Tech firms around the UK are always looking to employ the best minds. So when it comes to recruiting new people, they use Kenexa - a leading assessment provider. Kenexa offers a variety of tests aimed to examine every candidate's skills, strengths, weaknesses and personality type.
What Is A Kenexa Assessment?
Kenexa is an assessment publisher that specialises in providing pre-employment and developmental tests that are used in a wide range of industries.
Founded in 1987, Kenexa was acquired by IBM in 2012, and has a suite of more than 1,500 assessments that are categorised into six different categories:
- Career Fit
- Culture Fit
- KPIs
- Job Fit
- Prove It!
- Reasoning Assessments
They can be used as standalone tests, or as part of a bespoke or tailored battery used by companies to assess potential candidates for an advertised role.
Kenexa tests are used in the early stages of the recruitment process to screen applicants based on their skills, aptitudes, and characteristics. You might also find Kenexa tests being used in retention and development of employees already in a role, especially when looking at training needs and the potential for promotion.
Which Tech Employers Use Kenexa Assessments?
You are most likely to find Kenexa assessments in the recruitment process of software businesses, but there are some specific engineering and technology companies that use them, including Snap On, ABTEL Universal Technology, and BizViz, as well as technology roles in healthcare and in other industries too.
How Kenexa Tests Work
With the six different test types found in the Kenexa test battery, there are some very specific characteristics and competencies that are being assessed - which means each test is valid as a standalone assessment, but they also work well together for the employer and recruitment team who wants to get a fuller picture of the potential employee.
Kenexa Career Fit Tests
This competency test is closest in format and content to a personality test, and is used to identify the strengths and work preferences of a candidate.
The aim of this is to ensure that you have what it takes to develop in the advertised role and be suitable for this career in the long term.
Culture Fit Tests
For employee retention and satisfaction, it is important that there is a solid culture fit. To assess this, the Kenexa Culture Fit test is looking for a match in the personal values of the candidate and the core values of the business.
Matching the way the candidate prefers to work with the overall mission of the business is a pathway to quality performance.
Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs are not always used to measure performance in a role - they can also be used to ensure that a potential candidate has the necessary strengths, characteristics and traits that are necessary for success in the role.
This might include communication, teamwork, leadership or problem solving - all tested through a suite of tools that are designed to see whether the candidate is likely to exhibit these important behaviours.
Job Fit Tests
A Job Fit Test is a bespoke assessment used as an early screening tool in the recruitment process.
In the Job Fit Test, candidates are assessed on specific behaviours and competencies as well as characteristics that are essential to the advertised role.
Kenexa Prove It!
The Kenexa Prove It! Suite of assessments is a series of more than 1,200 skills, personality, and general aptitude tests that are short and simple to administer, and can assess job skills like typing and Microsoft Office, as well as characteristics and traits.
Prove It! Assessments are generally being phased out in favour of other tests, but they can sometimes be found in roles that need a specific proficiency in a certain skill.
Aptitude Tests
Aptitude tests are used in the recruitment process particularly to assess the inherent skills and competencies of the candidate. These are all based on research that demonstrates the positive correlation of these competencies with future success in a job, and point towards general learning ability as well as competency with numbers, written information, and reasoning.
Numerical Reasoning Test
Numerical reasoning tests are an assessment of the ability of the candidate to work with numbers.
You can expect questions on general arithmetic as well as sequences, ratios, fractions and percentages, while demonstrating data interpretation and analysis of data provided in charts, graphs, diagrams and tables.
In the assessment, you will have 20 minutes to answer 20 questions (out of a bank of 174 available).
Verbal Reasoning Test
Verbal reasoning assessments test your ability to quickly read, understand and analyse the information provided in a passage of text.
Often a lengthy, dense and sometimes complicated passage, you will need to work quickly to find facts and set aside inferences to decide if the text shows the question is true, false, or there is not enough information to answer.
Like the numerical reasoning test, you will have 20 minutes - but you need to work through 24 questions.
Logical Reasoning Test
Logical reasoning is an essential skill that demonstrates competency in problem-solving, learning and dealing with unfamiliar information.
In the Kenexa Logical Reasoning Test, there will be questions based on a series of images and shapes. Similar to inductive reasoning or abstract reasoning tests, you will need to find the pattern that governs the sequence in order to find the image that completes it.
The sequence might be governed by rotation or reflection, movement or growth - and with a limited time to answer you need to think methodically and logically. The multiple-choice answers will help give you a clue whether your logical deduction is correct.
Kenexa CAT
The Kenexa CAT is a Computer Adaptive Test which means that it is a test that poses questions that increase in difficulty throughout the assessment. This adaptive technology means that the assessment matches the skill of the candidate, and is simple to use.
The CAT is a combination of verbal, numerical and logical reasoning assessments. This combined test can be used instead of the separate reasoning tests above, and are used in combination with other assessments (like the culture or career fit).
How To Pass Kenexa Publisher Tests
Practice Kenexa Questions
Practicing different assessments is the best way to get a passing score - and while practice is valid if you use generic tests, it is so much more effective if you practice on Kenexa-style questions.
Not only will you get an idea of what the questions will be like, you will also become more familiar with the structure, layout and format of the assessment. This will make you more comfortable when you are actually taking the test for that role you are looking to get.
Focus on tests you score low in
When you are practicing, it is likely that you are going to have some types of questions that you find more difficult - this is normal, and it is actually a vital part of your practice.
Focus your revision and time on the questions or tests that you find most difficult so that you are more confident about taking them.
Use exam conditions
As the Kenexa assessments are taken at home, in your own time, it is important that you use exam conditions both in your practice and in the 'real thing'.
Practice with a timer and set up your test-taking area somewhere that you will not be disturbed. Turn off notifications and ensure that you have all the equipment you need to hand - from scrap paper to a strong internet connection.
Read Questions Carefully
While there are no questions that could be considered 'trick questions', take the time to read each one carefully to ensure you know exactly how to answer them.
