Employment Personality Test [Complete Guide]

Employment personality tests are a great way to assess how someone might handle a situation within the workplace.

It can also give information on how this person will work with the team, solve problems, apply practical knowledge, lead others, deal with stress, handle pressure, follow the rules and regulations, and more.

Who uses employment personality tests?

In 1919, The U.S. Army used the first personality test to help screen recruits. They were looking for recruits that might be susceptible to shell shock.

Now, recruiters all overuse personality tests to determine whether candidates are suitable for an available position. They’re a great way to narrow down choices when multiple applicants are qualified for the job.

The latest research shows that 82% of companies use pre-employment personality tests, while 80% of Fortune 500 do the same.

Other researchers have found that 36% of best-in-class organizations are more likely to use pre-employment candidate assessments and that this percentage rises with each passing year.

What does an employment personality test measure?

Employment tests are used to measure many job-related traits that can be grouped as:

• Personality – Personality traits can tell us how the candidate may act and feel in various situations. Personality traits that are most often measured in job-related assessments are extraversion and introversion, stress tolerance, proactivity, openness, adaptability, optimism, and emotional stability.
• Aptitude – This tells us more about a candidate’s intelligence and cognitive skills. It is crucial since it directly correlates with their ability to solve job-related problems and learn new things.

If you are interested about the pros and cons of personality tests, read this.

The benefits of employment personality tests

Below, you will find several reasons why companies choose to use personality tests when seeking top talent.

Reduced employee turnover and expenses

Employment personality tests can help you understand key traits of your successful employees and then hire people with the same or similar traits to minimize turnover.

It is no surprise that hiring a new employee is expensive, so matching candidates that have the right innate traits that job requires can significantly cut down on your recruiting expenses.

More consistent hiring

Being consistent is vital in hiring, just like in any other thing you do. Personality assessments help recruiters match the suitable candidates with the right job openings over and over again.

This doesn’t just help recruiters, hiring managers, and the overall HR team look professional but also helps the company be more productive and have better and consistent culture.

A better understanding of candidates

Sometimes, job titles require certain characteristics, and in these cases, knowing what type of personality a person has can be beneficial.

Using the test results to determine which position a candidate might fit best in can be very helpful. Test results can also help us understand the individual’s preferred communication style, how they think and deal with problems, and what motivates them.

Faster screening

Pre-employment assessments can help a lot in high volume hiring, mass, or bulk-hiring. By implementing these assessments in the early stages of the applicant journey, you can quickly eliminate all the candidates that do not fit the role based on their innate traits.

Increased objectivity

Fighting hiring biases can be easier with the results of personality assessments. You can quickly get the wrong picture from the CV or interview and only realize that once the candidate is hired.

At the same time, you could’ve eliminated the ideal candidate simply because they got anxious for the interview and didn’t show themself in their best light.

However, with personality tests, you can ensure that candidate has the right personality traits for the job and overall company culture, not just skills.

Increased productivity

Matching the right employee for the job can do wonders. Giving the candidate the job role that is tailored to their traits and helps them express themselves and show off their skills and passions in the right way is a win-win situation for everyone.

With the help of tests, the HR team can easily understand in which areas the candidate will naturally do well and in which they might need some help or won’t do well.

Better employee relationships

Personality testing is also a great way to see how candidates might interact with existing employees.

Sometimes, those with strong leadership skills might come in and step on the toes of those who’ve been working for you for years. While strong leadership is needed, there are ways to compromise in these types of situations.

But, if the personality test shows strong leadership in a negative way, you might be better suited with a different candidate.

Personality tests can also help candidates

Personality tests can also help candidates, whether they get the job or not.

Understanding their personality traits and characteristics is a great way to promote self-awareness. Sometimes, our weaknesses hold us back. However, if we understand that it is due to our personality, we can learn to cope with these weaknesses and turn them into strengths.

Realizing that your personality is a big part of who you are and how you interact is critical in the workforce setting.

7 Personality traits that impact job performance

According to Berke, a pre-hire assessment, seven personality traits affect job performance:

1. Adaptability – Adaptability is people’s natural tendency to adapt to the feelings of others when communicating with them. Those with lower adaptability make decisions without caring about their impact on others’ thoughts and feelings. On the other hand, people with higher adaptability tend to be more diplomatic, thoughtful, and tactful.
2. Assertiveness – This tells us how inclined people are to take action. Depending on their level of assertiveness, people can be either decisive and direct or wish to follow someone’s lead.
3. Intensity – Intensity tells us how people deal with emotions when facing obstacles. The lower the intensity, the more relaxed they will be.
4. Optimism – People with high scores in optimism have a positive outlook on their and other people’s futures. The opposite are skeptics.
5. Responsiveness – Responsiveness is the ability and tendency to express feelings and opinions openly. Those that are more responsive will prefer a high activity work environment, while the less responsive people will choose a predictable and calm environment.
6. Sociability – This tells us how people feel when interacting with others and whether it brings them any satisfaction. Employees with high scores in sociability are more driven to interact with other people.
7. Structure – This tells us how individuals perceive orders, rules, and correctness. Candidates with higher results in structure value order and precision, while those with lower scores tend to be more flexible and prone to trial and error approaches.

Should you test your current employees too?

Testing current employees is vital if you have just