This blog post is based on the twenty-first episode of the data-driven recruiting podcast hosted by CodeSignal co-founders Sophia Baik and Tigran Sloyan. You can find and listen to this specific episode here or check out the video version embedded below.
Before we dive into the benefits of framework based assessments, we should first define them for you.
Rather than simply building a collection of questions, a framework based assessments starts with a framework that defines what you’re trying to measure, how you’re going to measure it, and how you’re going to score the results.
It’s like a specification document such as blueprint.
Everyone reading this has likely taken at least one framework based assessment in their life. Some examples include SAT, GRE, GMAT or TOEFL. People who are taking the exact same test at different times at different places will likely have different questions to solve, but the overall results can be compared to one another.
So… why choose a framework based assessment when launching technical (or any) assessment at your organization? Let’s dive into the benefits.
1. Integrity of Results
Have you ever created an assessment for a role at your organization? Have you ever used an assessment platform that provided a list of questions for candidates?
Chances are your questions are being leaked online and now everyone knows the answers.
Which means you can’t actually trust the results. Unless you can have a rigorous schedule of creating new and original tests, it will be difficult to prevent your candidates from having seen your questions online prior to taking your tests.
That’s why framework based assessments are awesome. Because the results are comparable, they allow you to create an endless amount of assessments with different questions that your candidates have not seen in other places. This ensures that your test results are trustworthy and product fair results for all.
2. Accuracy of Measurement
When you write down what you’re actually trying to measure, you get better at measuring. Who’d have thought?!
Many times when an organization creates an assessment internally, they ask internal team members to come up with some questions. But… are you measuring things that don’t matter or you don’t care about?
When you deliberately write down what you are and aren’t measuring for, you can build better assessments that truly assess the right skills.
By assessing only the skills that matter, you can understand the results and candidate skills in a more accurate way!
3. Consistency of Results
If you’ve tried to fix the problem of questions leaking online by having several versions of a test, can you prove that they’re all measuring the same skills in the same way? If not, you could be creating an unfair hiring process.
For example, do you know that the current test is the same level of difficulty as the previous one? Can you compare results between the two tests?
What if a new hiring manager comes onboard? Will they be able to understand results and create fair assessments? Chances are, unless you’re using framework based assessments, the answer is no.
It becomes unfair to the candidate and can introduce bias into your hiring process. If someone complains, you could be in the EEOC hot seat for not having a valid measurement system.
You need proof of consistency. Framework based assessments provide this while giving you limitless amounts of testing opportunities.
Building a test is both an art and a science. It takes a trusted content creator to ensure accuracy and integrity of results.
CodeSignal is the only framework-based technical assessment solution. Designed for companies of all stages and sizes, we’d love to hear from you!