Updated on October 23, 2026 (originally published March 31, 2020).
A pre-employment assessment gives hiring teams useful information early in the selection process, when it saves the most time. Its results help teams plan interviews before they begin and give each conversation a clearer focus. The result can be a shorter time to fill without lowering quality.
Most hiring managers want to fill an open role quickly and also get the decision right, and those goals can seem to pull against each other. Adding a pre-employment assessment can look like the slow option, since it puts one more step between the application and the offer. In practice, though, an assessment placed early in the hiring process provides information that speeds up the steps after it, and that same information helps teams make more confident hiring decisions.
What Is a Pre-Employment Assessment?
A pre-employment assessment gives employers objective data about a candidate before the offer stage. The Omnia Assessment is a scientifically validated, EEOC-compliant behavioral assessment that shows how each person is naturally wired to work. During selection, the Omnia Assessment works as a pre-employment behavioral assessment, and candidates complete it in under 10 minutes. For a full explanation, read about what a behavioral assessment measures or see pre-employment assessments explained.
What a Slow Hiring Process Really Costs
A slow hiring process costs a business productivity, team stamina, and decision speed for every week a role stays open. Time to fill, the number of days from when a position is formally opened for hiring to when a candidate accepts the offer, is the clearest measure of that cost.
According to SHRM’s 2025 Recruiting Executives Benchmarking data brief, the median time to fill is about a month and a half: 44 days for nonexecutive positions and 45 days for executive positions, counted in calendar days.
Turnover adds to the pressure. According to Omnia’s 2026 Talent Trends Report (451 respondents across 21 industries), more than 36% of organizations report increased turnover year over year, nearly double the share reported in 2025. Each departure opens a new search, and each search draws on the same hiring managers’ time.
An empty seat has three predictable costs:
- Lost productivity. The open role’s responsibilities shift to coworkers, who then have less time for their own work.
- Team burnout. Covering the gap for weeks wears down the people doing it, and a frustrated key contributor may start looking elsewhere.
- Delayed decisions. With no one accountable for the role, approvals and client follow-ups slow down, and the uncertainty can strain client relationships.
3 Ways a Pre-Employment Assessment Speeds Up Hiring
A pre-employment assessment speeds up hiring by moving the evaluation of a candidate’s job fit earlier in the process, where it saves the most time. It does this in three ways.
Align the Hiring Team Faster Around One Job Benchmark
A job benchmark gives every member of the hiring team the same definition of success before the first candidate applies.
Hiring slows down when interviewers hold different pictures of the ideal candidate and debriefs turn into debates. Job benchmarking sets one standard, built from your own top performers or chosen from Omnia’s library of more than 200 role and industry benchmarks. With one standard in place, debriefs can focus on the data, which can shorten the decision meeting.
More organizations are adopting this approach: according to Omnia’s 2026 Talent Trends Report, 39.7% now benchmark top performers, up from 27.1% the year before.
Build on Prescreening With Behavioral Data
Prescreening confirms the basics like experience, availability, and pay expectations, while assessment data adds how a candidate is naturally wired to work, so teams can decide sooner who moves on to interviews.
Prescreening, including resume reviews and phone screens, does important work. But a resume only describes past experience and can overstate it (see what to do when a new hire lied on a resume). Neither a resume nor a short call shows how a candidate approaches the work. A behavioral profile adds that information before interviews begin, so the decision about who advances rests on more than a resume and a brief call.
Phone screens that pay off covers how to get more from the conversations you hold.
Run More Focused Interviews With Targeted Questions
A behavioral profile shows where a candidate’s tendencies differ from the job benchmark, so interviewers can go straight to the topics that matter. Managers who already know a candidate’s tendencies can minimize or skip resume recaps and ask about specific strength and challenge areas brought to light by the profile.
Interviewer preparation matters here: Omnia’s 2026 Talent Trends Report found that 47.7% of organizations consistently train managers on interviewing and people decisions, up from 32.6% in 2025 (download the full report). A behavioral profile gives those managers a shared starting point, so each interviewer can explore different areas and the team learns more from every conversation. Interviews that surface new information can move the decision forward sooner.
Faster Doesn’t Mean Riskier
Speed comes from making each step count, and a pre-employment assessment adds objective data at the same time.
The Omnia Assessment keeps the added step small:
Under 10 minutes. No certification required. Easy-to-read Profiles.
The Omnia Assessment is scientifically validated and EEOC-compliant, and every candidate for a role is compared with the same job benchmark. That consistency lets a team move quickly and with confidence, because the standard is set before the first interview. Hiring managers can act on the results without a psychologist or a certified administrator.
An assessment is one input among several. It does not guarantee that a hire will succeed, it is not meant to rule candidates out on its own, and it works alongside interviews, references, and experience. What it adds is behavioral data that arrives early, when it can shorten the process. Together, job benchmarks and behavioral data give a hiring team firmer ground for more confident hiring decisions.
Where an Assessment Fits in a Fast Hiring Process
The most efficient placement is after initial prescreening and before the first interview, so every later step can use the results. Hiring managers use the results to inform the shortlist, plan interview questions, and compare finalists.
Some teams also add Omnia’s 15-minute cognitive assessment at this point to see how candidates reason and process information, giving the team another data point to make a better-informed hiring decision.
For a closer look at hiring process assessments, see where an assessment fits in the hiring process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does adding a hiring assessment slow down the hiring process?
Usually not. When an assessment comes early, teams can plan interviews around what matters for the role, give each conversation a clearer focus, and reach decisions sooner, which can shorten the time to fill. Candidates complete the Omnia Assessment in under 10 minutes, so the step itself adds very little to the timeline.
When should candidates take a pre-employment assessment to save the most time?
After initial prescreening and before the first interview. Placing it at that point gives the team behavioral data in advance, so every interview can focus on the topics that matter for the role.
Does a pre-hire assessment replace prescreening?
No. Prescreening still confirms the basics, such as experience, availability, and pay expectations. The assessment adds how the candidate is naturally wired to work, which helps the team decide who moves on to interviews.
Does hiring faster lead to more bad hires?
Speed raises the risk of a poor hire when teams skip a thorough candidate evaluation to save time. A pre-employment behavioral assessment gives teams objective data early, showing how each candidate’s tendencies compare with the job benchmark. That lets teams focus every stage of the process on what matters most for the role while still evaluating every candidate thoroughly. No tool removes hiring risk, and a behavioral assessment works best alongside interviews and reference checks.
How quickly do we get results?
Candidates complete the Omnia Assessment in under 10 minutes, and our automated Target Profiles are available immediately. Custom Profiles, which human analysts write in real time, are available in three business hours. No certification is required to read either type, because all of Omnia’s Profiles are written in plain language for leaders and managers.
Ready to Speed Up Your Hiring Process?
Reducing time to hire starts with objective data early in the process. Try the Omnia Assessment to see how a candidate’s behavioral profile compares with your job benchmark, or request a demo to see job benchmarking built for your roles.
