When it comes to hiring, employers are looking for the best and brightest; those who can bring something unique to their team.
With this in mind, communication assessment methods have become an increasingly popular way for employers to evaluate potential candidates’ skills and abilities before they make a job offer. From online screen tests to voice and writing assessments, there are several types of communication assessments that can help employers identify top talent.
In this blog, we’ll explore the four types of communication assessments that we implement at BUPLAS. These are:
- Online Screen Test
- Voice Assessment
- Writing Assessment
- Chat Assessment
We’ll discuss what each test covers, why it’s important, and how you can use it to benefit your hiring process.
Online Screen Test
Voice Assessment
Writing Assessment
Chat Assessment
Online Screen Test
An online screen test is a great way to assess an applicant’s communication skills quickly and effectively. This type of assessment typically requires applicants to answer a series of questions to assess their baseline language proficiency skills.
At BUPLAS, the Online Screen Test is an online assessment that measures Grammar, Vocabulary, Listening, and Discourse and Interactive Skills.
It is composed of four sections that operates in a context familiar to test-takers:
- Grammar questions structured in sentences
- Vocabulary items presented in holistic cloze passages
- Listening skill questions based on customer-service conversations; and
- Discourse and interactive skills questions related to call scenarios.
As the test is conducted and scored online on our cloud-based platform QUARTO, the BUPLAS Online Screen Test requires minimal to no supervision by your recruitment team.
Resources:
- What is the BUPLAS Online Screen Test?
- How to Measure Communication Skills the Right Way
With this type of screening, you can quickly filter applicants early in the recruitment process, and identify those who may be worth further consideration for the job. This makes the recruitment process more efficient by predicting the likelihood of an applicant passing the next round of communication assessments.
Voice Assessment
Voice Assessments are a great way to determine if a candidate is suitable for the role based on their spoken communication skills. This type of assessment is ideal for voice-based roles such as customer service, sales, or technical support where spoken communication is essential.
The BUPLAS VA: Voice Assessment in particular is designed to evaluate spoken communication skills. It is an automated assessment that involves applicants speaking into a microphone and answering questions through three parts:
- Reading a short passage
- Speaking about a general topic; and
- Discussing the topic in more detail
The results provide employers with insight into how well applicants can express themselves verbally, as well as their ability to stay on topic and handle difficult conversations.
What sets the BUPLAS Voice Assessment apart is its comprehensive measurement of skills that covers both the proficiency and performance aspects of communication.
These domains are Pronunciation, Grammar and Vocabulary, Discourse, and Interactive.
Resources:
- What is the BUPLAS VA: Voice Assessment?
- How to Measure Communication Skills the Right Way: The BUPLAS Framework
By using the BUPLAS VA, you can make informed hiring decisions based on candidates’ performance in the assessment. Since it helps identify individuals who excel in spoken communication, it increases the chances of your organisation hiring top talent.
Since the release of the automated version of the Voice Assessment, candidates can just easily log in to Quarto, a cloud-based recruitment portal that can be accessed anytime and anywhere, and take the Voice Assessment by responding to recorded question prompts. The candidates’ responses are recorded, accessed, and scored by expert assessors, with results being available on the system in as little as 15 minutes after taking the test.
Overall, the BUPLAS VA can help streamline your recruitment process and reduce time and effort for your recruiters.
Writing Assessment
Writing assessments are designed to evaluate an applicant’s writing skills. These assessments involve applicants creating short responses on topics related to the job they’re applying for. Within 30 minutes, candidates need to complete 2 writing tasks on a customer service service.
The BUPLAS WA: Writing Assessment is a valuable tool for evaluating written communication skills during the hiring process. It helps you find candidates who can express themselves concisely, structure their writing effectively, or use appropriate language for writing.
Like the BUPLAS VA: Voice Assessment, the BUPLAS WA: Writing Assessment measures the communication domains critical for success: Language, Discourse, Audience Awareness, and Task Fulfilment. Specifically, it measures whether candidates possess critical writing skills such as the ability to write clearly and logically, or the ability to respond to different customer scenarios.
Resources:
- What is the BUPLAS WA: Writing Assessment?
- How to Measure Communication Skills the Right Way: The BUPLAS Framework
By incorporating a writing assessment into your recruitment process, you can ensure that candidates possess the necessary writing skills to communicate clearly with customers, colleagues, and stakeholders.
Chat Assessment
Chat assessments are designed to evaluate an applicant’s ability to interact with others electronically in a chat during the hiring process. It is specifically designed for organizations that rely on chat interactions with co-workers, customers, or stakeholders.
The BUPLAS ChA: Chat Assessment is a powerful assessment that evaluates key chat skills. It allows you to measure how applicants respond to virtual customers, using different conversational styles, and how they resolve issues presented by the virtual customer.
Resources:
- What is the BUPLAS Chat Assessment?
- How to Measure Communication Skills the Right Way: The BUPLAS Framework
Like the BUPLAS VA and BUPLAS WA, the BUPLAS Chat Assessment is designed around the critical communication domains – Language, Discourse, Interactive, and Solution Strategy.This can help employers determine if someone is a good fit for the role, as they’ll be able to assess the candidates’ ability to express themselves, stay on topic and handle difficult conversations online.
In Summary:
Overall, communication assessments such as the Online Screen Test, Voice Assessment, Writing Assessment, and Chat Assessment are a great asset to any company’s recruitment process. They allow employers to evaluate candidates’ ability to communicate effectively in written and verbal form.
With the BUPLAS suite of communication skills assessments, you can ensure that your applicants have been thoroughly evaluated and your hiring processes are as effective as possible. Ultimately, this helps to create a successful team with individuals who possess the necessary communication skills for success in their roles.
So why BUPLAS? Give it a try and find out for yourself. If you want more information please feel free to request a demo to see BUPLAS’ full range of recruitment solutions.
