Getting Started with Alooba

Getting started with Alooba is quick & easy.

This guide is for new users, new customers and prospective customers of Alooba. It cuts to the chase and helps you get onboarded smoothly, covering off probably everything you were going to ask.

If you’re a candidate, check out this comprehensive guide on taking tests on Alooba instead.

About Alooba

I don’t really know what Alooba is?

Alooba is a skills assessment platform, used by organizations to evaluate their candidates’ and employees’ skills, knowledge and abilities. It's a type of candidate assessment software.

What is skills-based hiring?

Alooba tends to be used by organizations that pursue skills-based hiring. This comprehensive guide to skills-based hiring provides an in-depth discussion of what skills-based hiring is, as well as how to implement it in your organization.

What is the point of using Alooba?

Companies adopt the Alooba technology for various reasons - implementing skills-based hiring, streamlining hiring, improving hiring accuracy, removing hiring bias, speeding up hiring, making hiring more consistent, understanding their employees' strengths and weaknesses and many other reasons.

What are the typical use cases of Alooba?

Hiring:

• Replacing manual CV screening with an accurate, skills-based screening
• Replacing clunky manual take-home with a simpler, more streamlined assessment
• Adding a skills test to the hiring process rather than relying purely on interviews and gut feel
• Adding a pre technical interview skills test to screen candidates and cut down on failed interviews
• Efficient & accurate screening for high volume grad/intern/campus recruitment
• Proactively remove bias & promote diversity by using an objective & ethical hiring approach

Team Development:

• Evaluating your team's strengths and weaknesses to understand training requirements
• Data literacy evaluations across an organization or part of an organization

I don't believe in tests - why not just interview candidates? I'm a good BS detector

Interviews are actually a weak predictor of hiring success. While they do have some predictive power, they are much lower than standardized skills and intelligence testing. Believing that you can detect BS easily is a super common misconception and part what's called the 'overconfidence bias'.

Interviews, while important, tend to be:

• Biased in many ways, including towards extroverts
• Inefficient at understanding technical skills & knowledge
• Select for the best storytellers and talkers, not the best doers
• Inconsistent across candidates, making comparison hard
• Not measured/quantified, making comparison impossible

Are tests biased?

Using standardized skills tests are a great way to reduce common hiring biases that have plagued traditional recruitment for years, and are a critical element in running an ethical hiring process. The main benefits of standardized testing in reducing bias are that they are:

• Consistent
• Measurable
• Transparent

That said, make sure that the tests you set-up are aligned to the skills actually needed in the role. In Alooba, candidates provide critical end-of-test feedback that gives you an insight into how relevant the tests were in the eyes of the candidates - use these insights to improve your Alooba tests. Nothing will annoy a candidate more than an irrelevant test, so keep an eye on this.

Do candidates even do the tests?

It's understandable that you would want to be careful about not deterring candidates from going through our hiring process.

The completion rate is 60-90% depending on your employer brand, if you use Alooba as a screening tool. The completion rate is 80-100% if you use Alooba as an in-depth test later on in the hiring process on a smaller volume of candidates that you have already engaged.

To maximize the completion rate, make sure that you:

• Don't make the tests too long (follow our in-app guidelines)
• Invite the candidates soon after applying (don't leave them in the pipeline for weeks)
• Ensure the test content aligns with your job requirements
• Leave the results switched on, so that candidates get immediate feedback at the end of the assessment

Why shouldn't I just use my own test?

Many companies and hiring managers have their own test in place. These tests are typically provided in a document or spreadsheet, which the candidate does in their own time or in a prolonged interview.

While often insightful, manual tests typically are:

• Inconsistent across an organization
• Very easy to cheat on
• Have limited skills coverage
• Are an amateurish candidate experience
• Do not provide any immediate feedback to the candidate
• Involve a massive amount of work for the candidate
• Involve a lot of admin and candidate hand-holding
• Need to be manually graded, which then slows down the hiring process and opens up subjectivity & bias

Here's a more in-depth discussion comparing manual tests vs Alooba.

