Pre-Employment Assessments vs Hiring Tests
Why the Difference Matters
Many hiring tools are incorrectly grouped together as pre-employment assessments. In reality, there is a critical difference between job-fit assessments and hiring tests, and confusing the two leads organizations to use the wrong tool for the wrong decision.
Hiring tests are designed to measure whether someone can perform a specific task. Job-fit assessments are designed to evaluate how someone is likely to think, behave, and sustain performance in a role over time. Also, hiring tests are designed to screen or rank candidates, while assessments are designed to inform hiring decisions.
Treating these tools as interchangeable leads to poor hiring decisions, higher turnover, inconsistent performance, and unnecessary legal risk. It also creates unrealistic expectations about what assessment data can and cannot tell you.
Understanding the difference is essential before selecting or deploying any assessment tool. Without that clarity, even well-validated assessments can be misapplied, resulting in hiring outcomes that do not improve.
What Are Hiring Tests
Hiring tests are designed to measure whether a candidate can perform a specific task or demonstrate a defined skill.
Common examples include:
• Skills tests
• Knowledge exams
• Typing or data entry tests
• Technical or certification tests
Hiring tests are typically pass/fail. They answer a narrow question: can the person perform this task today?
They do not measure how someone will think, behave, or sustain performance over time.
Why Pass-Fail Thinking Fails Hiring Decisions
Pass-fail thinking oversimplifies hiring decisions.
Arbitrary cutoffs assume there is one correct profile for success. In reality, performance varies, and multiple profiles can succeed in the same role.
Using assessments as automated filters:
• Eliminates viable candidates
• Masks development potential
• Increases bias risk
• Reduces hiring accuracy
This is one of the most common mistakes organizations make when using pre-employment assessments.
Where PXT Select Fits
PXT Select is not a hiring test.
It is a job-fit assessment.
It provides comparative data across thinking styles, behavioral traits, and occupational interests when aligned with a well-designed performance model.
PXT Select should not be used to accept or reject candidates automatically. Its value comes from:
• Structured interpretation
• Role-specific alignment
• Informed decision-making
When used correctly, it improves consistency, fairness, and hiring outcomes.
Using Tests and Assessments Together
Hiring tests and job-fit assessments serve different purposes and can be used together.
Tests answer whether a candidate can perform specific tasks.
Job-fit assessments help predict how someone will perform in the role over time.
Organizations that separate these functions make better hiring decisions and reduce early turnover.
Why This Distinction Matters
Confusing tests with assessments leads to poor tool selection, misuse, and disappointing results.
Understanding the difference:
• Improves hiring accuracy
• Reduces legal and compliance risk
• Sets realistic expectations
• Protects assessment integrity
This is why assessment strategy matters more than assessment selection.
Why Organizations Work With The Assessment Company
Founded in 1993, The Assessment Company has over 30 years of experience helping organizations use assessment data correctly.
We are not a test publisher.
We are not a software reseller.
We are practitioners of employment decision science.
Our role is to:
• Design defensible hiring processes
• Build role-specific performance models
• Deploy assessments correctly
• Reduce misuse, bias, and legal risk
PXT Select is one of the tools we use to do that work.
Next Steps
If you are evaluating assessments or already using PXT Select, the next step is to determine whether it is being applied correctly to your roles.
Assessment tools do not create results.
Processes do.
We help organizations build the right ones.
About the Author
John P. Beck, Jr. is the founder of The Assessment Company, established in 1993. He has over 30 years of experience helping organizations make better hiring, promotion, and development decisions using validated assessment tools and performance modeling.
John specializes in job-fit diagnostics, Occupational DNA modeling, and the responsible application of PXT Select. His work focuses on reducing turnover, improving performance consistency, and ensuring assessment data is used in a fair and defensible manner.