How to use personality tests in the hiring process

In a traditional interview process, you only have a short window of time in which to get to know a candidate. 

While an hour may be enough time to ask a candidate questions about their past experience and examples of past behavior, it’s hardly enough time to learn about their motivations or communication style in the workplace. That’s where pre-employment personality tests come in.

These tests offer you an opportunity to learn more about your candidates during the hiring process—even before you invite them in for an interview.

In this article, we’ll cover everything you need to know about personality testing as an employer.

What is a pre-employment personality test?

Pre-employment personality tests are empirical assessments that measure a candidate’s non-behavioral characteristics.

These tests are often given to candidates prior to the job interview in order to inform the interview process. They are offered in the form of multiple-choice self assessments where the candidate chooses which traits or statements apply most to their personality.

Based on the results, you can get a better understanding of a candidate’s underlying characteristics like motivations, communication style, temperament, character, personal identity, and more.

For example, a personality test can reveal how someone prefers to interact with others, their preferred way of handling a stressful situation, or how flexible they are to change.

Why you should use personality tests when hiring

Here’s the key question: do personality tests actually help you hire better employees?

According to the data, they certainly can. Research shows that, if used properly, personality testing has four major benefits:

1. Multi-measure assessments predict performance

While personality tests have been criticized for poorly predicting job performance on their own, they have been shown to predict performance when used in combination with other tests like cognitive ability tests or culture fit tests. 

Frederick Morgeson, an organizational psychology expert at Michigan State University, explains it clearly: “It’s not destiny…What we’re trying to do in the hiring context is to make the best guess as to how someone will behave in that job. We’re improving the odds.”

2. Personality is more stable than behavior

Many job interviews focus on past behavior. However, people can change or adapt their behavior. For example, someone who’s naturally disorganized can develop habits to keep themselves organized even if it’s not inherent to their personality.

However, thrown into a new situation, their personality is what’s most likely to shine through.

In other words, if your behavior is the tip of the iceberg—what’s above the surface—your personality is what lies below the surface, and may not show up in the hiring process without a personality test.

3. Candidates answer personality tests honestly

You may be worried that candidates will not honestly fill out a personality test, opting instead to try to give “right” answers.

But according to Deniz S. Ones, professor of industrial psychology at the University of Minnesota, research indicates that in most cases candidates do answer personality tests honestly. And in the rare cases that they do fudge the truth, it typically doesn’t significantly impact the preference between candidates.

4. Personality tests add objectivity to the hiring process

Not only is it hard to assess someone’s personality in a short interview, one interviewer may get an entirely different read on someone’s personality than another interviewer in the same room.

Personality tests bring another level of objectivity and consistency to assessing each candidate’s personality, giving you an easy way to get a full picture of each and every candidate.

5. Personality tests make you a better interviewer

The more you know about a candidate heading into an interview, the better questions you can ask. 

By asking a candidate revealing personality questions in advance, you can ask more personally tailored questions about how they would handle certain workplace situations in the interview. This saves you from having to dig for insights during the interview.

As you can see, the research shows that personality tests have their place in the hiring process. Now here’s how to use them effectively.

The dos and don’ts of pre-employment personality tests

Like any tool, pre-employment personality tests are only effective if used properly.

Here are some helpful dos and don’ts:

Don’t: Test candidates only on personality.

Do: Use personality tests in combination with other tests. According to the US Department of Labor’s Testing and Assessment guide, personality tests are best used as part of a complete skills assessment.

Don’t: Use personality tests to pass or fail candidates. As mentioned earlier, a personality test should be used as a part of an assessment with multiple other tests in order to effectively select the best candidates.

Do: Use personality test results to better get to know a candidate and prepare talking points in advance of the job interview. For example, someone may assess themselves as impatient, but that doesn’t mean they’re automatically wrong for the job. Their impatience may result quicker, data-driven decisions.

Don’t: Use personality tests to hire for a specific personality type—this can result in hiring bias. Diverse teams perform better, so make sure you’re not negatively effecting your team by misusing personality tests.

Do: Use personality tests to thoughtfully consider team dynamics. For example, in certain scenarios, a mix of personalities may foster innovation. To avoid bias in your testing, you should regularly check if your tests are systematically favoring a particular gender, race, or ethnic background over others.

Don’t: Use different personality tests without a good reason. By using the same personality test throughout the company, you create a common language which will allow you to point out certain behaviors in a neutral, constructive way. If everyone has done a different personality test, you lose that benefit.

Now that you know how to effectively employ personality testing, it’s time to learn about the most popular pre-employment personality tests.

Four pre-employment personality tests (and what they measure)

At TestGorilla, we recommend using one of four popular personality tests.