Does Alooba replace interviews?

Not directly. By effectively screening candidates using a skills test, you will find you need to interview drastically fewer candidates than using legacy techniques like manual CV screening. However, companies who use Alooba still interview candidates.

That said, be careful with running interviews, especially when they're unstructured and don't measure anything - like cultural fit interviews.

When in the hiring process is Alooba used?

Alooba is used in various stages of the hiring process, including pre-screening, screening, pre-interview, post-interview. Some organizations use Alooba multiple times in the hiring process. Where you use Alooba is up to you, and really depends on your biggest hiring challenges. Chat with us to learn more about where Alooba will suit you best.

Is Alooba used only for hiring?

No, Alooba is also used for learning and development. Specifically, Alooba is used by organizations to evaluate their employees' skills and abilities. This is the Alooba Growth offering.

Is Alooba just for data roles?

Alooba was initially focused just on data roles, but has broadened to cover other roles too, including technical roles like software engineering, and softer skilled roles like sales development.

Which roles is Alooba for?

You can use Alooba for whichever role you like, and here's some of the most common types of roles Alooba is used for.

What seniority level can we test for with Alooba?

Alooba can be used for any seniority of role. It's most commonly used for roles from graduate/campus hiring up to heads of/director level roles. Typically more senior roles have a relatively lower technical skill requirement.

Which skills does Alooba evaluate?

Alooba focused initially on data-related skills, but has broadened to include:

• Other hard skills/technical skills
• Soft skills/human skills
• Personality
• Intelligence

Here's a full list of skills covered. Note, some of these skills listed are included as 'topics' in Alooba, which is basically a sub-skill.

Which industries is Alooba appropriate for?

The skills and abilities that Alooba tests for are industry agnostic/transferable skills.

Is it a service or a product?

Alooba is a SaaS that organizations use as part of their hiring or L&D process.

Alooba Match is Alooba's hiring service offering.

I'm in talent acquisition, is Alooba for me?

Yes, you are one of the typical users of Alooba. Use Alooba to:

• Replace manual CV screening that is slow and biased
• Screen candidates properly before presenting to the hiring team

I'm a hiring manager, is Alooba for me?

Yes, you are one of the typical users of Alooba. Use Alooba to:

• Replace clunky manual tests that are painful to administer and grade
• Avoid bad hires by validating your candidates' skills before extending an offer

I'm a recruiter/run a recruitment agency, is Alooba for me?

Yes, Alooba could be helpful for you in several ways:

• Screening large volumes of candidates sourced from jobs boards
• Differentiating your offering from other recruiters by offering the Alooba assessment as a value-add to your clients
• Protecting your reputation by evaluating your candidates' skills before presenting to your clients

You have some free tests on your site - are these the same as the paid product?

There's a few major differences between the free content:

• When you viewing the free tests, you are taking them as a candidate - your view as a customer is of course totally different. Here's a quick demo of the customer view
• There's a small set of free tests available with a small set of questions - our paid product has a wide variety of content, with 3500+ questions, across many different test types, with basically every aspect of the experience being customizable/configurable - check out the feature list for a quick idea.

Can I take a test myself to get a quick idea of the process?

We have many different types of tests. Here's an example of a SQL test. Note, this will give you the candidate's view, not a company's view.

Can I see a sample of the questions?

We have many different types of tests with 3500+ questions. Here's an example of a SQL test and here's an example of a data literacy test.

Getting Access

I don't want to speak to sales - how can I get started?

You can sign-up directly here to get started right away.

My organization doesn't have an Alooba account now, but I'd like to explore our options.

Probably best to book in a call and have a chat to us, and hopefully this guide will answer most of your questions.

Can you share a quick demo of the product with me that I can watch in my own time?

Sure, here we go.

I don't need access right away, but how can I get a quick run-through now for when I do?

