Some may still wonder what makes a personality assessment an important recruitment tool and whether it is a worthy investment. The truth is that to avoid potentially bad hires, recruiters need to go beyond CV analysis to make an efficient candidate screening and research shows that assessing personality is a reliable method of predicting future job performance.
It’s extremely important for recruiters to assemble all the relevant information regarding candidates during the recruitment process, so that the best hiring decisions can be made. But the traditional methods for gathering information are very subjective and unreliable, which is why pre-selection assessments play an important part in the recruitment process. A personality assessment can provide recruiters with deep insights that combined with other evaluation elements (CV, interview, etc.) will significantly improve the candidate selection.
Why personality assessment? Although cognitive ability is commonly linked to the likelihood to succeed professionally, studies have proven that personality traits like achievements striving, cooperation or leadership orientation, among others, play an important part in one’s job performance.
The personality report allows to quickly assess if a candidate is suitable for a job position or not, given that it measures workplace personality traits and occupational scores that are predictive of job performance.
As long as they’re well-developed and scientifically proven, personality assessments can be used by recruiters as an objective source of reliable information to successfully predict employee performance across a wide range of job categories and to make hiring decisions based on concrete criteria. In today’s article we discuss the importance of using both the right personality assessment model and the right tool to provide it.
The Five Factor Model
At skeeled we use the Personality Characteristics Inventory (PCI) to assess if a candidate’s personality traits are suitable for a specific job. This assessment is based on a worldwide known personality model, the Big Five Model, which categorises personality into five broad dimensions.
This assessment is built upon several years of experience in research in the context of how personality can predict job performance and is especially designed to help companies hire more effectively.
The Big Five dimensions of personality (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Stability), its related sub-scales (Sociability, Need for Recognition, Leadership Orientation, Cooperation, Consideration, Dependability, Efficiency, Even-Temperament, Achievement Striving, Self-Confidence, Abstract Thinking and Creative Thinking) and four success scales (Teamwork, Commitment to Work, Learning orientation and Integrity) to assess whether a candidate is a good match for a specific job.
The four success scales alone provide important insights about job performance and company fit: teamwork - measures how well a candidate will work in group projects; commitment to work - assesses the candidate’s tendency to stay in a position for a long period of time; learning orientation - evaluates the candidate’s willingness to learn new skills, behaviours, methods, etc., to improve efficiency; integrity - assesses the candidate’s honesty and the likelihood of engaging in counterproductive behaviours.
Although each individual is unique, it is possible to assess if a candidate’s personality traits match a specific job’s responsibilities. Candidates that are a good match are more likely to be productive and satisfied on the job. Research has produced some generalisations that can help us evaluate a candidate (Erika Price, CQ Net):
- People high in openness perform well and are motivated in creative, varied environments.
- Conscientious employees are self-motivated and organised and require little supervision.
- Extroverted employees will perform well in social, stimulating tasks.
- Emotionally stable and agreeable employees work best with team support, and are motivated by approval, social support and external incentives.
Integrated Personality Assessment Tool
The predictive analysis of personality assessments provides an overview of a candidate’s behavioural tendencies and that allows recruiters to really understand if a candidate will, in fact, be a top performer and if he will fit the culture of the company. Having this kind of insights before making the hiring decision is crucial to decide better.
Being able to provide this assessment on a digital, integrated platform brings recruiters many benefits:
- It saves both the recruiter and the candidate a lot of time
- It allows candidates to do the assessment online, when and where they see best fit
- It makes it much easier for recruiters to analyse and compare the results
- It improves the candidate screening (those who are not a good fit are rejected in the early stages of the recruitment process)
- It reduces the recruitment cycle without affecting the quality of candidates (less but better candidates to interview)
A personality assessment tool that is integrated in an artificial intelligence-based recruitment software, offers you even greater benefits: integrated analysis and ranking of your candidates.
The skeeled solution ranks candidates based on the matching of their CVs, personality and video interview with each job’s requirements. We offer an AI-based analysis, performed by a bias-free screening machine that doesn’t take time off and works 24/7 to allow recruiters to focus only on candidates that match the profile they are looking for and to have more time to engage with top talent throughout the selection process.
Skeeled offers you the perfect opportunity to bring innovation and digitalisation to your hiring. Check our website or our LinkedIn and Facebook pages for further information.
Thanks for reading and see you next time!
Your team here at skeeled
