Competency Profile
Powerful competency assessment which measures key workplace competencies.
- Untimed
- 128 questions
- Fair and valid science

Our assessments are trusted globally by 6,000+ talent teams
























The TPAQ™-Competency Profile Assessment
Assess your candidates' propensity to understand emotions and interpersonal communication.
- Untimed (≈15 mins)
- 128 quick questions
- All levels covered: apprentice to CEO
- PC, Mac, Laptop, Tablet, Mobile
- Automatic cheat-protection systems
- Accessible and unbiased by design
- Predicts workplace performance
- CSV upload and ATS integration
- Use your logo and branding
Personality traits hold enormous sway over our potential productivity at work. In virtually all roles, personality questionnaires are useful predictors of future performance, making them invaluable selection tools.
The TPAQ™ is a next-generation, computer adaptive online personality questionnaire, designed to accurately measure key personality traits quickly, accurately and fairly, all while providing an exceptional candidate experience.
By gaining a deeper understanding of your candidates, you can make more informed hiring decisions, improve team dynamics, and boost overall organisational performance. With the TPAQ™, you not only streamline your hiring process but also cultivate a workplace culture that harnesses the true potential of your team members.
Tried and trusted
Join a community of over 6,000 global companies using Test Partnership assessments to help them hire the best people quickly, easily, and fairly.

Competency test for every role and every level
Objectively measure candidates' workplace competencies across all levels including apprentice, graduate, managers, and CEO.
You can be confident in the results knowing our competency assessment automatically adapts to each candidate's responses, which means every candidate gets a great, personalised, assessment experience.

Boost candidate experience
Showcase your brand by adding your colours and your logo to our assessments.
You can build assessments tailored to your role by choosing from our library of pre-built valid assessments. Choose from our pre-built norm-groups to easily rank and compare your candidates' scores.
Sample Reports and Factsheets