Reach out to your account manager for more info, and also you can check out this brief demo in the meantime.

I can't remember my password

You can reset your password here.

I logged-in but can't see my assessment

It's probably because you're not a member of the group of the assessment. Once you are in the right group, you will be able to see the assessment. Check out this article on managing groups.

Creating Assessments

Do you have role templates we can use?

Yes, we have templates for various roles that you can choose from. These allow you to get an assessment set-up in literally 3 clicks. These are divided into:

• Screening assessments: 20-30 minutes, appropriate for early hiring stages
• In-depth assessments: 1-2 hours, appropriate for later hiring stages

Here's more information about using templates.

Can I customize the assessments?

Yes - you have the power to configure basically every aspect of the assessment, including:

• Which tests are included
• Which skills are included
• How hard the tests are
• How long the tests go for
• Which questions are included
• Adding your own questions
• The comms shared with the candidate (e.g. co-branding with your logo)
• The cheating prevention mechanisms in place
• Etc.

You can check out a full list of features here, and here includes a step through of customizing different aspects of your assessment.

Can I adjust the difficulty?

Yes you can set the difficulty of any individual test to 'Standard', 'Advanced' or 'Expert'. You can also hand pick questions, which are categorized by their difficulty ('Easy', 'Medium' and 'Hard').

Can I change the length of the tests?

Yes, you can set the tests to be as long or short as you like.

Which tests can I choose?

You can choose which ever tests you like. The test types to choose from are:

• Concepts & Knowledge (an MCQ test)
• Data Analysis
• SQL Coding
• Python Coding
• R Coding
• Personality Profiling (the Big 5 personality model)
• Free Response Test:
  • Video Answers
  • Diagram Answers
  • Text Answers
  • File Uploads

Which roles do the tests cover?

You can use Alooba for whichever role you like, and here's some of the most common types of roles Alooba is used for.

Can I add my own questions?

Yes, you can add your own questions through the question bank.

Can you help me add our own questions?

If you'd like to add your own questions in bulk, please reach out to your account manager.

I'm short on time - can you set-up a test for me?

We do recommend templates as an easy way to get started testing in 3-clicks. Your account manager can also help you if you get stuck.

Is there some kind of randomization or does every candidate see the same thing?

This depends on how you have set-up your assessment - you can randomize the questions or keep the the same.

Where do the questions come from?

We have a team of content experts who work across various industries as data analysts, data scientists, data engineers etc.

Cheating Prevention

How do you prevent cheating?

Alooba has advanced cheating protection against various types of cheating including AI. You can also opt-in to additional cheating prevention methods when configuring your Alooba assessment. For more details, chat to your account manager.

How do you prevent ChatGPT cheating?

Alooba includes AI text detection, screen recording and other techniques to minimize the chance of cheating with ChatGPT. Our guide to cheating prevention will provide you with more insights.

How do you prevent someone finding the answers online?

We proactively search sites for potentially leaked answers and on the rare occasion we find any, we notify the site of a breach of our intellectual property and issue them with a take-down notice. This requires them to immediately remove to content to prevent prosecution.

What's to stop people Googling the answers?

By design, our questions are hard to Google. They typically involve candidates needing to apply knowledge, so the answers aren't available on Google.

How do you prevent someone getting their friend to take the test?

Alooba includes anti-cheating mechanisms including proctoring and screen recording which prevents this. Additionally, candidates realize that even if they were to do this, there are inevitably other hiring steps (e.g. interviews) where they would be found out.

What happens when you find a candidate has probably cheated?

We report it to you on the results of the candidate.

Managing Users

How do I invite my colleagues?

If you are an account Admin or Owner, you can invite users from Users page. If you are not an Admin or Owner, reach out to your someone in your organization who is. If you're stuck, please contact your Alooba account manager.

You can read more about user management here.

How do I restrict/control access?