All four tests are multiple choice and take about 10 minutes to complete—so no test is easier or harder to administer than any other.

However, you would only want to give one personality test to a candidate. Since personality tests need to be used in conjunction with other test types and because there’s some overlap in what the tests measure, multiple personality tests are unnecessary.

But how do you choose which test to use?

Each of these four tests evaluates something slightly different. Consider what you would most like to know about candidates applying for a particular role as you read through the explanations of each test and what they tell you about candidates.

1. 16 types test

The 16 Types personality test is based on the work of famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. 

What it tests: The 16 Types test tells us where a candidate gets their energy, how they process information, how they make decisions, and what type of lifestyle they prefer.

The 16 personality types are made from 4 dichotomies:

• Introversion (I) vs. Extraversion (E)

• Intuition (N) vs. Sensing (S) 

• Feeling (F) vs. Thinking (T)

• Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)

The personalities are described as a four-letter combination, such as eNtp and isFj. The capital letter represents the candidate’s strongest preference.

Test format: The 16 Types test comes in the format of forced choice questions where candidates must choose which one of two statements applies most to their personality. 

Candidates are given prompts like:

“What positive effect do you have on people?” 

• I calm and relax them – OR – I energize and motivate them 

“You focus on:”

• Patterns and relationships – OR – Specifics and facts

“What do you find most attractive about other people?”

• Intelligence and strength – OR – Charisma and morals

What you learn: By learning which of the 16 personalities a candidate falls under, you gain a better understanding of their likes and dislikes, motivators, strengths, and weaknesses.

The TestGorilla 16 Types test results provide a detailed description of the candidate’s personality type as well as tips for working well with the candidate. For more, read our guide to 16 Types in the workplace.

2. Enneagram test

The Enneagram personality test is based on work by Oscar Ichazo and Claudio Naranjo. It posits that there are nine different personality types that can capture someone’s core belief system or worldview.

The personalities are mapped out onto a nine-point diagram called an “Enneagram,” where certain personalities are connected to others.

What it tests: The Enneagram test assesses someone’s approach to interpersonal relationships and asks candidates about their style in the workplace.

Test format: The Enneagram test is a series of forced-choice A or B questions where the candidate has to pick the question that applies most to them.

They are given the prompt:

“Describe yourself as you generally are now, not as you wish to be in the future. Describe yourself as you honestly see yourself, in relation to other people you know of the same gender you are, and roughly your same age”

And are asked to choose between statements like:

• Friendship over fairness – OR – Fairness over friendship

• I speak my mind about other people’s lives – OR I am withdrawn and somewhat ambiguous in my communication

• I am determined in times of hardship – OR – I withdraw and am demotivated when faced with hardship

What you learn: The Enneagram results give you insight into how the candidate is likely to approach interpersonal relationships in the workplace.

The results of the TestGorilla Enneagram test will give you tips on how to best communicate with each personality type, and will also give you suggested behavioral interview questions to best assess how the candidate may approach certain situations.

3. DISC test

The DISC test is inspired by psychologist William Marston’s model for behavioral assessment.

What it tests: The DISC test measures candidates on their temperament and behavioral style. This personality categorizes a candidate’s emotional expression into four categories:

• D – Dominance: The candidate is confident and results oriented

• I – Influence: The candidate is relationship focused

• S – Steadiness: The candidate is calm, cooperative, and dependable

• C – Conscientiousness: The candidate is quality and detail oriented

A candidate can either clearly sit within one category, or can be a combination of two adjacent categories.

Test format: The DISC test asks candidates to perform a self evaluation on 48 different personality statements. For each question, the candidate rates the statement from 1 (very accurate) to 5 (very inaccurate) with reference to their own personality.

Example personality statements include:

• I put people under pressure

• I joke around a lot

• I hesitate to criticize other people’s ideas

• I am emotionally reserved

What you’ll learn: Knowing a candidate’s main trait can help you understand and predict their behavior. It can also help you tailor your communication style to best suit them, allow you to predict how well they may collaborate with or challenge your existing team, or give you insights to ask how they may be motivated in their role.

The TestGorilla DISC test results for a candidate will also provide you with tips for communicating with them and suggested interview questions.

Check out a sample DISC personality test here.

4. Big 5 (OCEAN)

The Big 5 (OCEAN) test is based on the five-factor model (FFM) theory, an empirical-based theory in psychology that posits five broad trait dimensions or domains as the basis of different personalities. It is most reliable in a learning and development context post-hiring.

What it tests: The Big 5 test evaluates a candidate’s openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability.

• Openness to experience ranges from inventive and curious to consistent and cautious.

• Conscientiousness ranges from efficient and organized to extravagant and careless.

