The social politics of (involved in) a design studio workflow

Personality Testing

In the current employment field, employers may need to sort through hundreds of
applications before they are able to select the best candidate/s for a position. With the
advancement of psychological science, personality testing has become an efficient and
proven means of narrowing down applicants before a formal interview, distinguishing one
candidate from another and providing an employer with a means of achieving a broader
perspective of a candidate’s personality.

With the increasing number of candidates applying for positions in the current
employment market, interviewing of candidates and viewing of CVs can be a time
consuming and expensive adventure. With the development of personality testing
employers have a means of narrowing down the candidate list to those that are best suited
for the job. Tests can be developed with the qualities the employer is seeking in mind, to
produce a specific test for that particular position and its required traits. Commonly
measured traits in employment settings include extraversion, conscientiousness, openness
to new experience, optimism, agreeableness, service orientation, stress tolerance,
emotional stability, initiative and pro activity. All of these traits can be tested via
personality testing with far greater success than that of a simple interview, academic
record or CV.
Personality tests have become a reliable and proven means of effective hiring. “It’s
increasingly likely that candidates will be required to take a personality test before being
hired.” (Edward Hoffman Ph.D. 2001, p. 3).

It is rare that a personality test would be able to distinguish executive material in

testing, though they do provide a means to distinguish a potential employee over another,
in that depending on the traits sort after by the recruiting company the candidates that
possess these qualities can be easily distinguished above those lacking in the required
traits.

“The batteries of tests that are applied offer some finer definitions
that distinguish one candidate from another”
(Susan Hodgson 2004, p. 8).

The tests have the ability to work on a more subconscious level than that of an interview or
CV application. Through means such as repetition and word association, the tests can
assess if a candidate is giving honest answers or answering the way they believe the
employer would want them to. This is not possible with a CV or standard interview, and is
one reason personality testing is becoming the first choice for employers.
It is far easier to elaborate and falsify a CV document as they can be produced by someone
other than the candidate themselves or the candidate may have spent many hours
creating the document. They may have elaborated in certain information, created false job
titles or even list jobs they have not preformed. “71 per cent of CVs contain dishonest
information.” (Susan Hodgson 2004, p. 5).
It is this dishonest information that can not be easily recognized in a CV that allows
personality testing to be a far more accurate means of correct candidate selection.

As personality testing has become more popular with employers, more and more
debate has risen that the tests are too personal and also discriminate.
It is in fact the purpose of the test to discriminate certain characteristics over others. Too
have a test that was too broad and allowed everyone to pass would be as ineffective as a
test that was overly critical and had a very low pass rate.
The tests allow for a more thorough investigation into one’s personality, which can predict
a person’s behavior and pattern of action in a certain situation.
“The vast majority of our behavior is determined by our personality.” (Travis Bradberry
2007, p. 42).

As there are many means to evaluate which candidate would be best suited to a
position, personality testing has become one of the most common used due to its ability to
effectively and accurately distinguish sort after traits and characteristics desirable to an
employer. The means of testing is seen as both a money and time saver, with the added
benefits of achieving in depth results and effective outcomes.

Reference List:
Hodgson, S. 2004. Brilliant psychometric and other selection tests, Pearson Education
Limited, Great Britain.

Hoffman Ph.D., E. 2001. Ace the corporate personality test, McGraw-Hill, New York.

Bradberry, T. 2007. The personality code, Penguin Group, Victoria