Select a recruitment approach (assessments)
Your recruitment process must identify which candidate is the eligible person best suited to the role. Assessment processes should be accessible and inclusive, be relevant to the role requirements and the entity’s operating context, and enable a comprehensive and holistic assessment of each applicant in the context of being best suited to the position.
See our Recruitment and selection summary guide 832.4 KB) and speak to your agency’s HR team for help.
Assessments
When determining your recruitment approach, you may consider how you will:
- use a variety of assessment types relevant to the role that will help you assess applicants fairly and equitably, including accommodating any reasonable adjustments
- ensure the assessment process will be accessible, inclusive and culturally safe (as relevant to each circumstance and organisational context)
- provide for fairness in the selection process so that all applicants have the opportunity to show their eligibility and suitability for a role. For example, if the panel needs to seek any other information from any or all of the applicants that would give them the opportunity to show how they fit with the role, and demonstrate that they are the person best suited to the position
- avoid unconscious bias in your assessment
- clearly document how the panel determines which applicants should proceed to the next assessment step, such as through use of the Shortlisting matrix template.
Written assessment
This is when you ask your candidates to provide a written response to your job advertisement. This might include but is not limited to:
- a resume
- a cover letter responding to the criteria for the position.
Structured interview
This is when you invite your candidates to attend an interview. Ask your candidate questions to assess their interpersonal, communication, team and leadership skills. Make sure your questions explore candidate differences.
Acknowledge the subjective nature of interviews and the potential for unconscious bias. Ensure your recruitment process addresses this. Consider including additional assessments.
Skill sample tests
This is when you ask your candidates to perform job related tasks. For example, editing a document, analysing data, scheduling diaries. How candidates perform these tasks will be a good predictor of how they’ll perform in the role.
You could use this type of assessment before, after or during a structured interview.
Job knowledge tests
This is when you ask your candidates to complete a questionnaire or essay to demonstrate their technical knowledge for the role.
You could use this for technical roles such as technicians, fitters, mechanics and those designing, building and maintaining machines.
You could use this type of assessment before, during or after an interview.
Formal presentations
This is when you ask your candidates to prepare a formal presentation for the panel on a key aspect of the role.
You could use this type of assessment before, during or after your structured interview.
Assessment centres
For this type of assessment, your candidates attend an assessment centre. Assess their knowledge, skills, and abilities through a series of work samples and exercises (e.g. group activities, role-plays, presentations, media interviews) that reflect the types of problems they would face in the role.
You could use this type of assessment for highly competitive (e.g. graduate recruitment) or senior roles before or after an interview.
Situational judgement tests and integrity tests
Request your candidates complete a set of short scenarios that ask them to choose the best response, or rank the responses in order of most appropriate to least appropriate.
You could use this type of assessment to evaluate leadership, teamwork, values, and safety skills.
Cognitive ability tests
This is when you ask your candidates to complete a standardised test that assesses critical thinking and verbal, numerical and problem-solving skills. Tests can be targeted to the skills required for a role and automatically scored and benchmarked.
You could use this type of assessment after a written application and before inviting candidates to an interview. It’s useful for highly competitive roles (e.g. graduate recruitment) to reduce the number of candidates to a manageable number for interview.
Non-minority groups typically score higher than minority groups in this test, so ensure your recruitment process acknowledges and addresses this.