Hiring & Selection

A pre employment assessment is a standardized instrument an employer uses to measure a candidate's abilities, behaviors, or motivators before making a hiring decision. Used well, it adds a consistent, documented input to a process that otherwise runs on resumes and interview impressions. Used carelessly, it becomes a legal exposure. This page covers both halves: which assessment types exist, and what the law actually requires of the employer using them.

What Is a Pre Employment Assessment?

The word "standardized" is doing the work in that definition. Two interviewers can reach opposite conclusions about the same candidate and both be acting in good faith. A standardized instrument removes that particular source of variation from that particular input. It does not remove every source of variation from the hiring process, and no honest vendor claims otherwise.

It is worth being precise about what these instruments do and do not establish. An assessment measures the construct it was built to measure. Whether a given score relates to performance in a given job is a separate question answered by validation evidence for that role, not by the existence of the test.

The Five Types of Pre Employment Assessment

A sixth category is often missed because it sits outside the screening frame: motivators and values, which measure what drives a person's engagement rather than what they can do. This matters for retention. A candidate who is fully capable and entirely unmotivated by what the role offers will read as a strong hire on the first five categories and leave within a year.

Which TTI Assessments Are Used in Hiring

These can be run individually or combined into a multi-science report. The reason for combining them is straightforward: a candidate who is capable but unmotivated and a candidate who is motivated but underdeveloped look nearly identical on any single instrument, and they are entirely different hires.

Define the Role Before You Measure the Candidate

A TTI Job Benchmark is built from the job rather than from whoever currently holds it. The people who know what strong performance looks like define the behaviors, motivators, emotional intelligence, and personal skills the role demands. Candidates are then assessed against that documented standard rather than against a hiring manager's memory of the last good hire.

This sequence also matters legally. A documented, job-based standard produced before candidates are measured is the foundation of any argument that an assessment is job-related and consistent with business necessity, which is the standard the Uniform Guidelines set.

What the Law Requires When You Assess Candidates

Two things get claimed in this market that are not true, and it is worth stating both plainly. First, no assessment is "EEOC approved." The EEOC does not approve, certify, or endorse assessments; it enforces standards that employers must meet. Second, no assessment is free of the possibility of adverse impact. Adverse impact is a property of how a procedure performs across groups in a specific context, which means it can only be measured in use, not designed away in advance.

The actual standard is set out in the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures, which describes what validity evidence a selection procedure requires and when adverse impact analysis is triggered. The EEOC's own guidance on employment tests and selection procedures is the clearest short summary of employer obligations, and the professional standard behind validation practice is maintained by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

TTI publishes its validation approach, using content, criterion-related, and construct validity methods, along with its position on disparate treatment and disparate impact, on the TTI compliance page. Supporting research is available at the TTI research portal.

What a Behavioral Assessment Should Never Be Used For

This is a real constraint and it is worth understanding rather than working around. An ipsative instrument tells you what a person prefers relative to their own other preferences. It is well suited to understanding how someone will work, structuring an interview, and planning onboarding. It is not built to rank two people against each other on a single scale, and using it that way is both technically wrong and legally exposed.

In practice this means behavioral and motivators results belong in the conversation stage of hiring rather than the elimination stage. They tell you what to probe in the interview and what the person will need to succeed once hired. Beyond selection, the same results carry into professional development, team building, and succession planning, which is why a single measurement keeps returning value long after the hire.

Pre Employment Assessment FAQs

What is a pre employment assessment?

A pre employment assessment is a standardized instrument administered to job candidates before a hiring decision, scored the same way for everyone. Common types measure cognitive ability, hard skills, personality and behavior, situational judgment, or integrity. The standardization produces a comparable and reviewable record, which an unstructured interview cannot.

What are the assessment methods for hiring?

Five methods are in common use: cognitive ability testing, hard skills or work-sample testing, personality and behavioral assessment, situational judgment tests, and integrity testing. Motivators assessment is a sixth that is often overlooked and matters most for retention. Most organizations combine two or three, because each answers a different question about the same candidate.

Are pre employment assessments legal?

Yes, within a defined framework. Any assessment used in a selection decision is a selection procedure under the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures at 29 CFR Part 1607, which places the burden of showing job-relatedness and monitoring adverse impact on the employer rather than the vendor. No assessment is "EEOC approved," and none is immune from adverse impact. A documented job analysis, consistent administration, and ongoing adverse impact monitoring are what make a program defensible.

Can you fail a pre employment assessment?

It depends entirely on the instrument. Cognitive ability tests and hard skills tests produce scores that can sit above or below a threshold an employer has set. Behavioral and motivators instruments like TTI DISC and 12 Driving Forces have no pass or fail, because they describe preference rather than capability, and should not be used as a standalone screen. If you have been asked to take one, answering as you actually are produces the most useful result for both sides.

How do I choose a pre employment assessment for my organization?

Start from a documented analysis of what the role requires, then select instruments that measure those specific requirements. Ask any vendor for the technical documentation behind their validity claims rather than a summary statement, confirm results can be compared consistently across candidates, and establish how you will monitor adverse impact before you begin. Choosing a tool first and finding a use for it afterwards is how organizations end up with data that cannot be defended.