Personality tests are generally delivered online to candidates prior to the face-to-face interview to determine if they have the proper behavioral make-up to be successful in the position for which they are applying. Additionally, personality assessments often provide an interview guide based on the candidate’s personality which can be used during the in-person interview. The interview questions are designed to get the candidate to open up about themselves during the interview process in a manner that traditionally asked interview questions can’t.
Personality and Job Fit
Personality/Behavioral assessments, such as the Ocean personality test, test candidates for varying extremes of their personality to better understand their likely on the job behaviors. The theory is that placing new employees in a role, atmosphere, and with colleagues suited to their personality will increase performance and employee retention. Candidates who get along with their managers are more likely to be productive and less likely to leave.
Adaptive Personality Tests
Depending on the vendor, the assessment may vary in length, however to be accurate, most assessments possess more than one hundred questions. Some tests are “adaptive”, which means that questions are tailored to the candidate based on the pattern of their answers. Adaptive behavioral assessments, like the Hire-Intelligence assessment, provide greater insight into candidates’ personalities and potential job fit.
Personality and Job Profiling
A popular process used with behavioral assessments is profiling top performers in a particular position to benchmark the necessary behavioral traits required for the position. For instance top sales performers at Company XYZ might be Bold, Outgoing, and Tenacious. Incoming candidates who take the behavioral assessment would then be ranked against this benchmark to determine how closely they match the behavioral traits of the company’s top performers.
Test Reliability and Validation
All assessments must be validated to not be discriminatory to the candidate on the basis of their age, race, religion, gender or nationality.