You can set-up groups (e.g. my team, function or geography of your organization) and then only members of the group will have access to the assessments that the group 'owns'. Here's more info on groups.

Inviting Test Takers

How do I invite a candidate?

You can invite candidates:

• One-by-one
• Via a bulk import
• By sharing the public link with the candidates
• Automatically via your ATS

To do it via the ATS, you'll need to have integrated your ATS to Alooba. Here's more info on our ATS integrations.

When inviting candidates, at minimum we need their name & email address.

Can I schedule a test invitation to be sent?

Yes, here's a guide on how to achieve that on Alooba.

How to candidates get informed about the test?

They'll get emailed from Alooba. The email includes all the information needed to complete the assessment, including the deadline, technical requirements, scope of the assessment and context of why they've been invited the assessment in the first place etc. We automatically remind candidates if they have not fully completed the assessment, so you don't need to do that manually.

By the way, you can customize these emails with the candidate here.

Can I invite candidates from my ATS?

Yes, if you have set-up the integration. Best to start here to see if we have your ATS available, and how to set it up.

How can I extend the expiration/deadline for the candidate?

Yes you can - check out this guide for more info on how to do that.

Can I give candidates extra time when they need it?

Yes you can do this, either before the candidate has started any of the tests, or once they've finished the tests.

Reviewing Results

How does marking/grading work?

Most of our tests are automatically graded, taking the heavy lifting from you, making hiring much more scalable. Automated grading is available for these test types:

• Concepts & Knowledge (an MCQ test)
• Data Analysis
• SQL Coding
• Python Coding
• R Coding
• Personality Profiling (the Big 5 personality model)

What insights do we get about the candidates?

We present to you all the insights we've obtained about the candidate's strengths and weaknesses, including their score in each skill, each test and down to each question. You can just stick to the high level view and compare their overall score to other candidates, or you can deep-dive into each individual question.

How do we interpret the results?

The results are very easy to interpret and are presented as a simple percentage score.

What's a 'good' score/what's the right benchmark?

Each assessment is unique on Alooba. When you create an assessment, we use Alooba's data to calculate the benchmark score, based on the actual questions included in your assessment. The benchmark is set to the predicted 90th percentile score - i.e. a score that only 10% of candidates would be expected to beat. Anything at or above this would be considered a 'good' score on the test.

You will also want to establish your own internal benchmark by getting some people in your team to take the quiz. This will give you a relatable benchmark for your organization

Here's more information about Alooba's benchmarking.

Where does it tell me if the candidate cheated?

If we find anything suspicious, this is shown on the candidate's results pages, with a clear explanation of what we found and when.

Can I see what code they wrote?

Yes, if you included the SQL, Python or R tests yes, we show you what code the candidate wrote, and how they arrived at it.

Can I see the files they uploaded for their data analysis test?

Yes, if your candidate uploaded their working files at the end of the data analysis test, these are available for your to download on the results page. Uploading files is optional, so if there's nothing there, the candidate did not upload anything.

Can I export the results of all the candidates?

Yes, you can export the results as a .csv file. You might like to do this for further analysis. Here's a guide on how to do this.

How do I share the results of a particular candidate with my colleague?

You have two options:

• Invite your colleague as a user to Alooba
• Download the candidate's PDF results and share with your colleague

It's generally much better to just invite your colleague as a user, because the Alooba platform provides the full context of the candidate's performance, whereas the PDF is just a simple summary of the performance.

Here's more information about what's in the PDF report.

Will I get an email when a candidate completes the assessment?

That depends whether or not you have the assessment set-up to notify you of this. Check out this guide for more info.

I can't seem to see the results - where are they?

It's probably because you're not a member of the group of the assessment. Check out this article on managing groups.

I can see the results, but can't see the name - what's happening?

You probably have candidate cloaking switched on, which removes the candidate's personally identifiable information (name, email, location etc.) and leaves you with just anonymized information and the candidate reference code. You can turn this off from your personal details page.

