Adopting a skills-based approach to hiring can help ensure you find the right person for the job. A useful tool for this is pre-employment testing.
Compared to relying only on resumes, pre-employment testing helps eliminate unconscious bias and streamline your recruitment process. It also offers deeper insights into a candidate’s skills, personality, and workplace behaviors.
TestGorilla and Thomas International are two leading providers in the pre-employment screening space. This article compares the features of each to help you make the right choice for your pre-employment testing needs.
TestGorilla’s pre-employment screening platform is designed to help you make better hiring decisions faster and bias-free.
Our platform lets you build job-specific assessments from a large test library of scientifically validated tests. These assess a candidate’s personality, behaviors, and skills, such as customer service or marketing.
You can create custom questions to further tailor the test to the role. All tests include strong anti-cheating measures to protect the results’ integrity.
Once you’ve created an assessment, it’s easy to invite candidates to complete it via TestGorilla’s platform or your existing ATS. Candidates can take TestGorilla’s user-friendly tests on any device.
The platform scores tests automatically and you’ll get the results in real time. TestGorilla ranks candidates based on their results, arming you with the data you need to make better HR decisions and avoid costly mis-hires.
We’ve designed our tests and assessments to give all candidates an equal chance to present themselves and their abilities. With deeper insights into a candidate than what you would get from a resume, you can be sure you’re hiring the right person for the job.
Thomas International provides a range of human-resource management services, including pre-employment testing. It offers a suite of psychometric and skills assessments to help you make more objective, better-informed hiring decisions.
Its pre-employment tests help you understand the aptitude, behaviors, and personality traits of your ideal candidate. Using one or more of Thomas International’s tests, you can then compare results on the platform to evaluate a candidate’s suitability for the role.
You can also use these results to develop a tailored onboarding plan for the successful candidate. And beyond recruitment, you can use these insights to better engage with and manage employees.
Pre-employment screening providers should offer extensive test libraries. These enable you to tailor an assessment to the role you’re recruiting for.
TestGorilla’s test library contains more than 300 pre-employment tests, with lots of new tests in development.
These include tests for:
Cognitive ability, such as reading comprehension
Languages, including English, Japanese, and Arabic
Personality and culture, such as the Enneagram test or the Culture-add test
Situational judgment, such as a Time-management test
Specific role-related skills, like the Branding-strategy test
You can build a job-specific assessment by choosing one or more of these tests and adding your own custom questions.
TestGorilla’s tests are ideal for international recruitment processes, with localized websites available in 11 different languages.
Thomas International offers four tests for recruitment purposes:
The Personal Profile Analysis, a workplace behavior assessment
The High Potential Trait Indicator, a personality test that identifies how candidates cope with pressure, confrontation, and changes in the workplace
The General Intelligence Assessment, an aptitude test that assesses a candidate’s cognitive abilities across five areas: reasoning, number speed and accuracy, word meaning, perceptual speed, and spatial visualization
The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, which looks at a candidate’s emotional maturity and communication at work
The platform also offers a test that measures employee engagement in an organization and a tool for collecting 360-degree feedback.
TestGorilla | Thomas International | |
Cognitive ability tests | Yes | Yes |
Situational judgment tests | Yes | Yes |
Job-specific tests | Yes | No |
Software tests | Yes | No |
Programming tests (including coding challenges) | Yes | No |
Language tests | Yes | No |
Personality tests | Yes | Yes |
Culture-add test | Yes | No |
Motivation test | Yes | No (Other tests may help evaluate motivation) |
Your own custom tests | Yes | No |
Custom questions per assessment | Yes | No |
Test recommendations for each job role | Yes | Yes |
Multiple tests per assessment | Yes | N/A |
When hiring for a developer role, you need a pre-employment screening platform that offers tests for relevant skills. These include testing a candidate’s ability to use different coding languages and mobile-development frameworks.
TestGorilla offers a range of tests specifically designed to help you recruit developers.
These include tests for:
15 coding languages including C++, Python, and Java
Development frameworks like React Native and Flutter
Software engineering
Programming algorithms
Debugging
You can also create custom coding questions to assess specific abilities relevant to a role and your company. Candidate responses can also be recorded so you can later review the coding process and speed.
While Thomas International can be used for hiring developers, it doesn’t offer any tests to assess specific developer skills.
