Pre-employment assessment
A pre-employment assessment is a structured method used before hire to examine evidence relevant to a role, such as a work sample, a test, or a simulation.
Start with the work
An assessment can be a work sample, a simulation, or another structured method. The name alone does not establish whether it is useful. First identify the work tasks and the competencies needed for the role, then decide what evidence would test them. The US Office of Personnel Management’s job-analysis guidance describes that sequence.
Match the method to the evidence
Work samples reproduce tasks that resemble the role. They can be a poor fit where the employer intends to teach the skill after hiring, as the OPM’s work-sample guidance notes. A different method may be more appropriate when the evidence needed is about learning, judgment, or prior experience.
Write down what the method can establish, what it cannot establish, and how the result will be read with the rest of the process. An assessment is not automatically an AI system, and no assessment type is a general ranking of candidate quality.