Are Personality Tests Giving People a Fair Shot at the Job?
Last week I got my first semi-negative comment on the blog. It wasn’t anything personal, just a woman expressing her frustration over companies using assessments like ours in their hiring practices. Her thoughts struck me because I could tell the feelings she expressed were not uncommon. You can read the original blog here.
The headlines these days are full of talk about assessments being used for hiring.
Job Seekers, Get Ready for Personality Tests (More Employers are Using Pre-hire Assessments) – Market Watch
Are Personality Tests Required For the Job You Want? – Bnet
Personality Tests Become More Common for Job Applicants – Learnvest
If these “tests” are not fair, we are heading towards a trend that could cripple our careers. That was the gist of the problem my commenter, had for me. I thought it might be interesting to hear her thoughts and discuss what you all think. Are “personality assessments” fair for hiring?
Are “Personality Assessments Unfair?”
“The thing that worries me about tests like this is how they can overemphasize traits you may have but can *easily* overcome. My husband has applied for a job as an executive director. Sadly, the test kept saying he preferred to follow rather than lead. This is not really true. He wants to be the one in charge. He actually needs to be the one in charge due to his high level of experience and training. He can handle it intellectually and he can also handle it socially. I’ll admit, the test suggested he preferred to be accommodating and work with others when he could, but he has no problem pulling the trigger to fire someone or direct them to follow his lead when he has to do so. But with the personality test in his profile, I’m scared they will think he isn’t ‘leadership material,’ which is a load of BS.
As for myself, I have even more reason to be leery of tests like this. Whereas my husband is moderately outgoing (as the test reflects) I am extremely, extremely introverted. On a Myers Briggs type test, I tend to answer 100% introverted or maybe only 1 question as an extrovert would. No one wants to hire introverts. They all want you to be an outgoing ‘people person.’ I am not, and I’m never going to be that type of person. I can fake it for very short periods of time–ie, an interview. I recall one interview where I had the person eating out of the palm of my hand, but I knew I was acting. The job was wrong for me, but not due to my personality so much as other factors–I didn’t get to meet with my immediate boss before being hired and I had moral qualms about working for insurance companies. Nonetheless, I could have done the work. It annoys me that more and more companies are doing personality tests and pushing people like me aside. I’m highly educated and competent. Yes, I need a job where I work alone more often than not (preferably involved in research and writing projects–which is hard to find). Still, even when I fit the job, I feel like tests like this could weed me out just because they want someone more outgoing. Sorry, I know this isn’t my personal soap box, but having seen my husband go through this and knowing I could face it myself, I felt the need to offer some criticism of personality testing in the employment arena.”
Is Criticism Valid?
One thing I’ve noticed is that people tend to lump all assessments (skills, behavior, values) under the umbrella of “personality tests.” DISC, which is what the original article was about, actually has nothing to do with personality, it solely looks at behavior.
There is a white paper called “Selecting Superior Performers Safely Under the Law” that our assessment developer shared which made some good points on this subject. When going about designing the assessments we use, Bill Bonnstetter made sure to create an assessment that was EEOC compliant and avoided some common criticisms.
I would agree that these types of assessments would be unfair if:
1. The assessment only looked at how people do the job and not why they do it.
“Assessments have been given a bad rap, and there are a few that should not be used. However, not all assessments should be dismissed because of the reputation of a few. Four-quadrant behavioral assessments when used as the only assessment will make everyone look good at the start but will eventually fail because behavior only describes “how” you do what you do. It is possible for successful people to differ on “how” they do the job.
Discovering “why” successful people do a job will provide a better understanding. When a person’s intrinsic passions are fulfilled on the job, they will perform better than those who do not receive intrinsic rewards. Cloning the identical behavior of your top performer will not get the same results if they have different attitudes. Our research proves that using only behavioral assessments for hiring sales and executive positions will result in hiring mistakes. For many jobs, a person’s passion is key to performance.”
