Test Before You Cast: Online Voice Assessment

Voice Accent Test Before You Cast Your Frontline

Voice tests are revolutionizing recruitment technology, providing unique insights and feedback that help employers connect with ideal frontline candidates. These tests evaluate the comprehensive listening, speaking, and problem-solving skills of a customer support candidate.

For example, two candidates are in a conversation. Candidate ‘A’ bids farewell with a clear, straightforward dialect, while candidate ‘B’ pronounces their greeting as “Ah,'sore’. All ‘de’ best to you too”.

The manager knows that candidate ‘B’ is at a disadvantage this time but is confident that the right voice assessment will favor 'A’s recruitment.

What is a voice accent checker?

A voice accent checker is a digital tool built by linguists and psychologists to evaluate a candidate’s language proficiency. It assesses how a candidate sounds and pronounces, essentially checking their ability to speak and interact effectively with customers.

What does a voice test measure?

English Grammar: The test evaluates the candidate’s ability to form sensible and appropriate statements, ensuring proper usage of words, punctuation, tenses, and article placement.

Comprehension: The test assesses the candidate’s ability to quickly associate with and respond to the customer, which is key to providing smart support service.

Fluency: The test assesses the sound and flow of speech and clarity in delivery. The sound, pitch, and tone of communication are very important when dealing with customers.

Vocabulary: Vocabulary is an essential component of language, as it helps establish effective communication with customers. The test ensures your candidate is accustomed to speaking words used globally, and the test avoids spelling errors.

Pronunciation: The test evaluates the candidate’s specific habits of articulation, mannerism of speech, sounds, and phonemes through audio utterance and recording.

Behavioral Attributes: The test measures the overall behavioral attributes of the candidate by assessing the candidate's willingness to work, conscientiousness, motivation, and emotional maturity.

What is the Voice and Accent Interview?

Voice and accent evaluations are oral skills evaluations aimed at determining if candidates are fit for customer-facing roles. These tests are conducted to evaluate candidates’ English accents and determine their ability to speak fluently.

How do I conduct a voice assessment?

Here are some steps that employers can follow to conduct a voice assessment for frontline or client-facing roles:

1. Define the key communication skills for client-facing roles, such as English accent, pronunciation, listening, speaking, grammar, and industry vocabulary.
2. Select suitable voice assessment platforms for voice recording, role play, and MTI testing based on role and employer needs.
3. Ensure voice assessment questions are relevant, clear, and consistent with the role and industry.
4. Conduct the assessment online, using ML to evaluate and rate performance against criteria like the CEFR scale or a custom rubric for speaking skills evaluation.
5. Provide timely, constructive feedback on the assessment results, highlighting strengths and improvement areas, and inform candidates of their status of evaluation, feedback, and next steps.

Consequences of Skipping the Online Voice Assessment

Frequent confusions in English pronunciation often stem from one’s upbringing and exposure, making it challenging to assess a candidate’s dialect and communication skills accurately.

A mispronounced word or accented utterance imposes an extra cognitive load, complicating understanding. This becomes especially problematic in customer service, where patience runs thin amid queries and issues.

Effective Ways to Avoid Consequences of a Bad Hire

Agents' pronunciation mistakes can worsen the customer experience. Frontline should match clients' preferred accents. Strong comprehension and communication leave positive impressions and adapt to global vocabularies, avoiding intercultural miscommunication. To prevent the negative effects of poor voice and accent, consider:

Voice and Accent Training

These trainings aim to minimize pronunciation errors and emphasis issues. Start by identifying errors through an online voice test. Once you pinpoint accent issues, training can enhance the individual's communication skills for global comprehension.

This often covers accent neutralization, global accent understanding, correction of nasal and throaty pronunciations, and updating basic vocabulary.

Filtering Out Candidates

It is always better to secure the position with competent customer agents who have self-developed their voice and accent to suit it. A voice-ascent test can help you determine the level of training required by your existing base of employees.

It's important to remember that some regional accents are more widely accepted than others.  While a strong voice and accent test can help identify candidates with clear communication skills, it shouldn't be the sole factor in the hiring decision.  In combination with psychometric tests that assess a candidate's cultural sensitivity and adaptability,  voice accent checkers can be a powerful tool for building a diverse and effective team.

How Can Voice Tests Help Recruiters?

A voice assessment test in employment is a tool that evaluates a candidate’s frontline verbal abilities. The frontline employees need to interact with customers or clients in various roles, such as sales, technical support, customer service, healthcare, education, or public service.

PMaps Voice and Accent Test: Ultimate Frontline Screening Tool

The PMaps online voice test is a standardized and scientific test valid by license. It is very reliable and interactive due to its digital interface. Also, it is easy to use for the candidates and simpler for the administrator. 

Types of PMaps Voice Assessments

Pronunciation and Articulation: This test measures how clearly a candidate can speak, focusing on their ability to pronounce words correctly and ensuring their speech is easily understandable by a global audience.

Multilingual Assessments: Designed to assess a candidate's proficiency in speaking multiple languages, these tests compare their speaking and listening skills against international language standards like the CEFR, vital for roles requiring communication in languages besides English.

Industry-Specific Simulations: Tailored to specific sectors, these simulations present candidates with real-world scenarios they might encounter in fields such as healthcare or customer service, testing their ability to use industry-relevant language and terms.

Reading and Listening Comprehension: Evaluates a candidate's ability to understand written and spoken information, crucial for roles that require following instructions or responding to customer inquiries accurately.

Social media communication: This test assesses a candidate's ability to communicate effectively in writing and speaking, specifically on social media platforms, checking for tone, clarity, and the ability to engage an audience.

Spoken Communication: It focuses on an individual's communication skills, including clarity of speech, etiquette, and the ability to convey information effectively in a conversational setting.

Sum Up

Even a skilled CSE might struggle with voice services, so don’t rely solely on academic achievements. Explore the best voice tests by reading our blog, ‘Top 3 Voice and Accent Online English Language Tests’.