All our tests exceed current psychometric standards and have been shown to be fair and unbiased towards protected groups.
Calibrated by tens of thousands of results correlated with job performance predictors.
Rigorous protection against candidate cheating including: item banking; digital copy protection; and atypical behaviour detection.
Modern user interface and graphics library for easy administration, shorter test times, and adaptive tests to enhance candidate experience.
Our tests and platform are fully compatible across PC, Mac, tablet, and smartphone, so everyone has access even on-the-go.
The TPAQ™-Competency Profile Traits
Below is the full list of all the traits measured by the TPAQ™-Competency Profile assessment.
It's also easy to customise or weight specific traits according to your role.
Creativity and Flexibility
The following scales are reported:Artistic - An individual's pursuit of artistic interests, appreciation of aesthetics and the recognition of beauty.
Free Thinking - An individual's propensity to question convention and tradition, in favour of alternative approaches.
Imaginative - An individual's propensity to engage their imagination, reflecting and expanding upon their ideas.
Spontaneity - An individual's preference for spontaneous activity, seeking new experiences and acceptance of change.
Integrity and Ethics
The following scales are reported:Fairness - An individual's propensity to play by the rules, even if breaking the rules increases the chance of success.
Honesty - An individual's propensity to act sincerely, displaying honesty regardless of whether it is counterproductive.
Modesty - An individual's disinterest in seeking recognition, praise or attention, not requiring external validation.
Principled - An individual's commitment to moral ideals, even when this inhibits the likelihood of achieving a goal.
Motivation and Work Ethic
The following scales are reported:Drive - An individual's desire to succeed or excel in everything they do, often seeking to outperform others.
Goal Focus - An individual's preference for setting and achieving goals, gaining satisfaction from reaching targets.
Persistence - An individual's likelihood of seeing short-term tasks through to completion, despite challenges, setbacks and obstacles.
Self-Confidence - An individual's perceived competence and their sense of confidence in their own abilities.
Organisational Skills
The following scales are reported:Discipline - An individual's likelihood to remain productive and maintain focus during necessary day-to-day tasks.
Diligence - An individual's propensity to follow the rules, uphold procedure and fulfil their obligations.
Methodical - An individual's attention to detail and their propensity to conduct tasks in a meticulous way.
Self-Directed - An individual's likelihood to feel in control, rarely feeling powerless over their life's direction.
Custom
We regularly create custom personality questionnaires for clients based on their specific frameworks. Our expert business psychologists can help you quickly create a questionnaire that measures exactly what you need.
People Skills
The following scales are reported:Assertive - An individual's propensity to take control of social situations and feel comfortable speaking their mind.
Negative Expression - An individual's healthy expression of negative emotion, attending to negative feelings and not suppressing them.
Positive Expression - An individual's awareness and recognition of positive emotion, feeling able to express this to others.
Socialable - An individual's preference for group membership, participation in crowds and taking centre stage.
Problem Solving and Decision Making
The following scales are reported:Initiative - An individual's propensity towards proactivity, starting tasks autonomously without procrastination.
Intuitive - An individual's propensity to use feeling, emotions, and intuition as a guide when making decisions.
Perseverance - An individual's propensity to see long-term projects through to completion, even in the face of adversity.
Vigilance - An individual's consideration of consequences and avoidance of impulsive decision-making.
Resilience and Stress Management
The following scales are reported:Calm - An individual's propensity to take things in their stride, rather than becoming angry or frustrated.
Intuitive - An individual's emotional consistency, rarely experiencing mood swings or negative emotional reactions.
Perseverance - An individual's level of belief concerning their capability to overcome obstacles, setbacks and deterrents.
Vigilance - An individual's perceived selfworth, concerning positive self-image and recognition of their own worth.
Teamwork and Collaboration
The following scales are reported:Co-operative - An individual's propensity to avoid confrontation, cause upset or offence to other people.
Empathetic - An individual's concern for others' well-being, readily empathising with their situations, challenges and feelings.
Sympathetic - An individual's attitude towards those in need, feeling a sense of responsibility for the well-being of others.
Trusting - An individual's likelihood to trust others, see the best in people and rarely question their intentions.
The TPAQ™-Competency assessment.
Here is the full list of all the competencies measured by the the TPAQ™-Competency assessment.
The TPAQ™-Competency scales
The following scales are reported:- Creativity and Flexibility;
- Integrity and Ethics;
- Motivation and Work-Ethic;
- Organisational Skills;
- People Skills;
- Problem Solving and Decision Making;
- Resilience and Stress Management;and
- Teamwork and Collaboration
Assessments led by science
Proven and trusted online assessments to quickly identify potential. All our assessments use robust science backed up by research and development according to EFPA standards.
Our qualified in-house business psychologists have been developing psychometric tests for over 10 years. They push for innovation and are regular lecturers at Birkbeck, University of London. Our psychologists have developed advanced expertise in the latest psychometric methods including item response theory including the Rash model. Our expertise means we are often used by other psychometric test publishers to help them build or improve their psychometric assessments. By working with Test Partnership you get industry-recognised expertise from qualified business psychologists.
Our psychologists use the latest psychometric test models including item response theory (IRT) to ensure accurate test scores. Our assessments have industry-leading reliability and validity properties, so you can have confidence in the outcomes. The results you get from our assessments have been demonstrated through research to be highly accurate which means you get actionable insights into your candidates' performance. By working with Test Partnership you get confidence in your data.
All our assessments have robust evidence to prove they do not adversely affect protected groups. Our test development process includes trialling our questions on tens of thousands of participants from mixed backgrounds, and our research shows 'Cohens d' effect sizes better than industry best-practice. You can use our assessments safe in the knowledge that they are fair and inclusive.
Research, including large meta studies, has repeatedly shown that cognitive ability is the strongest predictor of workplace performance (Scmidt, Hunter, et al). To find the best employees you need to assess for cognitive ability, and Test Partnership assessments accurately measure cognitive ability at every level. Cognitive ability correlates with job performance better than any other indicator including interviews, past experience, and assessment centres. By using our ability tests, you can confidently identify the best candidates and predict future success.
Competency test FAQs
A competency test is an assessment designed to evaluate an individual's knowledge, skills, and abilities in a specific area or job role. It measures their capacity to perform tasks and achieve desired outcomes, helping employers make informed hiring or promotion decisions.
The questions in the competency assessment will not be like the questions you would expect in a competency-based interview. Competency-based interview questions are open-ended and require the candidate to share experiences and stories. The competency profile assessment will be like a personality questionnaire where the candidate must pick how much they agree or disagree with a statement.
Testing for competencies in the hiring process helps employers assess a candidate's specific skills, knowledge, and abilities required for a job. It ensures a better match between the candidate and the role, leading to improved job performance, reduced turnover, and increased overall organisational success.
Our competency test can be used for candidates at all levels, from entry-level to senior positions. You can tailor the assessments by weighting certain competencies you desire for that role, but assessing skills and abilities is relevant for all candidates to ensure they can perform their job effectively and meet organizational goals.
