Choosing the right skills assessment for your goals: an expert interview

The right assessment can transform how you hire, develop and measure skills, but only if it fits your goals. Discover what to consider before choosing and how to make assessments work harder for your organisation.

1. Start with purpose and context

Before choosing any assessment, take a step back and look at the bigger picture. That means understanding why you are assessing in the first place and what decisions the results will inform. As Richard explains, ‘The purpose is extremely important. What skills are you trying to assess and what decisions will you make from it?’ The answer will look different for every organisation.

A recruitment team might want to test job-specific or technical skills, while a learning and development team might focus on readiness for progression or skill gaps for future roles. What matters most, Richard says, is alignment. ‘Assessment should fit your business objectives. It needs to be part of the planning, not something added at the end.’  He also points out that no two organisations have exactly the same needs, even within the same sector. What works in one context might not in another, but clarity about your own purpose will make the next steps easier. 

2. Understand different types of assessments and their benefits  

Now you know why you need an assessment, what are your options and what insight does each one give you? 

Knowledge and technical tests	Focus on what people know or can do in a specific area. Knowledge tests check understanding, while technical tests assess how well people apply what they know to real tasks such as coding or data analysis. They are quick, scalable and often automated, making them useful for recruitment or post-training evaluation.
Competency and performance assessments	Show how people use their skills in real situations. They focus on behaviour, problem-solving and decision-making, giving deeper insight into performance. They take longer to run and can be harder to scale, so are best used for senior roles or high-stakes decisions.
Psychometric and personality assessments	Measure cognitive ability or personality traits to identify strengths and working styles. Often used in recruitment or leadership development, they are most effective when combined with other types of assessment.
Portfolio assessments	Show practical evidence of work, such as presentations, projects or business cases. Useful for evaluating real-world outcomes rather than test performance, especially when used alongside other assessment methods.
Self-assessment and 360-degree feedback	Self-assessment helps people reflect on their strengths and development needs. Employees often know best what will help them improve.  360-degree feedback builds on this by adding input from managers and peers, giving a fuller picture of communication, collaboration and leadership.

 3. Make sure the assessment fits your goals 

Once you have reviewed the main types of assessments available, should you choose just one, or combine several to get a fuller picture? Start with your goals and work backwards. What do you need the assessment to tell you and what decisions will it inform? Different tools serve different purposes and using more than one often gives a more complete view of people’s skills. 

Think about: 

• The level of depth you need: Do you only need to check understanding, or do you want to see how people apply their skills in practice? 
• The scale: How many people will take the assessment and how often? A technical test might work well for large groups, while a performance task is better for smaller teams. 
• The stakes: High-stakes decisions such as recruitment or promotion need reliable, well-validated assessments. Lower-stakes situations can use simpler, faster tools. 
• The context:  Make sure the test fits your environment culturally, linguistically and practically. 
• The outcome: Choose the format that provides insights you can actually use, not just data for the sake of it. 

4. Balance cost, quality and use 

When choosing an assessment, it is easy to focus on price first. But as Richard points out, cost is only one part of the picture. ‘We have to be careful of making false economies,’ he says. ‘Sometimes a cheap assessment is good, but sometimes it is not enough to make an important decision.’ Before choosing, consider what the assessment will actually help you achieve and how accurate the results need to be. Start by looking at how important the decision is. If it affects hiring, promotion or performance reviews, invest in a high-quality, well-validated assessment. Cheaper or generic tools might save money in the short term but can lead to poor decisions that are costly to correct later. For lower-stakes goals, such as measuring learning progress, a shorter or less complex test could be enough. 

Next, assess the quality and reliability of the tool. A strong assessment should deliver consistent results across different groups and over time. ‘A good test should be reliable,’ Richard says. ‘If you give it five or six times, you should get similar results.’ Check whether the test has been validated, how results are scored and how easy they are to interpret. 

Fairness is another essential factor. ‘Make sure the test is not biased or inappropriate for your cultural context,’ Richard advises, ‘and that everyone can access it fairly.’ Look at the language, format and delivery method to make sure they suit your workforce. For example, an online test might disadvantage people with limited access to reliable internet or devices. 

Finally, think about how you will use the results. The most valuable assessments are the ones that provide actionable information. Ask yourself: will the results help us make better decisions about hiring, development or promotion? Do they highlight clear next steps for learning or support? If not, you might be paying for data that looks good but is hard to apply. 

A simple principle for getting it right 

When asked for one piece of advice for organisations choosing assessments, Richard’s answer is straightforward: ‘Know your context. Define how your organisational objectives fit with the assessment and make sure the assessment is fit for purpose.’ The right assessment is not about what is new or popular. It is about being clear on what you need to measure, why you need to measure it and how you will use the results. With that clarity, assessment becomes a practical way to understand people and make informed decisions that support both individual growth and organisational goals. 

British Council has 90 years’ experience of partnering with organisations and individuals in over 200 countries to help them make confident people decisions through trusted English language assessment. 

Our testing and assessment solutions support every stage of workforce development, from recruitment and progression to training evaluation and certification. Whether you need to identify the right talent, measure learning impact or benchmark English proficiency, our tools are designed to give you reliable and actionable insight.

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