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Hiring & Onboarding | July 2021
Personality tests are questionnaires designed to reveal aspects of an individual’s character. As many as 60 percent of workers are asked to complete these tests as part of the hiring process.
While many companies use personality tests for career development, 22 percent of employers use them to assess candidates’ personality traits [for example, persuasiveness, detail orientation and conscientiousness] during the hiring process. There are thousands of tests available, but the quality of these tests varies along with the potential legal risks associated with them.
Benefits of Personality Tests
The following are the benefits of using such tests in the workplace:
- Better placement. They can help identify individuals who may excel at certain jobs. For example, those who score high in empathy may do well at jobs in customer service.
- Strengthen the interview. When coupled with a good interview, personality-tests can help you gain more insight into candidates’ abilities.
Drawbacks of Personality Tests
There are many disadvantages, though, in the workplace.
- It may screen out qualified candidates. For many jobs, there isn’t a mainstream personality that fits the job type. Such tests may also exclude talented candidates who think outside the box.
- It may cause flawed results. Candidates may respond based on what they think the employer wants rather than on their true personalities; therefore, results aren’t always accurate.
- The purpose of the test may not fit into your hiring process. Many of today’s most popular tests were not designed to be used in the hiring process. For example, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was created for career development and training, not for hiring. Therefore, using it in the hiring process can lead to skewed results.
- There may be legal risks. Such tests can result in claims of discrimination. Some individuals have successfully sued employers on the grounds that their test discriminated against individuals with mental illnesses and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA]. For example, questions such as, “Over the course of the day, do you experience many mood changes?” could discriminate against individuals with bipolar disorder or depression. Including questions like this on your company’s personality test could open the door for future lawsuits.
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What Can Employers Do
In order to mitigate your legal risk, consider taking the steps below:
- Measure your test’s validity. Make sure your personality test is a valid predictor of job performance and has a high reliability, meaning that it will produce the same results if the same person takes it twice. Tests should measure traits that will remain stable over time.
- Conduct an internal analysis of your personality test with the help of legal counsel to determine any risks.
- Review current and previous Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC] lawsuits regarding personality tests and remove any questions that have been viewed as discriminatory.
- Make sure personality tests are just a component of the hiring process. Do not allow results from personality tests alone to exclude a candidate.
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Personality tests prove to be ineffective, inaccurate
Since when do 40 questions determine your personality? For many years, personality tests have been integrated into our society and have come to play a significant role in how we understand others. Many use personality tests to relate to others and the importance of what your personality type is, is evident in society. While personality tests can be an educational tool, society must be careful to not depend on these tests as they merely represent a moment in time.
By far the most popular is the Myers-Briggs personality test [better known as MBTI]; a personality test that assigns individuals a personality type based on four traits. It is used everywhere from the workplace to schools.
The MBTI examination is a great way for individuals to realize tendencies they possess are actually common traits. Acknowledging this allows people to recognize their characteristics, which can make them more self-aware. However, this test represents how an individual feels at a certain moment, making it inconsistent. Someone’s results may vary from month to month or even day to day, simply because humans change all the time. The personality test is inconsistent because it is purely subjective. In fact, many psychologists reject the Myer-Briggs test due to its unreliability. Despite this, the Myer-Briggs test remains popular in corporate America. This occurrence continues to prove how personality tests are not as reliable and accurate as people wish them to be. Society wants to believe these tests are accurate because all people want to understand themselves and others. The MBTI allows for this, whether it is accurate or not is up to interpretation
This can be seen again in Enneagram personality tests. The Enneagram personality test is a test that categorizes the test taker into 9 categories. After the test has been completed your results will state the percentage of compatibility to each category.
This test’s fault lies in the fact that the questions are so vague. Test takers are asked to rank the question provided as inaccurate, neutral or accurate. Similar to the MBTI, this test is entirely subject-based and results could change at any time given a different circumstance. While one question won’t change results greatly, answers could vary extremely over years. People change over time, gain new experiences, and obtain more knowledge which can alter their perspective.
As people’s points of view develop, personality tests create a false narrative — that what your results once were, will always represent your personality.
Another personality test that is used frequently to determine prospective hires is the DISC test. The DISC test consists of 4 categories: dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness.
Once completed, this test will tell an individual about how they will do in certain workplace circumstances, specifically their tendencies and preferred environment. This test fails to assess certain skills, such as how someone might be able to work through problems, and it mainly focuses on their behaviors, not their potential contribution in the work environment. This information could be beneficial to people who work with others often or need help working with others, but this test doesn’t take into consideration all the aspects of a good team member, making it ineffective in picking a good candidate.
Personality tests have been part of our society since teenagers would take them in magazines. We love to read about ourselves and personality tests fit right into human narcissism. While personality tests are entertaining, they are not entirely accurate and should not be perceived as binding. These tests represent a single moment in time and do not have the power to make a trait unchangeable. So while these tests may make good conversation, humans are constantly evolving and to limit a person to a closed personality is simply wrong.