What to Know About Workplace Personality Testing

Personality testing was originally used by the US army in WWI to provide predictive analysis on which veterans were likely to become shell-shocked. Since its original application, the tests have changed quite a bit.

In the mid-1990s, personality assessments became a badge indicative of who you were. People wore them the same way they would a name tag. But today’s personality assessments are changing. Their fluidity has practical application in the workplace, moving past a stagnant badge and into an active team-building tool.

Personality assessments received some bad publicity in the spring of 2021 when HBO Max and CNN films released a documentary. In it, they claimed personality assessments are the basis for discriminatory hiring processes. While there can be a dark side to how personality assessments are used in the workplace, they can be helpful in decision-making, team building, and employee success predictions when used properly. As the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology wrote in response to the documentary, “…I-O psychology addresses workplace issues to protect and improve careers and lives of individuals, and to enhance the effectiveness of teams and organizations. A major focus for the field is to promote fairness, equity, and unbiased decision-making in organizations.”

Here are a few best practices and tips for helping you make the most out of these personality assessments while avoiding any perception of discrimination.

Have a Goal in Mind

Why do you want to use a personality assessment in your organization? What do you plan on accomplishing with it? Your goal should be measurable and applied to everyone equally. If testing only one department, you need to make sure everyone in the department is tested, and that results are available to everyone equally. If you give an employee access, you need to ensure everyone has access to their individual testing information. Doing otherwise can sabotage the goal you may be trying to accomplish—transparency.

Select a Proven Personality Test

Select a personality assessment that is reliable and valid. Reliable from a scientific perspective means that the results should be similar if the same test is given several times to the same person. Valid means that there is science behind it and that the assessor or assessing company could tell you what is being asked and why. After all, you want a personality assessment, not an internet quiz.

Link the Personality Test and the Job

Just as human resources will discourage asking interview questions that are not somehow relatable to the job that will be performed, you want the same for your personality assessment. Use a test and questions that make sense for the task at hand.

Use Workplace-friendly Assessments

With the growth of the internet, there has also been an explosion in personality assessments and testing. There are a lot of entertaining options. Entertainment, of course, is not your goal. You want a workplace-friendly assessment that provides results that will help you improve team dynamics. Understand what the results can help you with and select an assessment based on your goals. Avoid the perception of discriminatory practices by clearly relating test results to your objectives. The US Equal Opportunity Employment Commission has detailed information about what is considered discriminatory practices in testing.

Some tests have greater longevity (and supporting data) in individual industries or departments. For instance, a sales division may be better served by one personality indicator than another.

Safeguard Against Unintended Results

When using personality assessments, you don’t want a group to feel labeled as “less than” or inferior. You also don’t want to use an assessment that may draw out and segregate cultural differences. A personality test like the DiSC assessment can help you achieve the positives of personality testing, like transforming team relationships, boosting productivity, and addressing communication gaps for improved leadership team performance without creating segregation of or bias against cultures.

Understand Testing Limitations

Personality assessments are not a panacea for troubled work culture. While they can give you insights into the team and ways to encourage performance, each test has some limitations individually, and in the insights it can provide. Don’t treat the test and its results as a complete indicator of an employee’s personality or potential. At best, the testing can be viewed as a personality summary. It’s a prediction of what will probably happen, given the known data.

There may also be an answer bias derived from what an employee wants or thinks the answer should be (that’s the reason for the redundancies in questions in testing). There are many facets and in-the-moment decision-making that make the tests a partial description of personality, not an infallible text. Also, knowing your goal for the test can help you select the one that will be most effective for you.

Additional Tips for Personality Test Implementation

1. Make testing part of the onboarding process. When possible, incorporate a test at the beginning of employment. This sets the tone in the new employee’s mind that the company has a culture of transparency with a desire to facilitate good team dynamics. This also gives the manager early insights into preferred communication, rewards, and other individual components that will help facilitate employee management.
2. Don’t use personality tests to look for clones. If you use personality tests as part of the hiring process (i.e., trying to find a specific type of personality you’ve deemed successful in the role), you will be missing out on the benefit of building a diverse team. Diversity can have a balancing effect on the team as well as help foster an environment that is more conducive to innovative solutions.
3. Use personality assessments to help guide leadership throughout project phases. Different personalities lend help to different phases of a project. There are times the project requires innovative, creative leadership. There are also project phases when details are the main drivers. Using personality assessments to find the right team leadership for the phase or champion of the project is an effective use of testing.
4. Know your style. Understanding your style of leadership, aptitudes, and personality can help you utilize your strengths and weaknesses when working within a team.
5. Work with HR on how you will use results. Create a plan in conjunction with your HR department on how you will implement best practices in using results. Don’t ask the testing questions without understanding how you will improve team dynamics and communication with your newly gained knowledge. Will results be public-facing or left to the individual to share? Will they be part of a team-building exercise or retreat? Look for guidance in making these decisions.

If increased leadership team performance is one of your goals, Liddell Consulting Group can help you analyze performance gaps and create a team performance plan using DiSC personality assessment and other proven techniques. Contact us today to see how increased insights can improve your team.