• Extraversion ranges from outgoing and energetic to solitary and reserved.

• Agreeableness ranges from friendly and compassionate to challenging and callous.

• Neuroticism ranges from sensitive and nervous to resilient and confident.

Test format: The OCEAN test leads test-takers on a self-evaluation of their behavior by asking them to score various statements on a scale from 1 (very inaccurate) to 5 (very accurate). The score candidates provide for each statement places them on one of five possible positions on the spectrum of each factor.

The nature of the test structure is best suited to evaluating the compositions and dynamics of existing teams for learning and development and growth purposes, rather than for candidates applying to join teams.

What you’ll learn: The results of this test provide insights into the test-taker’s position on each factor and describe the personality traits that characterize their behavior. They also provide insight into their strengths and opportunities for improvement, and how they relate to others.

Check out a sample OCEAN personality test here.

How to use personality testing in your hiring strategy

Here’s an easy action plan for adding personality testing to your hiring process.

1. Choose the most relevant test for the role – Consider which personality test most gets at the questions you’d like to ask of your candidates. For example, if you’re interested in gauging employee integrity and a candidate’s temperament, you would issue the DISC test, but if you were more interested in their interpersonal style, you could give them the Enneagram test.

To learn more about which tests are the most relevant for your role, consider checking out our comparison guides. For example, check out our guide on the Enneagram vs. 16 Personalities tests.

2. Create an assessment for the role – Put a complete pre-employment assessment together for the role, including:

• A personality test

• A culture fit test

• A cognitive ability test

• Behavioral interview questions

• A language test (if necessary)

• A situational judgment test

• A skills test.

Using a robust combination of tests is most likely to result in hiring a high-performing candidate.

You can learn more about the 7 pre-employment assessment test types here.

3. Test candidates as part of their application – By testing candidates early in the application process, you’ll have a complete picture of the candidate when reviewing their application.

4. Prepare for the interview – Once you’ve filtered down your candidates using your other assessments (not their personality results), go over their personality test to prepare relevant interview questions.

5. Hire! – Then, it’s all about choosing the best candidate with all the information at your disposal. Good luck!

Frequently asked questions

What is the best personality test?

The best personality test for a given role will depend on the specifics of that role and what you’re looking to learn about your candidates.

For example, the DISC test can help you understand each of your candidates (as well as current team members) better and build effective ways to collaborate and communicate as a team.

The Big 5 test offers insights into personality traits that can help you enrich learning and development conversations. The 16 types test gives deeper insight into their personality and traits and how they navigate issues and opportunities. The Enneagram test is helpful when considering team dynamics and attempting to manage projects better.

What are the different types of personality tests?

There are many personality tests available, but the four major types are the DISC test, the Enneagram test, the Big 5 (OCEAN test), and the 16 types test.

The DISC test is based on the model developed by psychologist William Marston for behavioral assessment. It classifies how we express emotions into the four behavior types of DISC: dominance (D), influence (I), steadiness (S), and conscientiousness (C).

The Enneagram test follows the personality model developed in the teachings of O. Ichazo and C. Naranjo. The model maps out nine different personalities on a nine-pointed diagram describing the core beliefs and the worldview each one operates from.

The 16 types test is based on the work of Carl Jung, the 16 types test gives insight into a candidate’s source of energy, the way they process information, how they make decisions, and the kind of lifestyle they prefer.

The Big 5 personality test follows the Five-Factor Model, an empirical-based theory in psychology that evaluates five overarching dimensions of personality: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability.

What is the Big 5 personality test?

The Big 5 (OCEAN) test is based on an empirical-based theory in psychology called the Five-Factor Model. It evaluates five overarching dimensions of personality: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and emotional stability.

The Big 5 test should not be used for hiring decisions, but as a tool to gain a deeper understanding of test-takers’ personality inclinations. The insights into personality traits can help enrich learning and development conversations.

Is the 16 personalities test accurate?

As long as you understand the limitations of the 16 types test (or any personality test for that matter) it can offer useful insights into a candidate’s personality inclinations. The insights into personality traits can help enrich learning and development conversations. But we don’t recommend using personality tests to make final hiring decisions. Instead, you should use them to get to know candidates better and obtain talking points for an interview.

Is the Big Five personality test reliable?

The Big 5 (OCEAN) personality test is widely considered to be the most scientifically valid personality test. Studies like Big Five factors and facets and the prediction of behavior have shown that this test reliably predicts 40 behavior criteria.

Another study, Big Five factors of personality and replicated predictions of behavior, found “substantial consistency in behavior predictions across the different Big Five assessments.” That being said, we don’t recommend using any personality test to make final hiring decisions. Instead, you should use them to get to know candidates better and obtain talking points for an interview.