Watch: Personality tests in recruitment
3 minutes
Ben Schwencke explains what personality tests are, why they're used in hiring, and how to get the most from them.
Introduction
The hiring process is as much about understanding who a candidate is as what they can do. While technical skills and experience are essential, personality has a significant impact on how someone will perform, collaborate, and fit within a team. This is where employment personality tests come in.
In this article, we discuss the role of personality assessments in hiring, how to use them properly, and best practices to get the most from these tools.
What is an employment personality test?
An employment personality test is a type of psychometric assessment designed to measure a candidate's behavioural traits, motivations, and interpersonal style. These assessments help predict how a person is likely to behave in different work scenarios, offering insights into whether they would be a good fit for a specific role and the broader company culture.
Employment personality tests help determine whether a candidate's behavioural traits align with company values and role requirements — they're not about labelling someone "good" or "bad", but about understanding fit.
These assessments are particularly valuable when hiring for roles that require specific traits, such as leadership, teamwork, or empathy. For example, a role involving significant client interaction may benefit from candidates scoring high in extraversion and agreeableness, whereas quality control roles often call for high conscientiousness and attention to detail.
What personality traits matter most for different roles?
There is no single personality profile that works across all jobs. The value of personality assessments comes from matching the traits you measure to the requirements of the specific role. A good personality questionnaire will allow you to configure which traits you weight most heavily depending on what you're hiring for.
Why use personality tests in recruitment?
One of the primary reasons for using a personality test in recruitment is to gain a more comprehensive understanding of a candidate beyond their technical skills.
When hiring managers understand a candidate's motivations, work style, and behavioural tendencies, they are better placed to determine how well that person will fit into the role and the team. This insight simply isn't available from a CV or a short interview.
Personality assessments can also improve the diversity of the workforce. By taking a data-driven approach, they allow for a more objective comparison of candidates — focusing on attributes that genuinely contribute to job success rather than superficial first impressions that interviews so often rely on.
Personality assessments can enhance workforce diversity by providing a data-driven and objective comparison of candidates, reducing bias.
Explore our personality assessments
From Big Five questionnaires to situational judgement tests — discover how our personality tools can add a new dimension to your hiring decisions.
How to use personality assessments effectively
To use personality assessments effectively, they need to be integrated thoughtfully alongside other evaluation methods. Here are the key steps for successful implementation:
- Define job requirements clearly. Before incorporating a personality test, identify the key competencies and traits required for the role. This ensures assessment results can be interpreted in the context of actual job needs, making them far more useful.
- Combine with other assessment methods. Personality assessments work best as part of a broader selection process. Pairing them with ability tests and structured interviews gives you a more complete picture — and makes each tool more meaningful than it would be alone.
- Use reliable and validated tools. Not all personality tests are created equal. Choose assessments that are scientifically validated, such as those based on established models like the Big Five personality traits. This ensures results are accurate and genuinely predictive of job performance.
- Train hiring managers on interpretation. To get the most value from personality tests, hiring managers need to know how to read and apply the results. Proper training helps ensure assessments are used consistently and ethically, and that they genuinely contribute to decisions rather than being misunderstood.
- Be transparent with candidates. Let candidates know why you are using personality tests and how their results will be used. Transparency builds trust, ensures a respectful candidate experience, and supports your employer brand.
Advantages and limitations of personality tests in hiring
Personality tests offer clear benefits, but it's also important to understand where they have limits.
The main advantages are better cultural fit (candidates can be assessed against a defined profile for your organisation), enhanced team dynamics (understanding traits helps predict how a new hire will interact with the existing team), and objective data that supports decision-making when selecting between closely matched candidates.
The main limitations are the potential for misuse — personality should never be the sole deciding factor in hiring — and the risk of over-interpretation. Personality traits exist on a spectrum, and hiring managers without training can draw conclusions that the data doesn't support. Personality assessments are an input to decision-making, not a verdict.
The key principle: personality assessments should inform decisions, not dictate them. Combined with ability tests and a structured interview, they become a powerful part of a well-rounded selection process.
Best practices for using personality tests
- Align assessments with company values. Choose or configure assessments that reflect the competencies and values your organisation prioritises. This helps identify candidates who are not only skilled but also culturally aligned.
- Use as a guide, not a gatekeeper. Personality assessments should provide additional context, not disqualify candidates outright. Use them to inform structured interview questions or guide conversations at later stages — not to screen people out automatically.
- Focus on role-relevant traits. Not every trait matters equally for every role. Identify the traits most directly applicable to the position you're filling, and weight those accordingly in your evaluation.
- Consider the candidate experience. Make the process respectful and informative. Where possible, provide feedback on results, and explain how the personality assessment feeds into the overall hiring decision. This maintains your employer brand and shows candidates they're being evaluated fairly.
Conclusion and summary
Personality assessments are a valuable part of a well-constructed hiring process, providing insights into candidate fit that go beyond a CV or interview alone. When used effectively and ethically, they help organisations make more informed decisions — leading to better cultural fit, stronger team dynamics, and ultimately more successful hires.
Personality assessments provide unique insights into cultural fit and team dynamics, but should be used as part of a broader evaluation strategy.
These assessments are not without limitations, and it is important that they form part of a broader evaluation strategy rather than acting as the sole criterion for hiring decisions. By combining them with ability tests and structured interviews, ensuring transparency with candidates, and focusing on job-relevant traits, you can get the best possible return from personality testing.
Our personality questionnaire
The TPAQ-45 measures 45 facets across the Big Five model, giving you a detailed, validated picture of how candidates are likely to behave at work.
Primary author
Oliver Savill
Director and Founder of Test Partnership. Over 10 years experience in the psychometric testing industry.
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