However, if candidate cloaking is on at an organization-wide level, you will need to reach out to your account owner or admin to turn it off. It can be turned off from the organization settings page.

Here's more information about candidate cloaking, and how traditional screening methods are discriminatory against candidates from certain backgrounds.

Alooba Best Practices

What are some mistakes that new Alooba users sometimes make?

• Not matching an assessment to a role - it's best to customize each assessment to the role
• Making tests too long or short - stick to the timing suggestions in the app
• Evaluating candidates in things that the role doesn't need - don't include skills that are not required or nice to have skills from the job ad
• Not monitoring the feedback - the dashboard will show the candidates' aggregate feedback, and their test results shows their specific feedback. This helps you adjust your assessment
• Not showing candidates their results - we highly recommend giving candidates insights about their skills, as soon as the test is over

Security & Privacy

Where are your terms?

Yep, here's the T&Cs.

Do you have a privacy statement?

Yep, here it is.

Is Alooba GDPR compliant?

Yes.

Does Alooba conduct regular penetration testing and other security measures?

Yes.

What personal data do you collect on candidates?

We collect - at minimum - the candidate's name and email address. Note, when you set-up assessments, you can configure assessments to ask candidates other things in the pre-test questionnaire.

Do you collect 'special categories' of data on candidates?

No.

Is Alooba an Automated Employment Decision Tool?

Regarding the AEDT legislation in New York launched in 2023, Alooba is not categorized as AEDT for a couple of reasons:

• The scoring is not derived from ML, AI, statistics etc.
• There is not an automated decision - Alooba users decide who they want to advance & hire based on multiple factors, typically including candidate experience, interview performance, profile, application answers etc. I.e. there is still 'discretionary decision-making'.

Pricing

What does Alooba cost?

You can check out our pricing page, or ask your Alooba account manager if you're on a grandfathered agreement. Enterprises - please speak to us because your requirements will typically be quite specific and we can put something together for you.

How do credits work?

Basically, credits just track your usage of Alooba into a common 'currency', and your package contains a certain amount of credits. See this page for details.

How can I pay for Alooba?

With any major credit card, or an invoice on some subscriptions.

Can I use Alooba once-off/on an hoc basis

Yes, Alooba supports once-off and 'now and again' hiring with monthly subscriptions that can be easily cancelled when not hiring. Check out the pricing here.

How do I get budget?

If you don't currently have budget, we can recommend:

• Building a simple business case. These ROI calculators might be handy.
• Learn how software gets adopted in your organization.
• Finding an influential champion of data-driven skills-based hiring in your organization.

Enterprise

Do you have MFA?

Yes, we have multi-factor authentication (MFA/2FA) for users. You can set this up from the organization settings page. It means that each time you log-in to your account you will need to enter the code sent to your phone number. This helps boost the security of your account.

Do you have ATS integrations?

Yes, here's more info on our various ATS integrations.

Can you build a new ATS integration?

Yes, we can do this on a case-by-case basis - discuss your requirements with us.

Can we do a POC/trial?

We offer proofs of concept to enterprises on a case-by-case basis, yes. Please chat with us and we can figure out together what will work best in your case.

Can you train our team to use Alooba?

Our onboarding includes basic training for all your users. Other than that, the learning curve on the product is fairly low, and we offer ongoing support.

What is support like?

You can connect with us whichever works best for you:

Customers:

• Reach out over our shared Slack channel
• Ping your account manager an email
• Jump on a video call with your account manager

Candidates:

• Please reach out to us via the support beacon

Other Stuff

I just need to talk to someone to ask some questions - how do I do this?

If you are a current Alooba customer, or are interested in our product, please reach out to us here.

If you are a candidate, please reach out via the support beacon.

I'm experiencing a bug or other problem

First, we're sorry to hear that! Let's get this sorted as quickly as possible. Contact us here with information about the bug, of if you're a customer, please reach out to directly to your account manager.

How do I access support?

Contact us here.