Job interviews are stressful. They put immense pressure on candidates, they have to perform their best, think sharp and react to questions quickly and convince another person that they do belong to the team. But nobody talks about how hard it is on the interviewer. After 10 years of present in the recruitment industry, our colleagues have mediated countless candidates to our clients. As recruiters, we adjusted to the stress of making these decisions, but many newcomers are frightened by the choices they have to make: deciding who is fit for a certain role in as short as 30 minutes.

Naturally, interviewers are trained to ask the right questions, but interpreting answers notoriously made under pressure, and possibly in an untruthful manner is quite the challenge. The practice within the industry reacted to it with a controversial solution: test tasks. They give you the impression of a candidate’s skills, how they use them to solve problems, and some personal characteristics as well. But is that really what test tasks tell you?

The picture obviously isn’t black and white. Many professionals oppose it and even more support it. It’s obviously more common in the case of junior-level positions, but still frequent amongst seniors. If you ask us, they work if your company has a solid positive reputation, and candidates are intrigued to work on the product. They might also be overlooked in cases when your company offers above-average salaries and notoriously luring benefit packages. Or possibly when someone wants to join your team to work with a highly professional team member, who might also look at the test task’s solutions and be impressed.

Otherwise, they only tell you two things. The first is the amount of time a candidate can take away from family or work, and the second is how desperate one is to be employed. Motivation levels, professionalism, and enthusiasm can be measured with way less controversial methods, you just have to take the time and figure out how. Will they put more pressure on the interviewer, and will their decisions have an even greater impact? Yes. Should this cause a problem in a workplace where they are respected, valued and trusted? We think not.

As we said, there are certain cases when a test task is justified after the first introduction call. In many others, it was simply designed as a shortcut to faster results. How to decide when to use them? Here are a few factors we recommend considering before assigning them:

1. The seniority level of the candidate you assign the test task to

For junior positions, it might be appropriate to want to examine the skillset a candidate has, as they don’t have an employment history to back their case. Senior professionals, however, might look at it as a form of doubt of their expertise, and it might lose you valuable talent.

2. Time frames

How fast you want a role to be filled, and how much time you have to give candidates to solve the problem. This thought process alone will tell you a lot of things you might have skipped when designing your recruitment process.

3. What you really want to know

Put together a list of qualities you’re looking for in a new team member, and create an ideal persona for the role. Find out how you can investigate these in people. Most of the time, test tasks will not be the only viable solution, and you will discover new methods, or will know what to ask for when you’re interviewing more specifically.

4. Who puts it together

Never forget about resources. Someone has to put together the test tasks, and it has to be a team leader or similar if you want to make it make sense. That might put unnecessary stress on them, not to mention it takes a lot of time. Are you ready to allocate that task to them, and for them to fall out of actual work while they’re prioritizing it?

5. Who evaluates it

Same as before. Most cases, a senior-level colleague has to evaluate the tasks, especially in IT where HR barely has the appropriate skills to determine the propriety of the answers. You will always have to provide feedback, and if you send the task to multiple people, then multiple times. If you skip it, rest assured the word will go around and it will eventually damage your brand image.

If you can’t seem to decide, here’s what we recommend:

1. 1. Talk about the candidate’s personal projects: this will give you an insight into what they’re about, and how they solve things without pressure.
2. 2. Let them know you want some proof of their skillset, and let them decide what to show you.
3. 3. Communicate your needs, and look for a solution that is beneficial for everyone.