Skills and experience tell managers a lot about what employees bring to their roles, but they don’t always show how someone prefers to communicate, collaborate or respond when challenges arise. Using personality assessments in the workplace can offer another layer of insight.
Why are personality tests important? These questionnaires can help employees and leaders better understand different working styles and communication preferences. This can result in positioning teams to communicate more clearly, work through conflict and collaborate more effectively.
What Is a Personality Assessment?
A personality assessment is a systematic tool designed to measure aspects of an individual’s personality and behavior, such as communication style, values, motivations and preferences.
In the workplace, these assessments can help employees better understand their own tendencies and how they interact with others. The goal isn’t to rank or judge people based on a personality type. Instead, they can build self-awareness and give teams useful context for understanding personality differences.
Common Types of Personality Assessments Used at Work
Personality assessments vary in what they measure and how they present the results. Some of the most common options used in the workplace include DISC, the Big Five, MBTI and strengths-based assessments.
DISC Assessment
DISC looks at communication and behavior across four areas: dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness. These areas can help explain how people approach conversations and interactions.
There’s no right or wrong DISC profile. People can be a blend of all four styles, with one or more standing out. In the workplace, knowing those differences can help employees better understand their own communication styles and how their colleagues may approach things differently.
Big Five (Five-Factor Model)
The Big Five, also known as the five-factor model, looks at five broad personality traits: extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, agreeableness and emotional stability.
Instead of sorting people into a specific personality type, the Big Five looks at each trait on a spectrum. A person may show higher levels of conscientiousness and lower levels of extraversion, with their results creating a broader picture of their personality. This approach recognizes that personality isn’t limited to a single category and that people can show different levels of each trait.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI, uses four pairs of preferences: extraversion or introversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, and judging or perceiving. Different combinations of these preferences make up 16 personality types.
MBTI looks at personality preferences, not a person’s abilities, skills or competencies. The Myers-Briggs organization advises against using the assessment to hire or select employees, making it important for employers to understand what the results are and aren’t designed to measure.
Strengths-Based Assessments
Strengths-based assessments focus on identifying what people naturally do well rather than assigning a personality type. CliftonStrengths, for example, measures patterns in how people think, feel and behave across 34 talent themes.
The results identify areas where individuals have strengths and weaknesses. This can help employees better understand their natural talents and where they may want to focus their development.
Why Are Personality Tests Important in the Workplace?
Personality assessments can offer practical insight into how employees work, communicate and grow. For organizations, those insights can support stronger teams, employee development, company culture and retention.
Improving Team Dynamics and Communication
People don’t always approach teamwork the same way. One employee may want to talk through an idea right away, while another prefers time to process the information. Some are comfortable making quick decisions, while others want more information first.
Personality assessments can help employees recognize these differences before they turn into misunderstandings. With a better sense of how their colleagues communicate and work, team members can adjust their approach, reduce friction and work together more effectively.
Supporting Employee Development
Personality assessments can give employees a clearer view of their own habits, strengths and areas for growth. How do they respond under pressure? Where could they communicate more effectively? What behaviors might be holding them back?
With that added self-awareness, professional development can become more focused. Employees may find opportunities to build new skills, set meaningful goals or strengthen their emotional intelligence. Over time, those insights can help shape where they want to grow and how they get there.
Strengthening Company Culture
People bring different strengths, perspectives and approaches to work, and a healthy company culture makes room for those differences. Personality assessments can help employees see those differences as valuable rather than something everyone needs to overcome or change.
That understanding can help create a workplace where people feel respected for what they bring to the team. It also gives leaders an opportunity to build a more connected culture without expecting every employee to fit the same mold.
Reducing Turnover
Personality assessments can help managers better understand what employees enjoy, where they naturally excel and what interests them about their work.
That insight can help managers find ways for employees to use their strengths in their current roles and consider those interests when planning for growth. When employees feel their work is a good fit, it can support greater job satisfaction and give them more reasons to stay.
How Can Personality Tests Be Valuable in Hiring Processes?
Personality assessments can offer another perspective on a candidate during the hiring process. When an assessment has been validated for employment use, it may provide insight into workplace behaviors that are relevant to a particular role.
The key is choosing the right assessment, since many popular personality tests weren’t created for hiring. Using these tools to screen candidates can introduce bias and lead employers to make decisions based on information the assessment wasn’t designed to provide.
Human resources teams should look for assessments that are well-researched, validated for hiring and relevant to the job. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) also advises employers to consider whether a selection process disproportionately excludes people in a protected group and whether the assessment is job-related and consistent with business needs.
No personality assessment can give employers a complete picture of a candidate. Results are most useful when considered alongside experience, skills, cognitive ability and other job-related qualifications.
Best Practices for Using Personality Assessments at Work
Personality assessments work best when there’s a clear reason for using them. Before introducing one to employees, leaders should consider what they hope the team will learn and how the results will be used. Here are a few considerations:
- Skip informal or unvetted quizzes and make sure the tool is appropriate for how you plan to use it
- Pair the assessment with training or a team discussion that helps employees understand their results and put the insights into practice
- Remember that a personality type shouldn’t define what someone can do or how they’re expected to work
- Encourage employees to use their results as a starting point for learning more about themselves and others
Making Personality Assessments Work for Your Team
Personality assessments can help teams communicate better, support employee growth and build a stronger company culture. Getting value from them comes down to choosing a validated assessment and using the results to build understanding, not making high-stakes decisions on their own.
Even one team assessment can open the door to conversations about how people work best. Those conversations can help employees better understand one another and build stronger working relationships.
Personality Assessments at ACE
American College of Education (ACE) combines assessment, artificial intelligence and a human touch to its hiring processes. Integrating the Humantelligence tool as part of the hiring process allows the human resources team to provide additional insight into a candidate’s behavioral tendencies, motivators and workplace preferences. Results support resumes, interviews and other evaluations by helping hiring teams better understand how a candidate may approach communication, collaboration, decision-making and their overall working style.
Humantelligence is more than a standalone selection tool, however. It also serves as a valuable onboarding tool for new employees. By helping new hires better understand their own work style and the communication preferences of their teammates, it can accelerate their integration into the ACE culture. The insights foster greater self-awareness, strengthen team relationships and help new employees adapt more quickly to team dynamics, ultimately supporting a smoother and more successful onboarding experience.
FAQs
Are personality assessments scientifically validated?
Some personality assessments are scientifically validated, but not all are. The amount and quality of research behind each assessment can vary, so organizations should look for evidence of reliability and validity before choosing a tool.
Can an employee’s personality type change over time?
Yes. Personality types can change over time, though many traits tend to remain relatively stable. Life experiences, changing environments and personal growth can influence how certain traits show up in someone’s behavior. That’s why an assessment result shouldn’t be viewed as a permanent label or a limit on how an employee can grow.
How often should teams revisit personality assessments?
There’s no set schedule for how often teams should revisit personality assessments. It depends on the assessment, its purpose and what has changed since employees first took it. Teams may find it helpful to revisit their results after significant changes or when the insights could support a new conversation about how they work together.
Do personality assessments account for cultural differences in communication style?
Some do, but not all personality assessments account for cultural differences in the same way. Culture can influence how people communicate and express certain behaviors, so organizations should consider who was included in the research used to develop and validate an assessment. This can help determine whether the tool is appropriate for the employees who will use it.
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