Resumes and interviews may not always give an employer the insight they require into a candidate’s or employee’s personality. And hiring the wrong individual might lead to conflicts within the team. The organization may also see significant performance issues and a higher turnover rate. Therefore, companies should conduct pre-employment personality tests. These tests help evaluate the test-taker’s skill level. They also help assess their personality traits concerning the job profile.

Qualities an employer looks for
When conducting a personality test, an employer looks for certain qualities in the candidate. A few include teamwork skills, soft skills, emotional intelligence, reliability, and workplace ethics. They also try to ascertain the candidate’s strengths, weaknesses, adaptability to change, reaction to stress, and whether they fit the workplace culture.

Benefits of employment personality tests
Besides selecting the right people for the job, there are other benefits of conducting an employment assessment test. For example, it eliminates potential bias by helping the hiring team make data-driven decisions. It also helps them comprehensively assess a candidate’s skills, abilities, personality, and knowledge by asking targeted questions. Moreover, these tests attract open and honest applicants by using words and phrases that connect with the individuals an employer seeks. Finally, it saves time by helping hire the right people on the first go.

Popular types of workplace personality tests
An employer can pick from multiple personality tests to assess an individual’s interaction style, competencies, traits, behavioral tendencies, and preferences. A few popular options include:

The SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire
Also known as OPQ32, the SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire helps one understand how an applicant or employee’s personality traits and behavior may influence their overall work performance. The test comprises 104 questions that assess 32 key characteristics. These characteristics are categorized into three primary areas that can influence an individual’s behavior at the workplace. The areas include one’s style of thought and feelings, relationships with colleagues, and emotions. As for its format, each question in the SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire has multiple statements. The applicants must pick the one that least describes them and the one that resonates with them the most. The results help analyze an applicant or employee’s strengths and weaknesses in the workplace in detail. Each test result also features a graphical summary that an employer can use to compare applications.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Many employers popularly adopt the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) during the hiring process. The questions in this assessment test helps determine which personality group an applicant falls into. There are four primary groupings: extraversion vs. introversion, judging vs. perceiving, intuition vs. sensing, and thinking vs. feeling. There are 93 questions in this personality test. Once the results are collected, the employer can assign the test-takers one of 16 personality types.

The Caliper Profile
Applicants who take this test must answer questions in various formats. The most common test format presents a set of statements and then asks the candidate to pick one that is more accurate to their views. Other Caliper Profile formats include true and false, degree of agreement scale, and multiple-choice questions. It measures how the test-taker’s personality traits correlate to their work profile performance. This test considers potentially negative and positive qualities so the employer can better understand how an individual would perform at the workplace.

DISC Personality Test
This personality test is based on four categories: dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance (DISC). The test is divided into 28 statements, each having four dedicated options. The individual appearing for the DISC personality test must rate how they identify with each statement, which places them in one of 12 different personality types. This test is usually implemented in areas of recruitment, workplace communications, conflict resolution, motivation, work habits, and designing realistic goals.

Situational Judgment Test (SJT)
With this employee assessment test, an employer can ascertain how a candidate or employee will respond and react to specific situations at a workplace. It contains questions that relate to critical working scenarios. The test focuses on areas like interpersonal skills, problem solving, conflict management, negotiation, cultural sensitivity, and teamwork. An SJT is also commonly used to determine one’s job performance.

16 Personality Factor Questionnaire
Also known as 16pf, this famous employment personality test is backed by tons of scientific research. It examines 16 personality traits and ranks the test-taker based on their responses. The questionnaire assesses one’s weaknesses and strengths to identify how these may affect their overall professional effectiveness. It can also help recommend what types of jobs best suit an individual. A few personality traits measured include emotional stability, rule-consciousness, dominance, sensitivity, and perfectionism.