Nowadays, the hiring process has become different and more complex than it has been traditionally. Earlier, employers only had a small window to assess and know a candidate. An hour was just about time to ask questions about a candidate’s work experience and instances of past behavior at work. But it was not sufficient to learn about things like an individual’s communication style and so on at the workplace

It is important for candidates to have job-specific personality to handle an organization’s pressures and customer line. Hiring a candidate with the wrong personality type may have a disastrous outcome for your organization. But how does one know a candidate’s personality? This is where personality tests become crucial. This is a series of questions that often help leaders assess their current teams and even provide vital information on prospective employees. A rise in the use of personality tests in the hiring process has led to the development of methodologies that businesses can choose from, depending upon their requirements.

Personality Tests for Hiring

These are assessments that measure a candidate’s non-behavioral characteristics and are given to candidates prior to the job interview to inform them about the interview process. These are given in a multiple-choice format for self-assessment where candidates choose traits or statements that match their personality the most. Based on the results, employers can get a better understanding of a candidate’s underlying characteristics, like motivation, communication style, temperament, character, personal identity and much more. For instance, a personality test can reveal how an individual prefers to interact with others, ways of handling a stressful situation, or how open they are to change. A couple of popular ones are Disc Assessment and Myers-Briggs, The Caliper Profile, Predictive Index (PI) Behavioral Assessment and Situational Judgment Test (SJT), among others.

Why Are the Tests Important?

Since it is quite expensive for companies to recruit and train new hires, attracting the right candidates for specific opportunities is important for an organization’s productivity, as well as the bottom line. Personality tests serve as valuable tools for recruiting and retaining great talent. These also help evaluate job performance. So, assessing a candidate’s behavioral tendencies at work helps hiring managers and headhunters decide whether a candidate fits into an open position, along with the company’s culture.

HOW PERSONALITY TESTS HELP IN RECRUITMENT

They Help Get the Right Match

Nowadays, employees are leaving companies in hordes and a key reason is that they do not fit in with the company’s culture. Personality tests or pre-employment tests make it easier to match the right person with the right job. It presents a picture of the real person which, at times, is much more important than work experience or education qualifications. Moreover, the resume of a person does not tell you how well he/she will perform in future.

Help Spot Leadership Skills

Although one cannot rely on these tests entirely, they can help you to learn certain things about your employees. You can use such a test to figure out whether a person is suitable for a particular leadership role or not. These tests can tell you if an individual is hostile or timid by nature. It can also give an idea about whether a person works better in a team or otherwise.

Identify Strengths, Weaknesses

The tests also help you find the strengths and weaknesses of applicants. It is not possible to simply inquire about such information. Many are not even aware of their true strengths and weaknesses. Even if they are, it is quite unlikely that they would want to disclose this information to a recruiter. But these tests are developed to help you explore such information.

These Tests Promote Diversity

A report revealed that, sometimes, candidates face discrimination. Companies that use these personality tests can promote greater diversity at the workplace. By taking all the candidates through a standardized hiring process, employers can eliminate prejudice and offer all applicants who meet the requirements equal conditions regardless of their background.

These Are Flexible for Applicants

These pre-employment tests can be taken by candidates when it suits them and be considered for the position remotely. For instance, they do not have to take time off to appear for a job interview to a distant location physically.

Saves Recruiter a Lot of Time

These tests are quick to take and get results, too, which, in turn, save plenty of time for everyone involved.

Lays Ground for Growth Plan

The information from these tests can be used to lay the basis for a development plan that will help employees do their job the best they can.

They Lead to More Well-being

These tests lower the chances of hiring errors, which promotes greater well-being and lower absenteeism at work, thereby helping in improved production.

Good Addition to Interviews

These tests are a good addition to job interviews. Information about past behavior added with a candidate’s personality can offer hiring managers a fairly good idea of how the person would behave in similar situations in future.