As a result, the assessments we use for hiring purposes look at both behavior and values. On top of that, we conduct one-on-one debriefs to help address any concerns about accuracy.
2. Assessment benchmarked people and not the job.
What I mean by this is that assessments should benchmark according to the job and not the top performers. Bill Bonnstetter shares an interesting study to illustrate.
“Years ago when we were attempting to benchmark using the top 10 salespeople and the bottom 10, both groups looked alike. In fact, the top 10 did not contain one candidate that fit our opinion of what we would expect as a superior performer…Once we helped the strong branded companies hire to our standard, the candidates we recommended were the sales award winners the following year. This validated our opinion that you must benchmark jobs, not people.”
3. Assessments looked at skills alone.
“If skills always led to success, then all people who have passed skill or knowledge tests would be successful. For example, we know that not all medical doctors, lawyers, CPAs, nurses and chiropractors are successful. They have all passed an exam that certifies their knowledge and skills, but there is much more that contributes to success. In fact, we would be more successful in selection if we hired for attitude and focused on developing skills.”
4. Letting biases judge instead of letting the job do the judging.
As human beings we have biases, sometimes they can even be subconscious. Basing an assessment off of a favorite employee or only looking at candidates you thought personally would be a good fit can be dangerous.
“If the job could talk, it would clearly identify the knowledge, personal skills, hard skills, behavior and intrinsic rewards that are needed for superior performance. Unfortunately, our personal biases keep most people from hearing the job talk.”
Results
After 30 plus years of delivering these assessments, not a single EEOC claim has been brought against these assessments. Also, a few years back when this study was conducted, 92 percent of people who were hired based on our job fit were still in the job 12 months later. That might help clear up why more and more businesses are turning to these assessments in their hiring process.
What Do You Think?
Are assessments a fair judge of talent? How would you feel if you were required to take one? Do you think this trend will help companies hire the right fit?
image courtesy of teacherstraining.com
Really interesting article, Bryce.
Don’t feel too bad about the semi-negative comment either, I got a really bad one on the article I did about processing negative emotions. Sometimes people have buttons that seem to be pushed by weird stuff. What can ya do?
I can see where she’s coming from though. It sucks a personality test would keep you from getting a job. That’s why I advocate the lying strategy. Employers want to jump you through seemingly unnecessary hoops? Tell them what they want to hear.
That is, assuming you can actually do the job well in the first place. And that only applies to personality type test obviously. Don’t go making up stuff on your resume!
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Thanks Fred
When I read it I was kind of excited. Sometimes it’s good to hear a different opinion than your own.
The lying strategy is a popular one. On some assessments it can work. As far as DISC goes, we can usually find who’s lying and who’s being honest, we’re like Santa
.
The problem sometimes with telling an employer what they want to hear vs being yourself, is that you may be doing yourself a disservice. For example, what if we are hiring someone who’s job will require them to sit at a desk alone all day with very little guidance or management (All things a DISC and Values assessment can look for). However, you tend to be an outgoing individual who enjoys socializing with peers and you tend to work best when the objectives are clear and laid out for you. You’d be dooming yourself to a job that would stress the heck out of you and you’d probably end up leaving anyways.
Now, some assessments aren’t very good. They have obvious correct choices and are more a tool to weed out complete idiots. I say go for it, just give the employer what they want. Chances are the assessment doesn’t do much to learn about you as a person anyways.
Great points Fred, thanks for sharing.
Bryce
Very interesting points you mentioned here, Bryce. But I somehow got confused while reading the post. At the start of the post, the topic seemed to be dealing with personality assessment tests, but it ended with both personality and skills assessment test.
Personally, I have no qualms about these tests. I have to agree with Fred. It’s one thing to know how to do certain skills, but it’s another thing to use these skills to get results. Companies have a standard in the quality of work provided by their employees. They need to know if you can deliver the results they expect.
