If you are getting prepared for a job interview, you should know of the fact that the recruiters and employers are significantly incorporating personality assessments as an integral component of the hiring procedure. Although the exact type of personality tests which a company may employ cannot be predicted, however, certain techniques can help you prepare for your job personality assessment.
Following are some of the most common personality tests for jobs and valuable tips to get you through the personality assessment smoothly.
Personality Assessments as a Hiring Tool
A personality assessment is a valuable tool used by various recruiters to know about the potential employee’s basic personality characteristics, values, and perspectives. As the recruiters realize that the soft skills, personalities, and emotional intelligence of the candidates can be as significant as technical and professional knowledge and expertise, they are highly incorporating personality assessments in the interviews.
Once the recruiters have gained insights into the personality and behavior of a candidate, an employer or manager can judge whether a candidate will be a good match for the open position and the company’s culture. Although the interview procedure may be sufficient to determine aspects like a candidate’s background, technical skills, knowledge, and work experience, it is not always an effective way to understand a candidate’s perspectives and personality. A nervous interviewee, for example, may come off as insecure and shy in an interview, while they may in reality be extroverted personalities.
Additionally, most candidates choose to show only specific aspects of their personalities in job interviews. In such cases, personality assessments are significant as they offer insights into their outlook of life as other conventional interview questions and processes may not.
Significance of Pre-employment personality testing
Research proves that if an employee is placed in a position that is not a match with their personality traits, it usually leads to low engagement. Low employee dedication and engagement results in 21% lower productivity and around 45% higher turnover, and replacing workers is a costly process.
Imagine the money and time you need to invest in interviewing a new hire, processing within the system, training the new hires, and then repeating this process for all candidates. In the modern metric-based work culture, recruiters are searching for recruitment tools with a predictive measurement that provides a quantifiable value on which the decision can be based. Such tests are now also available online and can be processed immediately. Test results are then verified and normalized against various other candidates, pacing up the hiring process and ensuring the candidates who move ahead are a match with their company.
Now that it has been established that the pre-employment personality tests for jobs carry a significant value, let’s delve into the details of the various types of tests used during interviews.
Types of Personality Assessment Tests Used For Job Interviews
Numerous personality assessment tests offer different focuses and approaches to assess the personality of potential employees. Nonetheless, recruiters generally are inclined towards the following personality assessments for pre-employment personality screening.
- The Caliper Profile
The caliper profile is an objective assessment tool that accurately quantifies the individual’s personality traits and motivations to predict their job potential and behaviors. The caliper profile test comprises of various types of questions, including multiple-choice questions (ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree), true or false scenarios, and various statements where candidates choose the most suitable answer according to their personality. The caliper profile test has proved itself significant in determining the personality traits of the individuals and how those can impact their job performance. This test has been scientifically validated by almost 60 years of research, measures 22 robust characteristics, and provides local norms for numerous countries.
An employer can make a customized selection tool that can allow them to customize the assessment to target specific customized critical behaviors. It will help them receive data on job matches or information about the potential success of a candidate in a certain role.
- The DiSC Behavior Inventory
DiSC is an acronym that stands for the major personality traits described in the DiSC model: Dominance
Influence
Steadiness
Conscientiousness
DiSC is a personality assessment tool used by over a million people annually to help improve communication, teamwork, and productivity in the workplace. This test is convenient and only comprises of maximum 30 phrases or adjectives that candidates decide either apply or do not apply to them.
It is an ipsative test, implying that it is not normalized against other candidates. The results of the DiSC test show the relative strengths of a single candidate, meaning employers can’t directly compare the values of two potential employees. In general, the DiSC is not regarded as a valid predictor of job success.
- The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)
The HPI is an important tool to help you improve employee selection, leadership development, and talent management processes. The HPI test consists of 206 true or false statements that the candidates are required to finish within 20 minutes. HPI was introduced in the 1980s to analyze social behavior, the Hogan Personality Inventory has been proven itself as a significant tool when seeing the compatibility for a specific job position.
The score results of this assessment show how a candidate is expected to act in specific situations. It also assesses the interview style and categorizes candidates according to fit.
- The SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire
The SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire, or OPQ32, is introduced to offer companies an image of how specific behavior impacts a candidate’s work performance. It comprises 104 questions that measure 32 characteristics. Potential employees and candidates are assessed in three major domains: thinking styles and feelings, relationship with people, and emotions. On the OPQ32, individuals are offered 4 statements and they are required to choose the statement that best fits them and the ones that are the least match with them. The OPQ32 was specifically designed to ensure that the scales are relevant and appropriate for the office.
The OPQ32 offers a company and manager a custom report of normalized scores, signifying both strengths and weaknesses comprehensively. These reports offer an easy-to-understand graphical summary of performance, directly compared to the other test-takers you are competing against.
- The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
According to the CPI, 89 of the 100 Fortune companies use the MBTI before hiring a new employee in the company. The MBTI characterizes whether the potential employee has either of the two tendencies in the following aspects: extraversion against introversion, intuition against sensing, thinking against feeling, and judging against perceiving. Resultantly, a potential candidate can fall in one of the 16 personality types as described by MBTI. The MBTI is usually used by recruiters to know if the individual will be a good fit for a company and whether they can transition into working with a team smoothly. It consists of 93 questions, given choices of statements that show the tendencies you lean more toward.
The MBTI is also not a normalized test, and the questions are also not scaled. According to CPI, it is not considered ethical to use the MBTI for job assessment. This test is more suitable for understanding the person’s work behavior, but not appropriate for determining a match for a specific position.
Preparing For a Personality Assessment for Job
Although there are no right or wrong answers in the personality assessments for the job, however, there are specific tips that can help you prepare for these tests. The most important tip is to take the personality test seriously. The recruiter or HR manager will consider the results of your personality test and measure them against the other candidates with similar skills and education.
- Answer the questions honestly
While taking a personality test, the best advice to the potential candidates is to just answer the questions as transparently and honestly as possible. It will ensure that you finish the test free of stress and give the most appropriate answers as you view yourself.
- Consider the Post You Applied For
You need to realize that you have various personality traits and you adapt them according to the requirements. You need to approach the test from a professional view, and always be conscious of the post you have applied for, and the company’s culture, while answering the questions.
- Simulation Tests Practice
Although the simulation tests are not the same as the actual tests, you can get an idea of what can come. Additionally, the online simulation tests can help you get experience in handling similar tests and improve self-confidence, as to what you can expect in the actual test.
Parting Remarks
Irrespective of the motive behind personality assessments for the job interview process, these tests are here to stay. Personality assessments for the job include a range of personality traits questions and they help the recruiters to quantify the interview performance based on the specific test against other candidates and choose the right match for the company. The idea is to stay true to yourself and answer the questions honestly.