2021BusinessPsychology

Can Personality Tests Be Used to Evaluate Potential Employees?

Personality tests have quickly become a greatly-used tool during the recruitment process. Although qualifications, certifications, degrees, and skills are important when choosing a candidate for a position, the personality of the candidate is a factor that must also be looked into. A personality test essentially indicates if a candidate is a great fit for the organization in question, especially the culture of the company.

Many recruiters now create a profile of the kind of candidate that they are looking for before their first meeting with a potential employee, or even before the candidate takes any test they organize. Common personality tests used by recruiters include open-ended questions that allow the candidate to talk extensively about themselves, the famous Myer-Briggs Type Indicator, the Gallup Profile, the Caliper Profile, and Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire.

While using these personality tests (in conjunction with competency tests), recruiters look out for a candidate that fits the profile they have created. So, while applicants take courses in preparation for competency tests such as the prepterminal.com, it is important that they also get their minds ready for personality tests.

Other uses of personality tests include the promotion of a pre-existing employee, choosing an employee for a leadership position, choosing people within the organization for a particular type of project, or the establishment of a new department. However, many still wonder if personality tests are really great for evaluating potential employees. So they ask, “Can personality tests be used to evaluate potential employees?” This is the question we would be tackling in this article, but not before knowing what personality tests do for recruiters in the hiring process.

The Importance of Personality Tests in the Hiring Process

  • Personality tests give every candidate a relatively fairer chance of getting the job. Hence, it reduces cases of discrimination during the hiring process; especially racial and gender-based discrimination.
  • They assist recruiters/employers in choosing the candidate that is a great fit for the role and the organization, in an objective manner.
  • They can serve as an indicator that a candidate will do well on their job. This basically implies that personality tests can indicate if a person would succeed at their job based on their natural predisposition. Although there are other factors that point out why a person may do great on their job, the way we are naturally inclined to act as humans also plays a big role here.
  • For instance, certain jobs require friendliness, while certain jobs require resilience. Personality is a great factor that determines the extent to which a person displays these characteristics, especially based on their temperament type. Hence, it is very logical for personality tests to determine how well a person is likely to do on their job.
  • They help identify if a candidate is likely to stick around for a while or not.

The Use of Personality Tests in Evaluating Potential Employees

Now, let’s answer the very question that brought you to read this article, “Can personality tests be used to evaluate potential employees?”

This question would be answered based on the facts (precisely the uses and importance of personality tests) that have been established. The answer is “Yes, personality tests can be used to evaluate potential employees”. However, while these tests are great (especially with the ones with high levels of validity and reliability), they shouldn’t be the only tool that informs hiring a particular candidate.

Conclusion

It is important to stress that personality tests only examine one aspect of a candidate and this is “personality”. For a well-structured process of hiring, references, aptitude tests, and interviews should also be used, especially if you are seeking the very best person for the role. 

Sadia Khan

I am a digital marketer who believes that the right content promoted on the right platform at the right time is the key to success. I help businesses to promote and sell their products and services to customers via the organic medium. My expertise is to create a brand reputation in the market using various content marketing strategies. My goal in life is to provide value and not just sell the product. I am a strategic planner, a critical thinker, and a project manager who knows how to communicate and collaborate successfully.

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