Christina Stewart, CPHR, Founder and President of Praxis Recruitment
BRITISH COLUMBIA – 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) 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 naturally flourish in their work contribution. 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 – Which means that I like structure and order and I’m also incredibly reliable as well as introverted. The risk comes in when a potential employer makes assumptions about me based on those four letters. Let’s say an employer is 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 she 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?) 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.
Here is a link to a video of Christina speaking about why personality assessments don’t belong in hiring: https://youtu.be/NqdEuyB7a6k
Christina Stewart, CPHR, Founder and President of Praxis Recruitment.
Praxis Recruitment is a Recruitment Firm located on the Sunshine Coast (the traditional and unceded homelands of the shíshálh and Skwxwú7mesh Nations) in beautiful British Columbia. We provide exceptional customer service and operate with the highest level of respect to our clients and applicants.
