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Work-style assessment for hiring
Know how a candidate prefers to work before you decide.
Kern is a work-style assessment for hiring. Everyone you invite to the same job answers the same assessment, scored by one fixed set of rules, and you read a report that describes how each person answered, section by section. There is no overall mark, and nothing that tells you whom to hire.
Sign in to your Kern account to invite people, follow their progress and read reports. There is no password: we email you a single-use sign-in link.
Been sent a link?
Before you begin, read what the assessment involves, what Kern records while you answer, and who sees your result. It is a work-style assessment, not an intelligence test.
If your invitation email is in your inbox, the link in it takes you straight to your assessment.
From invitation to report
- 1
Invite in a minute
Create the job, add the person, and Kern emails them a secure link. For a bigger intake, switch on a group link with an expiry date and a maximum number of people, and share it where your candidates are.
- 2
They answer in their own time
Each answer is saved the moment it is given, so a candidate can close the tab and come back to the same question. Before they start, they can read exactly what Kern records and why.
- 3
Read the report
Scoring is automatic, and you get an email when a report is ready. You read how the person answered, section by section, with the sections you marked as important for the role placed first.
What you get for each job
- A live list of everyone you invited and where each person is: invited, started, stalled or finished. Send a reminder from the list, and Kern nudges candidates by email too, so nothing depends on you chasing people.
- For each person, a report that describes how they answered section by section, with a written summary of the two sections furthest from the middle and suggestions for working well with them.
- Once enough people have completed the assessment, you can see how a candidate's answers compare with everyone else your organisation has assessed. The comparison updates as more results come in.
- Reports for people who sat for the same job can be read side by side, so a shortlist discussion starts from the same page.
- You tell Kern which sections matter for the role, and the report puts those sections first.
- Only people you authorise can see reports. Every report view is recorded, and your administrators can read the record of who opened what.
What your candidates see
- Clear statements about how they like to work, shown one at a time in a web browser on a phone, tablet or computer. Nothing to install.
- No camera, no microphone, no screen recording.
- No answer is read by a language model or put through AI-writing detection.
- A way to ask for an adjustment before starting, such as larger text or several short sittings. A person reads the request and replies. Asking does not affect their application or result, and nothing about it reaches you.
- An account they can create at the address they were invited at, where they can download a copy of their personal data or delete the data Kern holds about them. That export is not your report.
- Their result goes to your organisation, where only people you authorise can see it. Kern does not send the candidate a copy.
How Kern is run
- One set of scoring rules for everyone
- Everyone invited to the same job completes the same assessment, and one frozen set of scoring rules applies to all of them. Scoring is automatic, and results are never edited by hand.
- No grade and no verdict on whom to hire
- A report carries no overall mark. It describes how the person answered, section by section, and what each section covers. The hiring decision stays with you.
- Candidates know what is recorded before they start
- Before the first question, candidates can read what Kern records, why it is recorded and how long it is kept.
One thing to be straight about while you are deciding: Kern is in a pilot, evidence-gathering phase. Until that study is complete, scores describe how a person answered. They do not establish future job performance.
If your organisation is not set up yet
A person from the Kern team sets up each employer account by hand, one organisation at a time. Tell us who you are and what you are hiring for, and we will reply.