Do Personality Tests Work? Not in Recruitment!

~ by Christina Stewart

I get asked all the time: Do Personality Tests really work? And I always say: Yes! But, there is a catch… The Results Must Always Be Used For Good! Let me explain…

Personality tests, such as the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI for those in the biz,) can give people a super strong sense of who they are and why they behave the way they do. They can also give employers a strong sense of who the employee is, where they may naturally be adept and show the ways that someone may contribute to the team.

The problem lies in taking the results at face value, and using those results as a basis for either hiring or not. Personality tests have no place in determining whether or not to select a candidate, because there is always more under the surface.

A great example is with the MBTI. I am an ISTJ – and I am an ISTJ – I like structure and order and I’m also incredibly reliable. The risk comes in when, let’s say, an employer may be interested in hiring me to facilitate training. They may see the ISTJ, and assume that I’m too introverted to speak up and move on to another candidate who shows a stronger preference for extroversion. But what you don’t know about me by only seeing the “I” or the Introvert in ISTJ, is that I actually love public speaking. I adore standing up in front of a group of people and sharing knowledge and having great conversations. ISTJs can actually be extremely adept at delivering training sessions because they are always incredibly prepared and they’re also information junkies – both attributes would be positive assets to an employer’s training department.

The lesson here is to use personality assessments to prove what you already and know about someone “Look there is an ISTJ – I knew she seemed like he would be reliable,” and to use it as a way to allow a person a vaster contribution once you do hire someone. They can provide tremendous value for self-discovery, team building, coaching, enhancing communication, and numerous other developmental applications. But due to limited predictive validity (does this test show how an employee will perform in the future?), low test-retest reliability (will this person answer the test exactly the same each and every time?), lack of norming (can this test be held up against another person’s and show the truth?) and an internal consistency (lie detector) measure, etc., they are not ideal for use in hiring.

Employers with a role to fill who only look at a certain type of person take a big risk in missing out on someone who would be outstanding in a particular role. Personality Tests can be very valuable when used for good – to build people up, but not to exclude potential employees from your workforce. You may just miss out on a shining star.