Many people are drawn to horoscopes and “what your favorite soda says about you” online quizzes because learning hidden details about ourselves is fun. Personality tests can provide the same satisfaction with the advantage of also offering scientifically based information.
What is a personality test?
A personality test is an assessment tool that can be used to determine distinct characteristics of a person’s potential and attitude. As part of a company’s recruitment process, personality testing can be used to gauge the talent of potential candidates.
Why is personality testing important in the workplace?
When used appropriately, personality testing helps businesses create a diverse workplace where everyone’s skills complement one another. From giving employees the right assignments to choosing job candidates whose characteristics are needed by the team, the data gathered via personality testing can improve operational efficiency.
It is a common misconception that “there are only two types of people in the world”. In fact, there are almost 8 billion different human personalities in the world and that number is always on the rise (source). Everyone has their own special talent to offer to society (whether they’re aware of it or not), and a personality test can be the key that unlocks an individual’s true potential.
How do personality tests benefit employers?
Thanks to personality testing, the strengths and challenges of every team member can be known to them and their colleagues. This information can be critical for employers, as they can use it to know the true capabilities of their team and devise successful team-building strategies.
1. Discover your team’s strengths and weaknesses
The legendary Chinese tactician, Sun Tzu, said that “if you know your enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles”. As leaders of a team, employers must know the capabilities of their employees if they wish for them to work as an efficient unit. Predicting job performance and the possibility of success is much easier if one knows the true strengths of the workforce.
Likewise, employers must overcome the enemy every person in a place of authority must face: Not understanding their challenges. From Julius Caesar to Napoleon, many great tenures have failed due to leaders overlooking their weak spots. Just like a small, unperceived crack can bring down a dam, a blind spot in your team’s ability set can have a negative effect on job performance, employee satisfaction, and overall productivity.
For example, imagine an employee who is brilliant at analyzing and acting on data-driven information, but has trouble when it comes to communicating with other people. If this person is put face-to-face with customers, they may be perceived as being aloof and uncharismatic. A personality assessment test can help determine this person’s ideal role in the company.
If the test results of an employee personality testing procedure are homogeneous, this is a clear indication that blind spots exist within your team. Access to this information will let you know what kind of people to look for during the hiring process to balance out your team’s skill set. In addition, information about their personality profile can help employees understand what skills to improve in order to raise the value of their labor.
How to improve your hiring process
2. Personality tests can improve communication and collaboration
Once employees are aware of their teammates’ personality types as well as their own, they will know when to help and when to ask for help. This heightened awareness of everyone’s value to the team improves communication between workers and reduces the chances of workplace conflicts happening.
Information about personality types can also improve the feelings of camaraderie between workers. The details about one’s personality are a very interesting subject to most people and may become a major driver of conversation during lunches and happy hours. Thanks to personality tests, employees will possess the right language to explain to their colleagues what motivates them.
3. Keep employee engagement and morale high
Finding value in one’s own work makes one a happy, motivated worker. When workers are satisfied with their job, they are unlikely to seek employment elsewhere. In this way, reorganizing the workforce using the data from personality tests helps businesses assign the right tasks for different employees. This will keep employee engagement high and contribute substantially to reducing turnover.
Every employee wants to understand how they fit into their team and within the workplace. When that information is clear, employees will know what responsibilities belong to them and how they can contribute to the goals of leadership. A transparent work structure where everyone is rightly positioned incentivizes honest attitudes and collaboration. Positive work environments motivate everyone to do their best.
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What does a candidate’s personality say about them?
A personality test can reveal crucial details regarding the candidate. These can be used to understand a candidate’s motivations and how their attitude will impact the culture fit. Moreover, it can be a great asset during any interview process because it may reveal if a person is suitable for a specific position.
Personality tests offer information about what a person enjoys and dislikes. A personality test can reveal information about someone’s character, preferred career paths, and preferences when it comes to relationships with other people.
What to expect from personality testing
A personality test is composed of a series of questions that communicate what kind of person someone is. Personality tests ask people to position themselves towards specific statements. There is no passing grade in personality tests, and no one should have a reason to be dishonest with their answers.
How to test for logical reasoning
What is the best personality test tool?
The ID-Personality (Tac) test is an integral resource to identify if an individual’s personality will fit well a company culture and specific job position. The test takes into account unique personality traits and behaviours that can’t be easily recognized through a job interview.
Previously known as the Work Approach and Behaviour Test (WABT), the ID-Personality test has been designed to evaluate how an individual would approach daily work situations. This includes a complete assessment of every person’s behaviour and an accurate profile of their personal characteristics.
Assessment tools to make recruiting more effective
As a pre-employment personality test, the ID-Personality (tac) can give you a view into how a person communicates, how they would feel in different situations, their career prospects, and much more. Since it is intended for professionals in general, the ID-Personality test is effective at all levels in an organization.
HRID’s personality test
The personality test provided by HRID is an efficient assessment tool thanks to the provision of a professional analysis of the results and the creation of intuitive and insightful reports. Once leveraged, the information gathered through personality tests will create considerable value for your organization.
HRID offers multiple reports to help companies achieve the complete pre-employment assessment of a potential employee. A complete personality assessment can be performed using the data from the following four specific reports:
- Competency report: This type of report measures a person’s extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness by gathering information about 25 distinct personality traits and competencies. It includes a section that talks about personal interests and compatibility with different types of careers.
- Management report: This report is produced using the same criteria as a competency report, but presents information related to the target position.
- Report with quotients: The sections of these reports correspond with those of a competency report, but three concepts are included: social, environmental, and emotional quotients.
- Psychometric report: This report displays results based on the raw data gathered from a person in reference to the general population or a population composed of managers.
The insights gathered by the ID-Personality (Tac) test can be used to know how to improve the performance of employees. The test results will let you identify what training efforts are needed and what actions should be taken to improve employee engagement. Together with other types of tests provided by HRID, you can get the full picture of an individual’s nature and cognitive ability.
One of the most common combination of tests used by organizations includes a personality test such as the ID-Personality (Tac) and a cognitive ability test such as the ID-Cognitive test or the ID-Problem-Solving test .
The ID-Cognitive test measures various cognitive skills and can produce an assessment of a person’s general intelligence. This test can measure how a person applies logic. It also analyzes their ability to perform diverse verbal, numerical, and spatial mental tasks.
The ID-Cognitive test reveals how a person thinks in particular ways, including their approach to:
- Spatial reasoning;
- Verbal reasoning;
- Reading comprehension;
- Problem-solving skills;
- Attention to detail;
- Critical thinking;
- Numerical reasoning.
Good verbal, numerical, and spatial reasoning skills are critical for most job positions within a company, as well as prime indicators of job success. ID-Cognitive tests can help assess the ability of people in senior management roles to make complicated decisions at stressful times. Additionally, they can show if a potential employee is a fast learner and thereby can potentially grow professionally within your organization.
The ID-Problem-Solving test assesses how a person deals with real-life problems by measuring their performance during diverse problem-solving exercises. An ID-Problem-Solving test can precisely gauge an individual’s ability to analyze items and use logical or deductive reasoning.
Together with a Personality test, these tests provide most of the information you are looking for when assessing a candidate for a position. Not only do you understand how they respond to situations but can also check whether they have what it takes to solve the problems they are likely to face in their jobs.