Sometimes a candidate can have everything going for him or her except the right culture fit. Fitting in with the existing team – sharing the same values and personality traits as the hiring group – has become extremely important to hiring managers. Not having the same core values and traits could be the one reason a candidate isn’t hired. This leads to the question of how we can anticipate and measure these qualities in advance.
Introducing the Personality Test
For this reason, among others, personality tests have become a major player to the billion dollar pre-testing industry (WSJ). According to the Wall Street Journal, “eight of the top 10 U.S. private employers now administer pre-hire tests in their job applications for some positions.” Despite it’s current popularity, we discovered that the personality test has a long history of rising and falling popularity.
Some Pros and Cons
Companies and industrial specialists promote that there is a solid correlation between personality test results and job performance (those with high empathy and conscientiousness seem to be the top performers). Some employers even assert that testing candidates’ personality traits correlates to lower employee turnover (Forbes).
In regards to past arguments that people could easily fake the results, today’s personality tests have advanced to a stage where candidates cannot identify the ‘right’ answer and answer falsely in order to get hired (WSJ, SHRM).
As another advantage of these tests, it is said that they are less likely to differ in results by gender, race, national origin, religion or age (SIOP). It is argued, however, that there is one area where discrimination is still at risk and this is disability, mental health in particular.
As an example, if a personality test includes True/False questions such as “over the course of the day, I can experience many mood changes,” or “people do a lot of things that make me angry” these questions could unintentionally reveal a mental illness to an employer. Basing a hiring decision on answers to questions such as these would be a violation against the American Disabilities Act (ADA). Complaints of discrimination and litigations have already occurred out of this situation (SHRM). To avoid this, the questions and structure of personality tests must be chosen with great care and attention.
Here are some recommendations when implementing personality tests, provided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC):
▪ Ensure the test is properly validated for the positions and purposes for which they are used. The test must be job-related and its results appropriate for the employer’s purpose. While a test vendor’s documentation supporting the validity of a test may be helpful, the employer is still responsible for ensuring that its test is valid under Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP).
▪ If a selection procedure screens out a protected group, the employer should determine whether there is an equally effective alternative selection procedure that has less adverse impact and, if so, adopt the alternative procedure.
▪ To ensure that a test or selection procedure remains predictive of success in a job, employers should keep abreast of changes in job requirements and should update the test specifications or selection procedures accordingly.
▪ Employers should ensure that tests and selection procedures are not adopted casually by managers who know little about these processes. A test or selection procedure can be an effective management tool, but no test or selection procedure should be implemented without an understanding of its effectiveness and limitations for the organization, its appropriateness for a specific job, and whether it can be appropriately administered and scored.
The last bullet serves as a good summary for this entire article. There are certainly benefits to conducting personality tests. Especially if you have to choose between two very strong candidates. But needless to say, much consideration should take place when introducing these tests into your hiring procedure. There are risks, but special care can help you to avoid them and benefit from their results.