TestGorilla | Thomas International | |
Coding languages | JavaScript, Java, Python, PHP, C, C#, C++, SQL, Kotlin, Ruby, TypeScript, Go, R, Scala, and Swift | No |
Web-development frameworks | Yes | No |
Mobile-development frameworks | Yes | No |
Algorithmic-thinking challenges | Yes | No |
Debugging challenges | Yes | No |
Language-specific concept challenges | Yes | No |
Your own custom coding challenges | Yes | No |
Code-playback function | Yes | No |
Automated scoring | Yes | No |
Live peer coding | No | No |
Video-interview features are a great way to level up your pre-employment testing. They draw out deeper insights from your candidates and enhance their testing experience.
Keep an eye out for features like one-way video interviews and custom video questions when choosing a pre-employment testing platform.
TestGorilla offers a wide range of video-interview features.
With one-way interviews, candidates can record their responses to a series of custom questions. This is a useful prescreening tool before inviting candidates for a face-to-face or online interview.
In addition to having the possibility to customize everything, you can also set the length of a candidate’s responses to questions.
TestGorilla also uses video during coding challenges to record a candidate’s onscreen response. This lets you and your team review it at any time.
Thomas International doesn’t offer video-interview features in its tests.
Test questions are presented and answered online using a range of response methods. These include self-reported questionnaires (using the Likert scale), forced-choice, and task-based questions.
TestGorilla | Thomas International | |
One-way video interview | Yes | No |
Custom video questions | Yes | No |
Recording of candidates’ attempts | Yes | No |
Restrict maximum answer length | Yes | No |
Recording and playback on any device | Yes | No |
Rate and comment video answers | Yes | No |
A positive candidate experience will encourage candidates to complete their assessments. Factors such as ease of use, test length, and mobile friendliness all contribute to this.
Another way to enhance a candidate’s experience is by adding your company branding to the testing. Including your logo or a customized link to your website at the end of the assessment makes it a more memorable experience.
TestGorilla offers thoughtfully designed tests that are easy for your candidates to use. Our tests and assessments are mobile-friendly and convenient, with most assessments taking less than 60 minutes to complete.
When taking a test, candidates can access an extensive guide on TestGorilla’s website for support.
TestGorilla also offers comprehensive company-branding options to enhance your candidates’ experience. These include personalized candidate invitation emails and the option to add your company logo, branded intro, or outro videos to assessments.
These features make TestGorilla’s tests and assessments an extension of your brand, giving candidates a unique and positive pre-employment screening experience.
Thomas International ensures its tests are simple for candidates to take. There are candidate guides available on its website, including a detailed example booklet for the aptitude test. Applicants also receive a free copy of their results.
Thomas International doesn’t offer company branding options. However, its tests are designed to help engage and connect with candidates at an early stage of the hiring process. This improves their recruitment experience with your company.
TestGorilla | Thomas International | |
Your company’s intro or outro video | Yes | No |
Assessments branded with your company logo and color | Yes | No |
Customizable invitation and rejection emails | Yes | No |
No login required for candidates | Yes | Yes |
Mobile friendly | Yes | Yes |
Help and support for your candidates | Yes | Yes |
Typical assessment length | 30-60 minutes | 5-45 minutes |
Qualifying questions prior to assessment | Yes | No |
Redirect candidates to a URL of your choice after finishing an assessment | Yes | No |
Your pre-employment screening platform should accommodate the size and needs of your business. Look out for features such as API access, ATS integrations, and GDPR compliance to meet your increasing recruitment needs as your business grows.
TestGorilla’s platform caters to both startups and enterprise-level businesses. The affordable pricing tiers, plus a free forever plan, make it accessible to small businesses on a budget.
At the same time, TestGorilla can scale up alongside your business. Our platform enables integration with your ATS and includes bulk candidate management features to help enterprise-level businesses with large-scale recruitment.
Multiple user permissions and easy file sharing also help streamline complex recruitment processes within your organization.
Businesses of all sizes can use Thomas International’s pre-employment tests, including small- to medium-sized enterprises.
Thomas International helps to manage large-scale recruitment via ATS integrations with tools like ADP, JazzHR, and Workable. It’s also GDPR compliant.
It also works with other ATS platforms, enabling you to fully customize the testing phase of your recruitment process.
