Hiring Smarter: Using Personality Tests to Build a High-Performance Team
- EO Boston Board
- Mar 14
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 1
In today’s business world, hiring the right candidate for a job role is integral for entrepreneurs who want to build a high-performance team and maintain high employee retention. Integrating personality assessments into your hiring process is one way to help you make informed decisions, employ candidates who fit into the company’s culture, and enhance productivity among teams. Of course, not all of these tests are created equal, and no single test will perfectly represent those who take it. This article unravels why employers use these kinds of tests and details the right set of tests to consider.
Personality tests provide insights into an individual’s work style, lifestyle, preferences, communication skills, and more. Beyond these elements, here are a few reasons why personality assessment is important.
Individual Organizational Adaptability
Personality assessments help you understand a person's ability or inability to adjust quickly and easily to changing situations in an organization. For instance, during a marketing interview, consider trying the “sudden change exercise.” This test involves an unexpected change in the instructions that were previously given to see how the candidates react to it.
A practical example could be requesting a marketing candidate to prepare a presentation on a particular topic. After a while, the interviewer should provide a new topic, asking the candidate to make the required adjustment quickly.
This helps to assess how well the candidate accepts the new instructions, adjusts their thought process, and handles the new task under pressure. Other notable tests that can give you good results are the unfamiliar task test and the unexpected question challenge.
Easy and Quick Candidate Screening
One mistake most employers make is to simply hire candidates who are technically sound or who exhibit mastery of the relevant skill set without considering whether the candidates can integrate with other workers. Personality tests for hiring fix this problem by selecting candidates who, among several qualities, have shown that they are not just great at the job but can fit into the company’s culture and requirements.
If company integration is a deal-breaker for you, conduct a personality test for hiring focused on it. That way, you can filter out those who don't meet the requirements.
Higher Employee Retention
Employing the right candidates for a job role in the company enhances employee retention. When the employee's values resonate with the company’s culture and values, it brings about a strong sense of responsibility and belonging. Instead of thinking of leaving the company, they are thinking of how to build it and, therefore, become more productive and efficient.
Collaborative Team Chemistry
One of the best hiring practices recruiters can employ when building a high-performance team is to focus on candidates with diverse yet compatible personalities. Of course, this can be done using various personality assessment strategies to make sure the team is cohesive enough to function effectively while recognizing each other's strengths and weaknesses. This ultimately fosters collaboration and innovation among workers.
Which Personality Tests Are Most Effective for Recruitment?
There is no single “best” personality test. Instead, consider the following assessments that focus on different aspects of a potential candidate’s psychology and work style.
1. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
The MBTI is one of the most commonly used personality tests for entrepreneurs who want to yield results in the areas of leadership, conflict resolution, communication, and teamwork, among others. The model categorizes the human personality into 16 types subdivided into four dimensions: introversion vs. extroversion, sensing vs. intuition, thinking vs. feeling, and judging vs. perceiving.
2. DISC Assessment
This type of personality test focuses on assessing a person’s leadership and communicative skills—that is, the ability to be people-oriented and solve problems in a structured manner. DISC assessments are categorized into four areas: dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness.
3. Big Five Personality Traits (OCEAN Model)
The OCEAN model is an acronym for openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. While some psychologists question its accuracy, it is still considered one of the most effective methods of personality assessment, providing all-around insight into the behavior, attitude, and composure of a candidate. It studies how individuals with high emotional stability handle things and remain calm under pressure.
4. Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)
The HPI helps to determine how resilient, adaptable, and social a candidate is. It helps in pointing out people who have leadership traits and potential.
Despite its numerous benefits, personality testing for hiring has its fair share of pitfalls. Two major limitations to using these tests are:
Lack of Context
Personality tests for hiring provide generalized insight into a person's traits based on current dispositions. They do not give full context into a candidate’s true strengths, which is why, for adequate judgment, the test should be done alongside interviews, practical exercises, and a skill assessment.
Stereotyping
Sometimes, being totally dependent on personality tests for hiring could lead to stereotyping candidates based on their test results instead of their actual abilities. Cultural bias can also come into play. As much as personality tests offer great insights, they should not be the only method of assessing candidates.
Case Studies of Businesses Using Personality Testing Successfully
Below are real-world examples of companies that have implemented and are still using personality tests for hiring in their organization.
Google uses personality assessments alongside structured interviews to build innovative and collaborative teams. They are able to evaluate a candidate’s traits, such as adaptability, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. Personality tests have been known to provide reasonable insights into hiring only the best candidates who match the company’s culture.
Zappos
Zappos is an online retailer business that incorporated personality tests into its hiring process to ensure candidates align with its customer-focused culture. This approach has contributed to a high level of employee engagement and retention.
Southwest Airlines
The airline prioritizes cultural fit and attitude instead of just technical skills when hiring by using personality tests. Over time, this work ethic has helped them to hire employees who embody teamwork, enthusiasm, and customer service excellence. It has largely contributed to their positive workplace culture and strong customer service reputation.
Get All the Insights You Need to Implement Personality Assessments Into Your Hiring Process
Personality tests for hiring have become a widely accepted and effective way of streamlining the hiring process in an organization. However, these tests need to be carefully and ethically implemented to ensure the best results are obtained. At EO Boston, we organize regular webinars and seminars aimed at providing members with support in various areas of business, including hiring.
You can also interact with other business leaders in the organization to find the personal tests for entrepreneurs that work the most for them. Join EO Boston today and take advantage of the wide pool of resources that can help you take your business to the next level.
Comments