Nowadays, an employee is hired based on more than technical skills. Certainly, technical skills are vital. However, companies now value personality, values, and work style. This way, companies are able to ensure reduced employee turnover rate, unbiased hiring, and company fit.
However, most companies are unaware of the pre-employment test’s fundamentals or how they function. As a result, they aren’t able to understand the insights that come with it. Furthermore, as different providers deliver various tests, companies have a hard time understanding which one to choose.
In this guide, we will discuss the available pre-employment personality tests. This includes the DISC, 16 Personalities, Big Five and additional testing methods that are commonly used in the hiring process. Let’s start with the fundamentals.
What Are Pre-Employment Personality Tests?
A personality test before employment is an assessment that estimates various traits that a candidate may possess. These are primarily backed up by scientific methods. This includes popular methods such as the DISC or Big Five personality traits.
Using these tests, an organization can find things that a resume or an interview wouldn’t be able to find. As future employees give these smartly built tests, the system will be able to give crucial insights about what the candidate is capable of.
These tests reveal three key areas: communication style, cultural fit, and teamwork. Additionally, decision-making and leadership skills can also be assessed with these tests.
Why Are Pre-Employment Personality Tests Important?
Several benefits come with pre-employment personality tests. Out of all, there are three most important factors that we need to discuss and are most notable. They are;
- Better Hiring Accuracy: It helps companies hire employees who can fulfill the job role skills and have team compatibility.
- Reduced Employee Turnover: Employees hired using these tests show reduced employee turnover.
- Better Collaboration: Once you understand the candidates, you can match them with existing employees who have similar traits. This can lead to better collaboration.
Popular Pre-Employment Personality Tests
Now, let’s get to our main topic, the ultimate guide to pre-employment personality tests. Here, we will discuss all the popular tests that companies use to get insights into potential candidates.
DISC Personality Assessment
These tests put individuals into one of the following four categories: dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness. This would help employers understand how candidates approach tasks, communicate, and work in teams.
Similarly, it helps in putting each candidate into a role where their traits will result in the best performance. Overall, enhancing a company’s team dynamics and productivity by a ton.
16 Personalities (MBTI)
The 16 Personalities test allocates one of 16 personality types to a candidate. Nevertheless, it gained fame for its insights into decision-making, relationships, and work.
Now, companies use them to assess a candidate’s fit for roles and teams. They test working style, problem-solving, and potential.
Big Five Personality Traits
The Big Five traits used in this test include;
- Openness
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism.
This wide test range would enable the employer to determine the candidate that best suits the role.
It is generally done by establishing key characteristics, such as creativity, reliability, emotional stability, and sociability. Overall, it’s very useful in seeing how the person will take on changing environments.
Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)
The Hogan Personality Inventory is a test designed to measure the personality characteristics that distinguish the individual in terms of occupational success, leadership and interpersonal relations. It focuses on traits regarding stress resistance, problem-solving ability, and relationship ability.
However, HPI isn’t something you should use in generalized jobs. They are only meant for high-pressure work or leadership functions and must be utilized where the inspiration of the whole team is vital.
Caliper Profile
The Caliper Profile, like the HPI, measures traits and motives. They relate to job performance. However, this test is not commonly used for leadership positions. Instead, it is more widely used in job roles such as sales and customer service.
Overall, it can be said that the Caliper Profile is used to calculate the probability of an employee succeeding in a particular role.
How to Choose the Right Test for Your Recruitment Process
Choosing the right test for hiring can be daunting. With thousands of tests available, companies must choose one carefully. It is crucial to avoid costly mistakes. Well, don’t worry, as we will cover the important aspects when choosing the right test for your recruitment process.
Understand Role Requirements
Different roles require diverse skills. That’s why understanding what test can help you to assess the role requirements is vital. However, you won’t get tests that say it’s specifically made for the job role “Sales” or any other role.
Instead, you will only get the option to assess personality traits. For example, if your company is hiring for the support team, you need to look for traits such as communication and empathy.
Ensure Test Validity
When looking for a pre-employment test, you will encounter many tests that don’t have any scientific approval. It is a big red flag when it comes to pre-employment tests. This is because, without any scientific validation, these tests mean nothing.
Thus, you should only opt for the tests that use a scientific model, such as the DISC or 16 Personalities. This will ensure the precision of the test is as high as possible, and you can hire the right people for the role.
Prioritize Company Values
Ensuring your company value aligns with the pre-employment personality test is a must. If your company prioritizes team collaboration, your selected pre-employment test should be able to assess this specific skill with scientifically backed methods.
Similarly, if your company requires innovation, then ensuring the test can evaluate someone’s creativity is a must.
Consider Legal Aspects
Different pre-employment test providers come with different regulations in their companies. However, they may not match with your organization/country’s laws. That’s why ensuring the rules and regulations within the tests is crucial to being on the legal side.
Otherwise, you will face consequences for not adhering to the hiring standards.
Use Case of Different Personality Tests for Distinct Role
Let’s take a look at a table that will simplify your understanding of different personality tests more by coupling them with distinct roles.
| Personality Test | Use Case Roles |
| DISC Personality Assessment | Project managers, customer support, and team leaders |
| 16 Personalities (MBTI) | Strong decision-making and collaboration |
| Big Five Personality Traits | Sales representatives, creative professionals, and customer-facing positions |
| Hogan Personality Inventory | High-pressure and leadership role |
| Caliper Profile | Sales executives, client relations, and customer service agents |
How Personality Tests Impact Team Success
Pre-employment personality tests, like the DISC and 16 Personalities, can have a big impact. They can revitalize team success. Here’s how they can help;
- Better Team Communication: With the right people in the team that fit your company culture, communication will be better than ever.
- Enhanced Productivity: Hiring based on resumes often leads to poor placements. Employees are not used to their full potential. At the same time, these personality tests assure you that you assign the destined member to their perfect role.
- Reduced Employee Turnover: Hired employees who passed employment tests perform better. They enjoy their work as it’s in their instinct. Thus, employees show a low tendency to leave the job and find a new one.
FAQ
Let’s check out some commonly asked questions regarding this topic;
Can we rely on pre-employment personality tests?
Pre-employment personality tests are reliable if their scientific validation is used within the test, such as DISC or Big Five. Nevertheless, its always recommended to combine it with interviews and other ways of hiring for better results.
Are personality tests suitable for every role in a job?
Not all tests fit every role. For example, DISC is ideal for teamwork roles, while the Caliper Profile suits sales and leadership positions.
What is the cost involved in implementing personality tests?
The cost can vary from very low to very high, depending on the test provider and the number of candidates. Basic tests are probably not that expensive, but more advanced ones, like HPI, will require a larger investment.
Do personality tests ensure unbiased hiring?
Well-designed tests decrease bias in a number of ways because they focus more on traits and behaviors. This eliminates subjective impressions, which naturally lead to fair hiring decisions.
Conclusion
It’s inevitable that pre-employment personality tests have now become crucial to recruitment. Especially thanks to the scientifically backed-up tests, such as the DISC, 16 Personalities, and the Big Five. They have provided reliability in the current pre-employment personality tests.
Nevertheless, it is equally important for a company to choose the right test according to its requirements. Otherwise, the tests become worthless. So, understand your needs first and then select the test.