TestGorilla | Thomas International | |
ATS integration | Yes | Yes |
Multiple users and role-based rights management | Yes | Yes |
GDPR compliant | Yes | Yes |
Multiple candidate invitation options | Yes | No |
Public link to invite candidates | Yes | Yes |
Public links for each candidate source | Yes | No |
Bulk invite candidates (CSV/XLSX upload) | Yes | Yes (via ATS) |
Track candidate stages from invited to hired | Yes | Yes (via ATS) |
API access | Yes | Yes |
Bulk actions to manage candidates | Yes | Yes (via ATS) |
Quality control helps ensure tests are valid and fair and assess the correct skills.
Features such as extensive quality checks, registration with official bodies, and incorporating user feedback are all a sign of a pre-employment screening platform that operates with strong quality control measures in place.
Each TestGorilla test undergoes a 28-step quality-control process before it goes live. This includes development by industry experts and a strict peer review.
Not only does our platform ensure all tests are up-to-date, easy to understand, and easy to complete, but we also review them to make sure they evaluate the relevant skill adequately and appropriately.
TestGorilla continuously monitors candidate responses for factors like success rates and completion time to identify any potential issues. We are also highly responsive to customer or candidate feedback and use it to further improve our tests.
Thomas International’s behavioral, aptitude, and emotional intelligence tests are registered with the British Psychological Society and audited against criteria set by the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations.
Its personality test was developed by experts, professionals, practitioners, and researchers and validated through advanced statistical methods.
Several of Thomas International’s tests are also supported by ongoing psychometric research from leading UK universities, including Cambridge University.
TestGorilla | Thomas International | |
Proprietary algorithms that continuously improve the quality of each test | Yes | No |
Extensive quality checks before tests go live | Yes | Yes |
Questions replaced after reaching exposure limit | Yes | No |
Customer feedback used to improve tests | Yes | No |
Test-taker feedback used to improve tests | Yes | No |
Anti-cheating measures guarantee the integrity of test results and give all candidates an even playing field. Keep an eye out for features such as screen and IP-address monitoring, as well as question cycling.
TestGorilla’s extensive anti-cheating features ensure reliable candidate results. They include measures that limit candidates from sharing answers before an assessment, seeking outside help, or interfering with results.
Specific anti-cheating features include:
Disabling copy and paste to limit the chance of candidates sharing questions and answers online
Replacing questions after they have been used a certain number of times
IP-address monitoring, so multiple IP addresses accessing the same assessment raise a red flag
Webcam snapshots of candidates during the assessment (with candidates’ permission)
There are no right or wrong answers for Thomas International’s personality, behavioral, or emotional intelligence tests.
Thomas International’s aptitude test is a standardized test that candidates can prepare for. The test includes example questions at the start; examples are also available online.
The test, however, involves an element of speed. It’s a timed test that includes around 200 questions. This makes it difficult for candidates to look up answers or seek outside help.
TestGorilla | Thomas International | |
IP address logging (to avoid multiple attempts by the same candidate) | Yes | No |
Logging of candidate location | Yes | No |
Webcam snapshots (with the option to turn on/off) | Yes | No |
Full-screen mode detection (to avoid research during the test) | Yes | No |
Randomized questions per test | Yes | No |
Large question pool for each test | Yes (100+) | No |
Questions and answers not visible to employers to protect test integrity | Yes | No |
Time limit on tests | Yes (typically 10 minutes) | Yes |
Copy-paste disabled | Yes | No |
Reporting and analytics give you a deeper insight into candidates’ results and help you compare them. For this, results need to be presented in an easy-to-understand way and explain how these relate to the role you’re hiring for.
TestGorilla makes it easy to access, share, and interpret candidate results.
Our platform lets you quickly compare and filter the results of a group of applicants, select a preset scoring benchmark, or set your own to compare candidates against a certain score.
Candidate results are accessible on any device in PDF, CSV, or XLSX format, so you can easily share them with your hiring team.
You can also share result summaries with your candidates to enhance their pre-employment testing experience.
Thomas International provides a range of reports to help you understand candidate responses. It can even generate an interview guide with suggested questions based on the answers received.
This helps you explore any gaps between the candidate’s results and the traits you’ve identified as most relevant to the role.
These reports are useful during the recruitment process, as well as for onboarding, talent development, leadership training, team building, and reviews.
