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The power of the personality test: select and develop the right people every time

Monday 04 October 2021

The importance in business of hiring the right people first time, every time is something any business owner will tell you is crucial. Not only does it save you time and money, but hiring the wrong person can have significant negative effects on your business.

Hiring the wrong person can happen for all sorts of reasons. For example, they may be an 'expert' in their field but struggle when working within a team environment; or maybe it's just that while technically very capable, they don't fit in with the team you've already built. Whatever it is, when you're trying to build a business from scratch and grow it into something successful, hiring someone who doesn't really 'fit' can be very frustrating for everyone involved.

This means that your success relies on your ability to hire the right person first time without having to go through the process of hiring and then letting them go.

The recruitment process can be broken down into four easy steps:

  • 1. Understand your business culture and hiring needs
  • 2. Find candidates who fit with your company values and requirements
  • 3. Conduct interviews so that both candidate and employer can assess each other
  • 4. Put the right person in the job and give them everything they need to succeed.

It sounds simple, but is it really possible to hire someone perfect for the job every time? Fortunately, it is, and in this blog post, we're going to look at how personality testing can help you to do just that.

What Is A Personality Test?

Many companies now use a personality test to aid in hiring the right people for the right roles. Personality tests are a powerful tool for assessing the suitability of employees for job roles or candidates. They assess an individual's personality to determine how they will interact with others, what skills they have and how good their emotional intelligence is.

Personality testing gives you a good insight into a candidates personality and behavioural traits. This information helps you make better decisions around who you hire, what they'll be like to work with and whether or not they will fit in with your team culture.

Hiring managers can make much more informed decisions by using tests to detect the personal strengths and weaknesses of candidates which would not be apparent in an interview.

How Does It Work?

Personality testing is based on an assessment that categorises different behavioural patterns into response sets known as "personality types". Personality types help employers identify who will be the best fit for a role.

One very effective personality test which has been tried and tested by many companies over time is the Jung Personality Test - a test that assesses four key personality types.

Jung's theory focuses on four basic psychological functions:

  • Extraversion vs. introversion.
  • Sensation vs. intuition.
  • Thinking vs. feeling.
  • Judging vs. perceiving.

There are personality tests that have been developed by experts who understand Jung's theories and how they work, which are now available for hiring managers. They provide detailed reports on where an individual falls within each of the four Personality Types, which allows hiring managers to make an informed decision when it comes to choosing a candidate.

Personality tests assess your strengths and weaknesses in certain areas, such as:

  • How you approach work problems
  • Your decision-making style
  • Personality type preferences when working with others (e.g., do you prefer to collaborate or go it alone?)

Why Are Personality Tests So Powerful?

The power of personality tests lies in their ability to help employers understand who will be able to adapt to their environment and culture, who will be able to effectively communicate with the rest of the team, who is likely to stay in that role for a long time (and remain committed), and which candidates are most suited for specific tasks.

Personality tests allow employers not only to look at what skills an individual has but also how they approach work problems or deal with certain situations. They can help you assess the behavioural patterns of an individual to determine how they would fit into your team and environment.

Another real benefit of personality tests is that they help ensure all candidates have been assessed based on their abilities, not just who they know or how long they've been in a particular role. They allow you to identify the best candidate for a specific job, regardless of their level of seniority.

In the same way, testing in this way as part of the recruitment process helps to avoid bias and discrimination because tests are based on accurate assessments which don't rely on assumptions about experience levels or cultural backgrounds - all candidates can be assessed objectively.

When it comes to avoiding hiring mistakes, these tests are a great way to help managers detect potential issues early on and prevent costly errors down the line. They allow employers to understand more about potential hires than just their qualifications on paper.

Personality tests are becoming increasingly popular because they help companies hire people who are likely to stay in jobs longer, reduce employee turnover rates and increase worker productivity. In a nutshell, they can save massive amounts of both time and money may well be one of your best recruitment tools!

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the personality tests we can offer, please get in touch - we’d love to chat with you!

This is what our satisfied customers say about us

“The Bridge Personality is a very nice tool to start the conversation with each other.”

Jessica Kuijper, senior P&O policy staff member

ROC Horizon College