In line with this, there are certain kinds of personalities that are required for a particular position. Quite frankly, just because you want to be in-charge doesn’t mean that you have the qualities to be a person in-charge, regardless of the years of experience.
Personality and skills tests can work for you or against you, depending on how you look at it. Instead of complaining against them, use these as a guide to improve yourself to become better. We all have the potential to grow and develop ourselves. The only time that we don’t is because we have chosen not to do anything about it.
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Thanks Adeline,
Sorry about the confusion. I made some changes to help clarify it. Basically, people tend to lump all the job assessments (behaviors, skills, motivations, values, etc) into one lump category of “personality assessments.” The commenter I referenced did that for a post talking about DISC (which has nothing to do with personality). I can tell you are wise, since you caught that
You have the right kind of attitude. These tests are used to protect yourself just as much as the employer. If you are more of an introvert or task focused person, why would you want to be put in a job that requires you to schmooze a crowd? The business isn’t looking to turn away a good fit. They are encouraging good fits to join them.
Your advice is spot on. Use these as a guide to grow and develop. We share the reports we get back with each of the job candidates that come through. They learn quite a bit about themselves and can use it as a tool for finding the work they can enjoy.
Thanks,
Bryce
You’re very much welcome, Bryce. It’s my pleasure.
Looking forward to reading your next post.
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I hate personality tests as they dont really make any sence. I’ve heard from friends that it does not matter that much as the work they do, does not have any relevance to it. I’ve taken a few personality tests myself and I think they just wanna know what you think. What is your personal openion Bryce.
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Hi Eddie,
It sounds like you’ve had some bad experiences with these kind of tests. Which ones have you tried? Any chance you’ve taken DISC or TriMetrix?
I used to be in the same boat. I saw the colors tests and myers briggs as fun but gimicky. They were right about a few things and wrong about a few others. When I started working at Balanced WorkLife one of the first things they did was have me take one of their key assessments called TriMetrix. It combined assessments that looked at behaviors, values, and competencies.
A week or so in the job, I sat down with Carol, one of our certified behavior analysts. She took my report and walked me through it for an hour and a half.
It blew me away how much she could know about me having just met me. It’s a good point that you bring up experience. One of the study’s on these assessments showed that people who were less experienced but had the right motivations and values performed just as good and even better in some cases as those who had more experience and different values.
Think about it this way. You are passionate about SEO and driving traffic, but say you were competing with someone who had an MBA in Marketing and 10+ years experience. I bet if you both were to do the job you would see similar results or you might even come out ahead. Experience is important but we often recommend that it is better to find someone with the right passion and values and help them develop some skills, than it is to find someone with the right skills but no passion.
What do you think?
Thanks for the discussion,
Bryce
I dont really recall the type of test, I dont think it was DISC, I loved that post you wrote earlier. I still have it on my dashboard and its awesome. I keep reading it often. I get your explanation Bryce. What my concern was. Imagine someone who thinks its nonsense to take up such tests, they are most likely gonna fill in random info. Unless otherwise people get the true importance of what personality tests does for them and the company, I think orgs are missing out on excellent talent.
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That’s a great point and one I couldn’t agree with more. It’s a challenge to convince someone taking an assessment to just be themselves and to recognize the value they will get from it. I’m sure many people just want to answer these things in their mind how the job would want it answered. One of the things I really like about TriMetrix and DISC is that it’s hard to game. They make it so you pick from descriptions and traits that are all useful to have. That’s why we tell everyone we assess that no style is better than another. I’ll have to share one with you some time because until you take it, it’s hard to explain
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It makes me feel awesome that you love my posts. I’m here to help
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Have an awesome weekend!
Bryce
I don’t mind assessments but I’m surely not a huge fan. I know they are a necessary thing for businesses to try to make the right choice in picking a candidate. I’ve taken them all (well: brigs, strength finder and disk). Two of them i took more than once and one more than twice. Each time my results were different. Why, because my role was different, my state of mind was different. They say that the test shouldn’t fluctuate much – but for me they did. Maybe there’s something quirky about me. Because of that experience I’m just not a huge fan.
