Organizations have been using a variety of assessment tools as a part of their staffing process for many years. The purpose for utilizing them is to generally avoid poor and potentially disastrous hiring decisions that might have direct, measurable costs and business impact. I am sure that at some point in your career you have been evaluated yourself, and likely have used these tools in evaluating existing or potential staff.
These tools fall into several categories: qualification screening, job simulations, knowledge and skills testing, structured interviews, talent measures, physical abilities testing, background investigations, interviews with psychologists, and utilization of values/culture fit inventories. They provide information that can then be used by an organization as data points when building and evaluating interview question responses. It is important to note that – except for those that measure specific job requirements – these are not pass/fail “tests.”