Finding the right talent for your startup team is challenging, but discovering the right tech talent is even more tasking. However, if you streamline the recruitment process, hiring becomes far more manageable. This is why technical screening in startups needs a revamp to improve the overall success rate.
Technical screening helps companies evaluate talent pools and pinpoint top performers. With a technical screen, you can discover applicants that are best suited for the role that needs filling. In addition, the screening process trims hiring times and cuts back on hiring costs.
What is Technical Screening?
Tech screening is an evaluation strategy that simultaneously assesses multiple candidates for their technical aptitude. In addition, technical screenings are customized to verify whether applicants have the required skill set for the position.
What is a technical screening interview?
A technical screening interview assesses candidates for their technical skills. These interviews are typically conducted on an online assessment platform so employers can observe applicants in real-time.
What is a technical assessment test?
Employers use a technical assessment test to determine an applicant’s role-specific skill set. The assessment includes role-orientated screening questions for candidates to solve. For example, assessment tests for software developers may vet candidates for their problem-solving skills, programming proficiency, skills in data structures and algorithms, and more.
5 Ways technical screening benefits start-ups
Finding the right technical fit for your startup can be challenging, especially for organizations that are new to the landscape. Fortunately, technical screening helps growing organizations find the best talent, and here’s how:
Reliable talent acquisitions
Technical assessment tests prove that a candidate can perform the job they are applying to. Micro-analyzing applicants for their understanding of core concepts such as Java concepts, REST APIs, programming skills, and problem-solving ability provides insights into the extent of knowledge they can apply and analyze. These insights help employers compare candidates and identify the best talent.
Reduced hiring times and costs
Technical screening significantly narrows down the viable candidate pool, reducing hiring time and friction along the recruitment funnel. Additionally, tech screening reduces hiring costs by filtering candidates, which reduces the number of conducted interviews.
Reducing hiring time is essential because applicants often apply to multiple jobs to increase their acceptance rate. Careerbuilder’s statistics revealed that job seekers spend 11 hours a week on average looking for work. Longer hiring time means you risk losing top talent to your competition, so streamlining the recruitment process is vital.
Fortunately, technical screening streamlines the evaluation process, freeing up your HR department to focus on other stages of the recruitment funnel.
Tech screening eliminates unconscious bias
Just like longer hiring times put you at risk of losing talent, unconscious hiring bias can also cloud recruitment decisions. Screening assessments are the most reliable way to cut human biases out of the hiring process. They allow employers to assess candidates purely on their technical abilities and merit with the help of pre-defined technical screening questions.
Employee retention and reduced turnover
Estimates reveal the costs of employee turnover management to be quite high. It costs a company about 30-50% of the annual salary to replace employee turnovers for entry-level positions. For more senior job roles, these costs only increase. For example, it can cost up to 400% of the annual salary to replace a high-level technical employee.
The numbers suggest it’s crucial to hire right in the first time itself. Technical screening reduces turnover and helps you avoid these high employee replacement costs. Additionally, it allows you to connect with the candidate better, giving them a chance to assess their decision thoroughly. Thus, it helps increase employee retention in the future.
Data-driven hiring decisions
Technical screening is objective and encourages data-driven decision-making. It ensures that selected candidates have the necessary qualifications and eliminates human biases. Moreover, technical screening is merit-based and thus validates that the hiring decision is objective.
How can start-ups conduct an effective technical screening?
Technical screening has a lot to offer, but how can you conduct it effectively? Here’s a rundown of the factors to account for.
Identify potential talent sources
The first step is to source talent and build your own talent pool. There are many ways to source talent, both internally and externally. The first strategy involves judging talents you already know, such as qualified applicants from a previous recruitment drive or existing employees. Moreover, tech employers can initiate employee referral programs to encourage their own team members to recommend quality talent.
Alternatively, startups can hunt for talent from external sources, including LinkedIn job portals and other social media platforms. According to Glassdoor, 79% of job seekers claim they are likely to search for jobs on social media platforms. This presents an ideal opportunity for employers to attract quality talent by publishing advertisements on these platforms.
Pick the right technical screening tool
After sourcing talent, you need to use the right screening tool to filter candidates and identify the best fit. A good technical screening solution should:
- Vet candidates for specific technical skills that a role requires.
- Have a repository of relevant, field-focused assessment questions.
- Auto-generate assessment evaluation reports.
- Facilitate multi-faceted evaluation on various parameters, with competitive scoring to facilitate informed decision-making.
- Facilitate conducting bulk assessment tests to scale your recruitment drive.
- Have video proctoring, plagiarism, and cheating prevention tools to guarantee fair evaluation.
- Allow employers to connect with candidates directly through automated emailing and inviting features.
- Provide quality video interviewing functionalities.
All-in-one tech recruitment platforms like WeCP help Startups in simplifying the technical screening and offer all these features to make quality hires.
Invite applicants for an assessment test
After choosing the right screening tool, you can craft a relevant skill test and invite applicants to sit for it. Manually inviting a large talent pool is tedious, but fortunately, platforms like WeCP offer automation features.
Tech employers can simply upload the email list of all the concerned applicants, and invite them to sit for the test in one go. Moreover, WeCP’s automated scheduling features help you avoid scheduling conflicts and find the best time to conduct screening assessments.
Filter the best candidates
After candidates sit for the screening test, you can view their scores via your chosen recruitment platform. Technical recruitment solutions grade the candidates automatically, and WeCP scores candidates across 12+ performance metrics. Competitive scoring helps you pick the best performers and make informed hiring decisions.
Occasionally, a single round of evaluation is insufficient for identifying the best talent. One round can filter your talent pool significantly, but may not highlight the right candidate. In this scenario, you can conduct further evaluations.
The second test can vet applicants for skills in more depth, or assess factors like a candidate’s cultural fit. For example, a code-pair programming test helps employers observe how candidates work in a team, indicating their cultural fit.
Alternatively, you can make a more challenging assessment, to determine which candidates have the strongest programming skills.
After selecting successful candidates, you can invite them for interviews for a final evaluation. Interviews allow employers to vet candidates for additional qualities, such as their communication skills.
Conduct a virtual interview
The black swan event that is COVID-19 hit the world hard and dramatically influenced how businesses in many sectors operate. Virtual interviewing and remote work became the norm.
While remote working conditions stemmed from a need, the transition invited benefits that were greatly welcomed. Employers and employees alike realized and appreciated the merits of remote work.
So, as the world recovers from the pandemic, business operations are holding on to remote and hybrid work environments. As such, virtual interviews will remain an important part of the hiring process. Remote interviews help employers overcome geographical constraints and reduce hiring costs.
Make the offer with confidence
Armed with the right data, tech employers can now make an informed hiring decision and onboard the best talent. So, extend the job offer to the right candidate with confidence, knowing that you’ve made the best decision.
Partner with WeCP - the best technical screening platform for start-ups
Technical screening is a comprehensive, multi-stage process that needs to be optimized at each level to guarantee the best results.
Tech recruitment platforms like WeCP (We Create Problems) contain a full suite of features and functionalities to streamline your recruitment process. With WeCP, you can discover the best talent in minimal time.
Get in touch with us to learn more about how WeCP helps startups grow their teams.
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