I’ve never been omitted from a job because my test outcomes, nor do I think they are fair. I do believe that we can all evolve overtime, a lot, and also evolve the way we think and approach our work. I know this is the case for me – and my tests have shown these changes.
That’s just my two cents. I’m all for them. not a fan – but certainly not a naysayers.
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While I do understand the woman’s complaint at the beginning of the post, I do think that a business has a right as well as a duty to be sure that the people looking for employment are a good fit.
I don’t think lying on any of them will get you anywhere good though. If you have to lie to get a job (even if its one you want), do you really think you should be working there?
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You got it Tisa,
It’s true that some people can argue that these assessments can give the wrong opinion of their staff, but it doesn’t help if you lie. Well said. Who wants to start the next journey of their lives based on a lie?
Thanks,
Bryce
Hey Bryce,
These assessment test could be viewed as discrimination and I think that it could be used as a loophole to not hire someone.
I would never ever work for a company that wanted me to take an assessment test. That is just me though. I am intuitive so If I was hiring someone I could read them and place them in a position that is suitable for their personality.
Just my point of view. Within in the next decade the U.S. will see more self-employed people than anytime in its history. People are “waking up” and are tired of “working for the man” so to speak.
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That’s very interesting Justin. It seems the majority of the comments feel similarly. It kind of surprised me. I always had the mindset that if a company didn’t like my personality, values, behaviors, what have you, then why would I want to work for them anyways?
I understand some people just want a job for the money, and could care less about how fulfilling or rewarding it is, but I’ve been in both positions. I’ve had jobs I absolutely adored and some jobs that I absolutely hated. To be honest, “personality” was a huge part of why I liked the jobs I did or hated the ones I couldn’t stand. I was just as competent in the ones I disliked as the ones I loved, so that’s why I tend to be okay with these kinds of assessments.
Now there are some that are just awful and don’t work, but I can stand by TTI’s TriMetrix system after seeing it in such detail.
Love the discussion, thanks Justin.
Hi Bryce,
I tend to agree with Justin that I wouldn’t want to be relegated to distinct test results desired in a hiring process. Seems unfair. I have found personality tests change a great deal depending upon my mood. This is something I am contending with in my Psychology-based grad studies currently. How much should we rely upon the tests? I’m not certain I have the answer.. Interesting discussion though
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That’s a good point. You are right that the circumstances we face in our lives at the moment can affect our results. For a one time thing like a job assessment, that can hurt our chances if we are struggling with personal issues or other stressful events at the time.
Like you said, relying on the tests alone isn’t the answer, but from personal experience I’ve seen the benefits of using them. Rarely in one on one interviews have the assessment takers said the report was inaccurate. It gives us a better understanding of what motivates them, money, environment, learning, power, etc. Understanding what the job requires and what values our company culture rewards, allows us to find candidates that are a better fit in those regards among other things.
Thanks for adding to the discussion.
Bryce
Hi Bryce,
It is disheartening to have an negative response to a post, but it happens. Personality assessments have their place. I worked in human resources for awhile before teaching and we did not use them at the time, but certainly I can see the benefit. The key is that they should not be the determining factor on whether you are hired or not. The interview and how you interact are just as important. They should be just one piece of information to be be factored into the decision on whether to hire a person or not.
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Thanks Cathy,
Thanks for the support. I’m a pretty tough skinned guy so it didn’t get to me. I actually found it very interesting and thoughtful.
I appreciate your thoughts coming from an HR background. There definitely are benefits to the tools if you use them appropriately. Like you said, they never should be the only criteria, but more of a way to find who fits well with the culture and job requirements.
Thanks,
Bryce
I’ve no problem with personality tests, but at the same time, I like the idea that you interview them afterwards. It is during this interview process that you get a chance to feel how accurate their responses were in the personality test and see if they would really be a good fit for your company.
I can think of at least one instance in my current job where the person who was hired to do the job, who obviously made it through the screening process, had completely the wrong personality for doing the job. In fact the person didn’t even make it out of training in a position that 90% of people who go through training do.
Still this post gives us something to think about. Thanks for sharing!
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You’ve got it Grady. Interviewing after the assessment is very important since it will verify the results of the assessment. We even tell our clients to highlight the parts in their report they agree with and cross out the parts they disagree with. Many times they’ve crossed off only a few things.
You are dead right about why they can be a useful tool. Like I was telling Justin, I’ve had jobs I was equally capable of performing at and hated one but loved another. The major difference was one job was much more in line with my “personality”. I think some candidates have the wrong outlook on these sometimes. The employer really is doing you a favor.
Bryce
Very interesting post, Bryce! I have taken career assessment and personality test before and I was pretty far into my career when I discovered what my personality type was and it definitely made me realize a lot of things about myself and how I work with other people. I have tried Myers-Briggs Type indicator, are you familiar with this? And come up that I’m an ISFJ. Taking that personality test help me know the personality types of the people I’m working closely with.
Thanks Anna,
I haven’t ever taken an “official” Myers-Briggs assessment, most of my experience comes from the ones we use here which our DISC and TriMetrix. However, you definitely understand the value they can bring. Understanding what makes you tick, what your motivations are and how you behave in general can make a huge impact on your career. Not only in what jobs you will want to look for and will most likely enjoy, but also how well you will communicate and work with your team.
Great point Anna!
This post really made me think. Personality test are fun when you’re analyzing yourself. But one thing they’ll never be able to accurately measure is a person’s potential. Unfortunately, we don’t have any tests for that – only human intuition. There’s a principle in our relations that stands true in an employee/employer relationship too. When you treat someone like the person you want them to become, they rise to the occasion. If you focus on their strengths and weaknesses at the present time, they won’t be reaching their potential any time soon. If only we could get more of that in the workplace.
A second thought is my number one rule for job interviews. Tell the interviewer what they want to hear! Most personality tests that I’ve taken are so blatantly transparent that they become garbage. Like your commentor said, everyone wants to hire an extroverted people person. Well I’m going to do everything in my power to make my personality test show that. If you don’t, you might as well just walk out of the interview without taking it.
Just a few things you made me think about! Thanks for the post.
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Good point, those transparent and gimicky assessments can give a bad name to the scientific and tested assessments. Assessments like those are never going to help a candidate really learn about themselves. In those situations, there really is no better strategy than just telling the employer what they want.
However, if you are taking a truly well crafted assessment, one that has undergone decades of development and testing to measure the accuracy of their results, it will be difficult to stick by the “tell the employer what they want strategy”. The reason being, assessments like DISC and TriMetrix don’t have wrong answers. What I mean is often they list 4 choices of characteristics to describe your behavior such as driven, outgoing, team player, or organized. Now which of those would you put as your top descriptor for yourself? They are all good.
Yet each of those would fall in a different quadrant of a DISC assessment. Often unless a candidate is very perceptive, it’s very difficult to know what behavior styles the employer would see as optimal for the job. I know the lady in the comment said companies don’t want introverts, but that’s actually a myth. There are some qualities that introverts tend to have that make them an excellent fit.
Great discussion, thanks for your additions.
Bryce
Hi Bryce,
In my country, using personality test as part of the recruiting process is not so widespread. I have never attended such a process, but I have taken some of these tests before. My opinion of them is that they are good fact finders for yourself, but they do not pin point core elements of us sometimes.
From what I understand from the discussion here, there seems to be a lot weight put on using personality test to guage suitability, skills, competencies for the job. It also seems to me that the employers are barking up the wrong tree. Looking out for the right skillsets is important, but I think what is far more crucial is to know what the character of that person you intend to hire. Things like belief system, motivation, learning willingness, risk taking, etc are much more important than knowing how to perform certain tasks. Because a former person without these latter skills will always learn them. But the latter person without the former skills will not acquire the right attitude and character for success.
Hence, personality test should be just another tool to assess that character. You probably need more like a thorough interview process, a trial, etc to reveal the true person you want.
I once read a true story from Colonel David Hackworth when he and his raiders were recruiting in the Korean War. They did all the interview and all. But the most crucial test was testing the reaction of the prospective recruit when a live grenade was ‘accidentally’ released and activated in the midst of the interview. Naturally they only recruited those who did something proactively to save the lives of EVERYONE. BTW, they figure out a way to make the grenade pop only sound and smoke when the test went wrong.
Jimmy recently posted..What has Justin Mazza Got to Say About Blogging for Personal Development?
Oops, just wanted to add that Justin Mazza’s interview is now live on my site. Please check it out and spread the word. I think we got a nice interview series going. Ah… you are next right?
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You’ve got it Jimmy. Don’t rely solely on these assessments, look for character, and interview for accuracy. That was a really cool story, reminded me of that scene in Captain America where he jumps on the grenade to protect his fellow soldiers during boot camp.
Thanks for the thoughts and looking forward to the interview post.
Bryce
Hi Bryce, I’ve taken a test for a job that required me to take a personality test. I never liked that part of the application process. It kind of seems a bit questionable about the motives of the people that came up with the test and doing the hiring. Is there some type of loophole they’re trying to get around for not choosing a candidate other than by the use of their skills and experience? I would go as far as saying, this could very well be the reason the country in which I live unemployment rate is as high as it is. Have they actually lived among the people on this planet? Their personality isn’t the most sound thing to judge for employment. And I’m honestly not trying to be negative or anything like that. But a genius could easily pass this test and be the next nutcase that sets off a killing spree. So can someone with job experience as well, but you’re more likely able to call previous employers and notice certain behavior patterns. The only difference is history has a way of repeating itself. So looking at a person’s job history seem a bit more practical to me. We certainly don’t need another way around hidden discrimination’s and prejudices. That’s just my opinion. However, very informative post and great read!
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This is very interesting Deeone. I don’t know what some companies motivations are, but the companies that we’ve worked with have been fairly responsible.
Here’s the point I have about skills and experience. I’ve had jobs I absolutely adored and some jobs that I absolutely hated. I was just as competent in the ones I disliked as the ones I loved, so what made the difference? “Personality” in the worldly sense, but in more specifics my behavior style and values. What I mean is I hated my cold calling job even though I was a top performer and I love my Marketing job which I do well at as well. On paper I would be a good candidate for both. But if you ran an assessment on me, you’d see that I enjoy communicating with others, working on multiple tasks, joking, and having fun. I’m motivated by money and learning.
You can quickly see now which job would be a better fit for me. The cold calling job provided no learning, you sat at a cubicle interrupting very powerful people’s lives everyday. Yet some people really loved that job.
Some assessments are still not very effective tools, and sometimes employers put too much prejudice into the assessment instead of letting the job speak for itself. These are major no no’s in the community.
I really enjoyed your thoughts, what do you think?
Bryce
Wow, You have quite a topic going on here. I have taken personality test. I think they are kind of fun, but only for a person to see what changes they want to make with themselves or to help a person understand themselves better.
Hiring someone because of a personality test is crap. What happened to being able to talk to someone and knowing whether they are a good fit for the job.
People are lazy now days and will take the easy way out. You have 10 or 100 people that want a job. Give them a test and see who you really want to talk too.
The people that will end up with the job are the ones that know how to play the political games very will.
Question that I have is : Is it more important to know how a person is going to get alone with others or how they are going to do the job they are being hired for? You test them on there knowledge of the job not there personality. They are going to be paid for there performance for the job, not how long they can stand at the water cooler and make friends.
I think the lady does have a complaint, but she does need to let her husband handle it. Have some faith in his ability rather than try to protect him.
that is my story, thank for the conversation. I did enjoy the comments
Blessing to you,
Debbie
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Hi Debbie,
I like your thoughts. Here are my concerns and agreements.
How often are people putting on a show when they interview? Almost always, in that same regard, often we will assess someone before an interview so we can ask them questions pertaining to the job and how their behavioral style and motivations fit. It makes the interview much more personalized and effective at finding the best fit.
Like you said, people are lazy. Sometimes we will have 100 people submit their resume but only a handful take the time to go through the assessment. It definitely shows how committed they are to securing the job.
Your question is valid and the assessments we tend to use actually will answer how a person will get the job done as well as how they will get along. What’s funny is that the good assessments never spell it out directly, yet we can see from the report whether someone likes to multi task or focus on one task at a time, whether they prefer to lead a team or be a team player, how they influence others, and whether they enjoy a fast pace or a steady pace. My hope is that the “personality tests” companies use are a bit more sophisticated than “what color” you are. Otherwise you are right, the results aren’t going to be there.
I think skype or video interviewing should definitely be considered and SOON. The room someone is sitting in shouldn’t matter as much as the conversation you are going to have about the job.
Excellent discussion Debbie, thanks for your input.
Bryce
I just had another thought. When are they going to start using web cam to do interviews rather than having you come, face to face and interview? Just a thought. After all it would save time and time is money.
Debbie LOL
Well, if after 12 months 92 % were still in their jobs, that’s a good indicator to me that people WANT jobs, but maybe of not much else.
I generally think personality tests are crap, as mentioned above. And as you say — may be best for “weeding out the idiots.”
Great discussion.
Keep hanging in there blogging, no matter what!
Thanks Jannie,
This has been one of the deeper discussions on the blog. It was interesting to hear all the different viewpoints our readers had on this topic.
I appreciate the support and your thoughts. Glad to have you as a part of the blog.
Bryce
I like assessments, but I usually don’t like how assessments are used.
What I like about assessments is how they can frame out a domain in terms of identifying criteria or hot spots or facets to look at. I tend to use assessments to explore a topic in more detail and to ask better questions.
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Thanks for coming by J.D.
You definitely have the concept down. Assessments are a great tool to better understand where you can look closer on a candidate and make the interview process more meaningful and effective. Assessments alone are not the answer, but using them correctly can do tons for hiring the right person.
Bryce
Hi Bryce,
In my opinion I am strictly against asking people to take such tests.
Let me give you example.
One of the top IT companies in India ask us to take a puzzle test while hiring in college. One of the guy who never coded one line of software in his entire college life but is good with puzzle is selected while I who does not like solving puzzle but have a bent towards software development was not selected.
Though I was able to get selected in another company because I learned from my failure. They had an English test. My English was slightly better than my batch mates and thus I moved ahead of them. But still I wonder is English the right requirement to develop software. No one asked me , if I had developed any piece of software.
Here some top MBA colleges ask the following question in the entrance exams.
Two trains were approaching each other. A bird was flying from the engine of one train to another. How much trips it took.
I have two problems with these kind of tests.
1) Who cares why bird was flying from engine to engine.
2) Why were the trains on the same track ?
3) How does it help my management skills?
Personality tests too are similar kind. The creator of personality test will have his biases in the system. The tests have his color not anyone else’s.. Companies want extroverts but what about people who are just good at their jobs without being extroverts. What if personality cannot be bracketed just like that.
Yesterday my wife was telling me about an app that determines if someone is “Gay”. If someone likes a little grooming, they get more leanings towards being gay. This is stereotypical and all the systems that are designed on something complicated stuff like personality are not that useful at all.
Instead they should try to find the intrinsic motivation of individual. This is hard work for HR department but have they been known to ever work hard ?
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You have excellent points Ashvini. Sounds like they had some pretty horrible assessments. If there is a bias in the assessment than that assessment is flawed. I think I’m learning pretty quickly that a few bad assessments can ruin it for the good ones as well.
It’s like the term I learned in my business classes. GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out), you use a bad assessment that only collects unimportant and biased information, that’s what you’ll get in the results.
Thanks for the thoughtful comments.
Bryce
Hi Bryce,
Very nice article. From my view, I will encourage personal appearance test depending on the job profile they are going to perform. For instance, If you are looking a guy for marketing or customer care executive profile, I love to meet in person to understand more about their views. Few job profiles will entirely be different when we place people at the position. The personal meeting and discussion will open and provides better room to understand individuals interest, knowledge, confidence towards the career path and would help you to decide very well.
If I am the employer, I love to meet people not just for interview rather to make them feel comfort and let them to understand how their role is important for my company. That personal meeting will surely depict better understanding at both ends.
Thanks for sharing the wonderful post Bryce.
You’ve got it down Manickam.
Use the assessments to understand a bit more about what makes the candidate “tick” so that when you interview them you can know where to drive the conversations in how it pertains to the job.
Thanks,
Bryce
Hello again, Bryce! Have some addidional thoughts…
I’m reminded of something I saw on tv recently… a lady asked an Economic Guru if she should “take training based on what the government program trend seems to be.” And the EG responded “I think you should pursue your passion, what you really want to work at, keep positive about it, and it will fall into place.” That’s excellent to keep in mind.
Personality tests or not, I think job hunters should remain positive and seek (or make!) work they will enjoy, or at least aspire to keep working in that direction, even if they are currently in a job they want to move on from.
And always great to see you over at my place, Bryce. I know blogging can be a time-intensive endeavor and I appreciate you popping in. My impression of you is you are a real go-getter who really tries to add good things to poeple’s lives. I like your attitude.
Jannie Funster recently posted..My Enemy — A Poem in 55 words
Hi Jannie,
So awesome to see you back again. You’re a busy lady yourself so the opportunity to hear your thoughts not just once, but twice on a post is an honor.
You’ve gotten right to the meat of what our goals as job seekers should be. Our passions. No amount of interviewing or assessments will change our passions, but they are none the less tools we will be judged by. If those tools can help an employer match our passions with their needs, even better. That’s why I’m okay with the idea of looking at behavior and values in these assessments, even though they are often just called personality tests.
I can see how it could upset some people though.
Bryce
Ooh! Great discussion here, Bryce! I wouldn’t have even thought there could be anything negative to say about these types of assessment tests before you shared her comment. I can see how it may have been unfair for her husband, but I think that’s where your comment about letting the job do the judging fits in.
I feel that it’s fair for companies to have whatever kinds of assessments they want if they know how to use them and they know their limitations. As you know, knowing the “why” can be equally as important. That’s why face-to-face interviews can be often be the tiebreaker.
As for the lady who commented about her predicament, she seems to agree with what assessment results usually say about her. She may not be the best fit for those jobs. In this case, maybe assessments are less useful for more temporary jobs. She can pretend for a while, but she won’t fully be comfortable. If we’re thinking about a person’a growth and well-being within a job, then the assessment and filtering would have been worthwhile I imagine. =)
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Hi Samantha,
You win the award for taking the words out of my mouth
Isn’t that funny that the woman actually saw the truth of these assessments but still wanted to go against who she was as a person in order to get the job? Why would you want that? You’re going to be sad, stressed, and unfulfilled. I know the economy is bad and we are willing to take any job these days, but taking a job that just doesn’t match your style of working and values is going to lead you to wanting another job pretty soon anyways. That’s bad for the company and yourself.
I think if job seekers were more educated on what these assessments actually looked at and how they worked, they would have a better opinion of them. Many of the comments and feedback I’ve read here certainly doesn’t pertain to any of the assessments we’ve delivered for companies. They really are a win win for the business and the candidate.
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