TestGorilla | Thomas International | |
PDF reports of assessments and for individual candidates | Yes | Yes |
Excel and CSV reports of assessments and for individual candidates | Yes | No |
Comprehensive overview of all current and past candidates | Yes | No |
Scoring benchmarks for candidates (including percentile rank scoring) | Yes | Yes |
Add your ratings and personal notes for candidates | Yes | Yes |
Good customer support is crucial for a smooth and efficient pre-employment testing experience. It also helps candidates navigate the process and troubleshoot any issues.
Most testing platforms offer one or more options for customer support, including email, live chat, or phone assistance.
TestGorilla offers user support via live chat and email. Phone assistance is also available to our Business plan subscribers.
We also have an online help center with guides for companies and candidates. These explain how to use our platform and answer common troubleshooting questions. On our blog, you can learn all about pre-employment screening tests, technology, and remote work.
New clients receive an onboarding tour to familiarize themselves with our platform.
You can contact Thomas International’s support team via phone, live chat, or a web form.
Thomas International’s website also has a knowledge base with articles, webinars, and guides on how to use its product, as well as articles on general HR topics.
TestGorilla | Thomas International | |
Live chat | Yes | Yes |
Help center | Yes | Yes |
Email support | Yes | Yes |
Training and onboarding tour | Yes | No |
Phone assistance | No | Yes |
Many pre-employment testing platforms charge a monthly or annual subscription fee based on the number of users or tests completed.
Some don’t publish their pricing on their website, and interested customers need to contact them for a quote, as is the case for Thomas International.
TestGorilla offers several plans that cater to businesses of all sizes.
Free forever at $0: Full access to 10 free tests, including all personality tests.
Depending on the size of your company, paid plans begin with:
Starter from $75 USD per month ($900 per year paid upfront) - start with skills-based hiring for all roles. There is also the option to pay monthly, starting from $85 USD per month.
Pro from $115 USD per month ($1,380 per year paid upfront) - maximize your hiring with advanced features. There is also the option to pay monthly, starting from $130 USD per month.
Unfortunately, Thomas International’s pricing isn’t publicly available on its website.
Third-party websites suggest Thomas International’s pricing plans start at around $450 per year. Interested customers should contact its sales team for a personalized quote.
TestGorilla | Thomas International | |
Plan | Price | Contact the company for a personalized quote |
Free | $0 | |
Starter | From $75 USD per month ($900 per year paid upfront) The pay monthly plan starts from $85 USD per month | |
Pro | From $115 USD per month ($1,380 per year paid upfront) The pay monthly plan starts from $130 USD per month |
To encourage uptake, it’s important your pre-employment testing is user-friendly. An intuitive user interface and easy navigation help with this.
Customers and candidates will find the platform intuitive and easy to use. Setting up an account is quick and straightforward, as is building an assessment and sending it to candidates; you can get started in a matter of minutes.
With a range of customizable features, TestGorilla suits businesses of all sizes.
With a range of user-friendly features, Thomas International is easy for customers and candidates to navigate.
For example, Thomas International developed a version of its Personal Profile Analysis for people with English as a second language or lower literacy skills. The platform also supports more than 50 languages.
For customers, Thomas International’s reports are easy to understand. No psychometric or psychological background is required to read and apply them.
Both TestGorilla and Thomas International are popular pre-employment screening platforms. They provide insights into a candidate’s personality, workplace behaviors, and job-specific skills. This helps you to get to know your candidates at a deeper level and find the best person for the job.
However, TestGorilla’s role-specific tests and customization options enable you to tailor an assessment to the exact role you’re recruiting for, which is also what makes the platform the better choice of the two.
TestGorilla also enables you to fully customize an assessment with your company branding. This makes the pre-employment testing experience a more memorable one for your candidates.
Relying solely on resumes is an ineffective way to recruit talent. They make it difficult to assess skills objectively and the screening process is time-consuming, especially during large recruitment drives.
Pre-employment testing gives you a deeper insight into a candidate’s skills while removing unconscious bias from the recruitment process. This helps you find the best person for a role and reduces the risk of costly mis-hires.
If you’re ready to start making better hiring decisions that are bias- and stress-free, try TestGorilla’s Free plan to see for yourself how it can help you streamline your recruitment process.
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