Hiring well starts with knowing what you’re looking for beyond skills and experience. The best personality test for hiring helps you see how people think, decide, and collaborate—so you can build stronger teams and reduce costly mismatches.
At Jackson Advisory Group, our experienced consultants integrate validated personality assessments into hiring systems that improve accuracy and compliance. We focus on actionable insight—linking behavioral data to real performance outcomes—so hiring becomes more consistent and predictive.
This article breaks down the most trusted personality tests for employers, what makes them reliable, and how to choose the right one for your hiring needs. You’ll learn how to balance data with judgment, reduce bias, and improve both candidate fit and long-term retention.
Why Use Personality Tests in Hiring
Personality assessments give you measurable insight into how candidates work, communicate, and solve problems. They help you match people to roles, predict likely on-the-job behavior, and spot potential culture fit or mismatch.
Improving Hiring Decisions
Personality tests give hiring managers data beyond resumes and interviews. You can compare traits like conscientiousness or resilience across candidates. That helps you decide who will follow the process, handle pressure, or lead a team.
Use validated assessments that measure traits tied to job performance. For sales roles, you might prioritize high extraversion and influence; for analyst roles, you might weigh conscientiousness and attention to detail.
Combine test scores with skills tests and structured interviews to reduce bias and make decisions more consistent.
Keep test use role-specific. Share clear scoring rules with recruiters and hiring managers so everyone knows how results affect selection. Document how personality results map to required competencies for each job.
The Predictive Power of Personality Assessments
Research from Harvard Business Review shows that validated personality tests can boost hiring accuracy by as much as 25% when combined with structured interviews and work samples.
Using scientifically grounded assessments—such as the Big Five or Hogan inventories—helps employers reduce turnover and improve cultural fit.
Reducing Employee Turnover
Personality assessments can lower turnover by improving person–job and person–team fit. When you hire people whose work style and motivations match the role, they are less likely to leave in the first year.
Use tests to flag mismatches early. For instance, a highly autonomous candidate may struggle in a tightly controlled process role. