By Kate Parish
The majority of large organizations use personality tests in one variation or another. They help select the best candidates and improve the performance of individual employees or departments. For example, about 80% of Fortune 100 companies rely on the effectiveness of personality tests to build more productive and cohesive teams.
You can use personality tests when you need to hire seasoned Magento developers, UI and UX designers, project managers, and other kinds of employees. Many different personality tests may be used to build a healthy team in a company, so you’re free to choose the most suitable ones for you.
This article will focus on popular personality tests such as the Big Five Personality Traits and the DiSK Assessment. So how do they work, and how accurate and productive can they be? Read about it below.
Big Five Personality Traits
As the name indicates, this test assesses the five basic personality facets:
- Extraversion;
- Agreeableness;
- Neuroticism;
- Openness to experience;
- Conscientiousness.
It is also unofficially called the OCEAN or CANOE test, related to the first letters of the characteristics used.
It is one of the most popular and widely used tests, and its development began back in the 1980s. This personality assessment technique can be considered universal, as it applies regardless of age, gender, country of residence, religion, or other personal characteristics.
How Is It Conducted?
The test takes about 10 minutes. A person is questioned on several topics. They must answer “Agree” or “Disagree” on a scale of 1 to 5. Based on the answers, a score is determined for each of the five personality traits.
For example, a candidate might get a high score on the “Openness” aspect and a low score on the “Disagreement” aspect.
How to Use the Results?
According to the test results, you can conclude about the person’s strengths and weaknesses, abilities, and areas requiring improvement. The Big 5 Test allows learning more about employees’ social and emotional traits and behavior patterns. It is a key to organizing a more effective and stronger team and establishing mutual understanding.
This test can also be successfully used by HR in the recruiting process. For example, when it is complicated to choose between two candidates with nearly the same experience and level of professionalism. In this case, the personality type assessment can help HR determine which of them is more suitable for the position.
DiSC Assessment
The history of this personality assessment method started way back in 1928, and it has been upgraded many times since then. This tool was developed to predict employees’ possible workplace behavior.
Although there is no scientific confirmation of this theory, the DiSC assessment is still widely used by employers.
This test is built on the division of personalities into four temperament types. Thus, all letters of the name DiSC are the capital letters of the four personality characteristics.
- D – Dominance;
- I – Influence;
- S – Steadiness;
- С – Сompliance.
How Is It Conducted?
This test takes approximately 15 minutes. The respondent is offered a series of statements and is asked to rate each from 1 (very inaccurate) to 5 (very accurate). Grounded on the person’s answers, you can determine his preferences for each behavioral pattern according to the DISC.
As a result, it may turn out that a person is significantly outweighed by 1 of the types of behavior or by a combination of 2 different styles. Thus, the test has 12 possible results in total. “Pure” personality types are pretty rare because each person combines traits belonging to various classes.
How to Use the Results?
DiSC assessment describes a person’s type in detail, making it possible to choose the most appropriate ways to interact with him in a work team environment.
How can this help to build a more productive team? Let’s see. For example, you find out that one of your employees belongs to type C (Compliance). This person is problem-solving-oriented and has a talent for detailed analysis. Such a person may be called too scrupulous, closed-minded, and often unable to compromise.
You may assume that this employee is not suitable for a position with a strict time frame. Instead, he will most likely perform well in a role that requires extra attention to detail.
Thus, DiSC testing and free strengths test will help identify personal and behavioral characteristics and learn how someone behaves in interpersonal and working relationships. The resulting assessment of an employee’s personality can be used successfully in organizing work processes in your company.
To Summarize
More and more employers realize that good professional skills alone are not enough to make an employee fit perfectly into a team. They recognize the need to evaluate personal characteristics as well. There is no doubt that personality assessment tests are a valuable and effective tool for recruiting and managing an already existing staff’s work process.
The results of tests such as the Big 5 Test, DiSC, and others will help you highlight the candidates’ or employees’ personality traits. Your insights will allow you to build stronger relationships inside the team and organize the company’s working process best.
However, you need to remember that they can be considered an additional tool to help you better understand people you already work with or just join your team. Therefore, it is better not to use the results of personality tests as a basis for making a final decision.
Good luck in building your dream team!
About the Author
Kate Parish, chief marketing officer at Onilab, with 8+ years in Digital Marketing and eCommerce web development promotion. Kate constantly upgrades her knowledge and skillset to stay fit in the progressing online world. She always does exhaustive research in such spheres as SEO, branding, SMM, PPC, and Magento PWA development, before sharing her expertise with a wide audience.
