How Much Do Employee Assessments Cost? (And Are They Worth It?)
Businesses often wonder if employee assessments are worth the cost, time, and resources—and for valid reasons. To use employee assessments effectively, it’s important to think about your purpose, strategy, goals, time frame, and the cost–benefit equation.
With options from free templates all the way through to advanced assessments, you need to understand what you’re paying for and what you’ll get in return. This blog post will help you consider:
- The different types of employee assessments and their cost factors
- A price breakdown for common assessment tools and services
- How ScoreApp offers a scalable, cost-effective solution
- Whether employee assessments deliver measurable business value.
What factors impact on the cost of employee assessments?
1. Assessment type
Skills tests, personality assessments, leadership evaluations, and 360-degree feedback all come under the umbrella of employee assessments. They serve different purposes and therefore have different pricing structures. As a reminder, here’s what each evaluation is designed to measure:
Skills tests assess employee knowledge and address any gaps.
- Personality assessments look at an individual’s character traits, to highlight their strengths and weaknesses and help you build a well-rounded team.
- Leadership evaluations grow your leadership development pipeline and show how employees deal with pressurized situations before they occur.
- 360-degree feedback gives a full picture of how an employee is perceived by their peers, managers and customers, and the people they manage.
2. Customization level
As a general rule, the more customized an employee assessment is, the more effective and actionable it’s likely to be. Unsurprisingly, the more tailored an evaluation is, the more it’ll cost. In comparison, off-the-shelf assessments tend to be cheaper. Therefore, it’s important to decide what you want to evaluate.
3. Delivery method
We’re fortunate to have a wide range of options when it comes to assessment delivery now. You could opt for digital, in-person, or hybrid employee assessments, all of which will have an impact on pricing based on facilitation costs. However, while there is an upfront cost, having an expert carrying out the assessments may result in significant time savings.
4. Reporting and analytics
Advanced analytics and automated reporting tools typically come at a premium but do save your team time. If the reporting and analytics step is missing, it can weaken your employee skills assessments, so you need to account for it whether in the tool you purchase or in team hours. In addition, you’ve got to fully understand the data to implement it, so anything overly complicated could prove a hindrance rather than a help.
Breaking down the costs: What do businesses actually pay?
As you can imagine, what businesses spend on employee assessments annually varies from zero to more than £10,000. The key thing is finding the right option and cost for your organization. You may find it useful to ask yourself:
- What information you want to test or find out
- How often you’ll use employee assessments
- How long you want assessments to last
- How you want assessments delivered
- What key figures or reports you need
- Who will manage or analyze the data
- What your budget is.
Let’s explore the three price tiers.
1. Free or low-cost assessments
Why use them?
Many businesses start with free employee self-assessment templates and sample competency tests. This can be incredibly helpful, because you see the evaluations in action and the extent of their capabilities. It may also highlight missing features which you’ve identified as important for your business.
Typically, this tier will give you basic insights and an opportunity to get to grips with the concepts. However, these tools lack the advanced analytics or automation of more expensive software. This limits spotting trends and makes the process more time-consuming.
Examples
- Starts at £7/month
- Free form templates for performance reviews
- Lacks analytics
- Starts at £0/month
- Templates for 360-degree feedback, employee engagement, and course evaluations
- Less-advanced analytics
- Starts at £0/month
- Assesses employee knowledge
- Limited use case—designed to promote safety in manual labor settings
2. Mid-range assessment tools
Why use them?
This price tier ranges from about £50 to £500 a year, depending on the features included. These online platforms give you more access to basic scoring and limited integrations with other software you use.
Examples
- Price based on company needs
- Includes personality tests and pre-interview assessments
- Not designed for ongoing employee assessments post-hiring
- Price based on company needs
- Range of delivery options from fully managed surveys to self-managed
- 360-degree feedback and other employee assessments are on separate platforms
- Starts at £90/month
- Customizable templates
- Only designed for pre-hire assessments
3. Premium assessment solutions
Why use them?
These advanced platforms incorporate AI-powered analytics, benchmarking, and automation. This allows you to deep dive into data, save time, and deploy employee assessments in a number of settings.
However, these premium solutions are reflected in their premium prices. These tools can cost between £1,000 and more than £10,000, depending on company size and requirements.
Examples
- Price based on company needs
- Assessments are targeted to improve employee retention
- Focus on entry-level recruitment assessments
- Price based on company needs
- Tools to assess employee engagement, learning, and performance
- Specifically built for Microsoft 365, so less adaptable
- Price based on company needs
- Actionable insights which lead to impact
- Specifically focused on assessing and changing culture
Are employee assessments worth the investment?
While we’ve explored some of the options, their cost, and their features and limitations, it’s important to answer whether they’re worth the investment.
Businesses that use employee assessments effectively report:
- Higher productivity
Employees perform better when they know their strengths and their weaknesses. They grow in confidence, and their managers will ensure they’re in the right roles. The data confirms this, with organizations that use a continuous professional development software seeing a 14.9% increase in employee productivity.
- Stronger employee retention
Research shows that engaged employees are 59% less likely to leave their company in the next 12 months. Employees want to be given opportunities to develop their skills and take their careers to the next level. Employee assessments are part of the solution to employee churn, as they encourage leadership development, career development, and engagement.
- Better hiring decisions
Using pre-hire assessments as part of your hiring process increases recruitment quality, which leads to fewer costly hiring mistakes. You’ll feel confident you’ve got the right person with the right skills.
How ScoreApp provides cost-effective, scalable assessments
ScoreApp offers a free plan for businesses to start creating employee assessments without upfront costs. This lets you test out features without immediately committing resources.
As your business grows, premium plans provide advanced analytics, lead segmentation, and automation at a fraction of the cost of traditional assessment tools. This means you can harness all the benefits without the unnecessary features and cost.
With customizable templates, automated follow-ups, and integration with HR platforms, ScoreApp makes it easy for businesses without a huge budget to measure employee performance. You’ll have all your data in one place, meaning you’ll see trends across your team and an overview of their strengths and weaknesses.
Investing in employee assessments delivers long-term business benefits, but it’s important to weigh up the cost before making any decisions. You also need to identify your employee assessment goals and avoid common mistakes, such as asking too many questions, to get the most out of your investment.
By choosing the right platform, businesses can get high-quality insights without overspending. This is what ScoreApp prides itself on. It’s why we exist—to help business owners like you get the data they need.
Try ScoreApp for free and explore the benefits of structured employee assessments.
