

The Predictive Index

For companies that are in a hurry to find suitable candidates and for which even a 25-minute test is too long, The Predictive Index offers a solution.

All a recruiter needs to do is prepare a job description and invite candidates for a short, 6-minute Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment.

The PI Behavioral Assessment is a scientifically-validated test for workplace use and is certified by the DNV-GL under standards defined by the European Federation of Psychologists’ Association (EFPA).

PI assessments help employers:

• Understand the needs of a specific job role, team, project, or business strategy
• Collect “people data” from candidates and/or employees
• Use said data to make more informed decisions

Pricing:

Talk to sales for a quote

Woven

Unlike most tools to test remote job applicants on this list so far, which can be used for every industry from agriculture to waste management, Woven focuses on computer software engineers.

It is not, however, a tool that will help you find someone with basic PHP coding abilities, but rather top engineers who can fill in senior positions on the frontend, backend, data engineers, DevOps, etc. 

So how does it work? 

First, candidates need to complete a 30, 60, or 90-minute technical assessment (on their own time). This is then scored by two engineers using a structured score rubric. If there is any disagreement between those two engineers, the third (engineer) acts as a tie-breaker.

Pricing:

Talk to sales to schedule a free demo. Plans start at $3,500/hire.

Qualified

Speaking of coding assessment platforms, another one on our list is Qualified. It includes a large library of pre-built assessment tests or allows users to create their own coding challenges based on their specific needs.

Assessments are available in 29 different programming languages and the platform is also very serious about preventing plagiarized code through strong digital proctoring so that only the really good and not cheaters can pass these tests.

Pricing:

Get a free trial.

TestDome

Having to go through hundreds of CVs is not easy and takes a lot of time. So no wonder hiring managers can sometimes be grumpy. 

Fortunately, pre-employment assessment tools like TestDome can help make their life much easier and in turn help hiring managers find the most qualified person for the position they are looking for.

What’s really good here is that all a recruiter needs to do is to paste the job description with the skills test link so that the candidate can take it immediately upon applying for the job, thus eliminating the need for screening and interviewing.

Pricing:

• Starter – $5/candidate. Max 5 candidates. $100 total
• Small – $16/candidate. Max 25 candidates. $400 total
• Medium – $10/candidate. Max 100 candidates. $1,000 total
• Large – $8/candidate/ Max 300 candidates. $2,400 total
• Extra Large – $7/candidate. Max 600 candidates. $4,200 total

Paradox Traitify

Traitify uses personality data to deliver science-backed insights that help recruiters find the best candidates for job positions.

With the visual-based format that Traitify offers, both recruiters and candidates benefit. First by being able to better and faster engage candidates and the latter by getting a better experience in the otherwise stressful task of job finding.

Pricing:

Talk to sales to book a demo.

AssessFirst

With AssessFirst, recruiters can make more informed decisions on who the next employee in their company might be. This AI-based platform aims to first get the most comprehensive picture of the candidate by collecting data points from various sources and uses AI to build algorithms to analyze the best-performing candidates.

All of this makes for a more accurate and reliable, rather than a biased recommendation that hiring and talent managers can use to make their decisions.

Pricing:

• Starter – £190/month (billed yearly)
• Professional – £430/month (billed yearly
• Enterprise – Prices on demand

TalentSorter

Don’t want to waste time reading hundreds of CVs and resumes as a hiring manager? Then TalentSorter can help you with the power of human analytics and behavioral science. 

The platform uses FitScore, which allows the recruiter to not only find the candidate with the best skills, but also the personality and attitude for the job and the team.

Pricing:

• Starter Plan – $499/month
• Small/Medium Business – $899/month
• Business Growth – $1,599/month

HireVue

For a variety of reasons, the hiring process is sometimes just not fair. HireVue aims to correct that and improve the experience for both the recruiter and the candidate.

In HireVue, you get an end-to-end hiring solution with automated scheduling, assessments, and video interviewing among many other features, that should all make the hiring process at least a little less stressful for everyone involved.

Pricing:

Speak with sales for a demo or quote.

Toggl Hire

Toggl Hire is a part of the larger Toggl family of products, which also includes Toggl Track and Toggl Plan.

Founded in 2017 by Alari Aho and Marit Martin in Tallinn, Estonia, Toggl Hire aims to automate the hiring process, especially in Marketing, Sales, Design, etc. and the company has already helped more than 1,000 companies to date find and recruit skilled people.

Pricing:

• Free – $0/month
• Basic – $17/month
• Premium – $199/month
• Business – $399/month

Conclusion

A CV isn’t nearly enough to tell you everything you need to know about a candidate that you need. This is why it’s necessary to put them through a test and see for yourself if they have the skills and knowledge necessary to perform the job you want them to.

The problem is that testing people manually is not only slow, but it is often inaccurate and biased.

Luckily, as you can see, there are plenty of tools to test remote job applicants online that will help employers and hiring managers separate qualified from unqualified candidates and finally find the best candidate match for their company.