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By Martin Kavanagh – Head of Assessment, Amberjack
Competition for talent doesn’t end when an offer is made, nor does it start when a candidate begins your assessment process. Every interaction an individual has with your organisation, from their first impression through to their first day and beyond, shapes how they feel about joining and staying.
In a market where many employers are reporting record application numbers, it can be tempting to assume that attraction is no longer a challenge. If thousands of people are applying for a role, surely the hard work is done?
The reality is more nuanced. Application numbers tell us that candidates are interested enough to apply, but they tell us little about how engaged candidates are likely to remain throughout the process, whether they understand the role, or whether they will still feel excited about joining when an offer arrives.
Too often, attraction and assessment are treated as separate activities. Attraction is seen as the responsibility of employer brand and recruitment teams, while assessment is viewed as a mechanism for identifying talent. Candidates experience things differently. From their perspective, attraction, assessment and selection form a single journey, with every interaction shaping their perception of what it would be like to work for an organisation.
At Amberjack, we’ve long argued that assessment should be viewed as an extension of attraction rather than a separate activity. The organisations that create the strongest candidate experiences are often those that treat assessment design and employer brand as part of the same conversation.
When Assessment Becomes the Candidate Experience
A few years ago, I was mentoring someone navigating the early careers market. During one of our conversations, she showed me a summary of all the assessment processes she had completed.
What surprised me was not the number of applications she had submitted. It was how she remembered them. Rather than talking about employers, she talked about assessments. She could recall a situational judgement test, a strengths questionnaire, a video interview and an online assessment centre. She remembered what she had been asked to do, how the experience made her feel and which exercises she had enjoyed. What she often struggled to remember was which organisation each process belonged to.
She described feeling “sheep-dipped” through increasingly similar recruitment processes.
Her experience highlights an uncomfortable challenge for employers. Significant investment may go into attraction campaigns and employer branding activity, but candidates often spend most of their time interacting with assessment processes. If those experiences feel generic or indistinguishable from competitors, much of that investment risks being diluted.
The issue is not that organisations assess too much. It is that many assessment experiences are becoming difficult to distinguish from one another. Candidates move through similar tests, interviews and exercises regardless of the organisation they are applying to, creating a missed opportunity to reinforce employer brand, culture and values.
Perhaps I would say this given my professional background, but in many respects, assessment is not simply part of the candidate journey. For many candidates, it is the candidate journey.
Every Assessment Sends a Message
Whether organisations intend it or not, candidates are constantly drawing conclusions from the recruitment process. They are not only evaluating the opportunity in front of them, but also forming opinions about the organisation behind it.
When an assessment feels thoughtful, relevant and well designed, candidates often make a simple but powerful connection:
“If this much care has gone into the assessment process, then surely the same care will go into supporting me and my career.”
Assessment becomes evidence that the organisation values quality and the people engaging with it.
The reverse is equally true. Generic assessments, poor communication and experiences designed around organisational convenience rather than candidate experience all send signals. Assessment therefore communicates far more than capability requirements. It also communicates organisational values, priorities and culture.
This is why assessment design deserves the same attention as attraction strategy. While organisations invest heavily in employer branding, assessment remains one of the most tangible ways candidates experience an organisation.
Helping Candidates Understand How They Can Succeed
At its best, assessment does much more than measure talent. It helps candidates understand what success looks like and whether they can genuinely see themselves in the role.
A job description can outline responsibilities. A careers site can communicate culture. Assessment brings these messages to life by allowing candidates to experience elements of the role for themselves.
The most effective assessments do more than predict future performance. They act as realistic previews of the role, helping candidates understand the challenges they are likely to encounter, the skills that matter most and the behaviours that are valued.
This benefits both parties. Candidates can make informed decisions about whether the opportunity aligns with their strengths and aspirations. Employers benefit from attracting people who have developed a realistic understanding of the role and are joining with confidence that they have made the right decision.
Candidates also want to feel that there are real people behind the process. Technology has an important role to play in creating efficient and scalable recruitment processes, but efficiency alone is unlikely to create engagement. The organisations that balance efficiency with empathy often create a genuine competitive advantage, because candidates are more likely to remain engaged when the experience feels transparent, relevant and respectful.
Assessment Should Help Candidates Decide Too
Historically, assessment has been viewed through the lens of helping organisations decide who to hire. While that remains a critical objective, the most effective assessment processes achieve something more. They help candidates make informed decisions about their own future.
I often think back to being shown the list of assessments rather than a list of employers. This experience serves as a reminder that candidates do not experience attraction, assessment and selection as distinct activities. Instead, they experience one continuous conversation with an organisation.
The organisations that stand out are rarely those with the most complex assessment processes or the most sophisticated technology. More often, they are the organisations that help candidates understand the role, experience the culture and picture themselves succeeding.
Assessment may be designed to identify talent, but its influence extends much further. When organisations view assessment as an extension of attraction, they create experiences that do more than evaluate candidates. They help people understand the opportunity, build confidence in their decision to join and develop a stronger connection with the organisation from the very start.
Because every interaction matters.
Amberjack can work closely with you to improve quality of hire and reduce the risk of reneges. This is achieved by giving candidates a realistic view of the role and an experience that reflects your employer brand whilst collecting the evidence needed to make accurate, evidence-based selection decisions.
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