When you bring someone onto your team, you’re doing so because you’re hoping they’ll be a valuable asset to your company for years to come.
This can be hard to get a handle on: even if someone seems like the perfect fit in an interview, it’s hard to foresee how they’ll be on a day-to-day basis.
That’s why many companies are looking to integrate personality tests for jobs into their hiring process. These personality tests are intended to help determine if a person’s personality is the right fit for the given company. It’s intended to get beyond the tangible skillset of a person and ensure they might be the right person to stay long-term.
What are the pros and cons of this kind of test? Read on and we’ll walk you through what you need to know.
The Benefits Of Employment Personality Testing
When it comes to hiring the right person for your open position, you could use all the information you can get your hands on. For this reason alone, an employment personality test could be a huge asset.
After all, can you always trust what an interviewee tells you when they sit down? Every potential hire has a few anecdotes lined up and credits to share.
A personality test can help pierce the veil on these things and throw up potential red flags you could’ve missed otherwise.
A poor cultural fit for your company can also cause doom for this new hire, no matter how good they may be on paper. Is your company big on deadlines? Then it doesn’t matter how skilled or intelligent your new hire is: they need to be punctual.
It can be very hard to spot red flags in an interview setting because most cultural fits are easy to talk about in conversation and harder to show in person. A personality test is usually better at revealing these kinds of things than an in-person discussion would.
These tests can also help to avoid bias on the part of the interviewers from your company itself.
The Disadvantages of Personality Testing
Though there are many pros to consider with employment personality testing, there are some downsides that can’t be ignored. For one, it can be hard to find a test that you can really rely on.
Many personality tests have come under intense scrutiny from organizations including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This controversy usually revolves around the framing of given questions which may disqualify certain individuals. Bias against certain personality types may be inherent in the way that some tests are written.
Leaning too much on personality test results might also be an indication of an over-reliance on data. Like all good business, there’s a little bit of risk and trusting your gut required to make the best decisions. A personality test might not be as good of a judge for a person’s ‘fit’ as your own personal judgment.
Personality Tests For Jobs
There are many reasons why considering personality tests for jobs might be worth it for your company. But there are some disadvantages to keep in mind too. It can be a helpful tool that’s worth trying out!
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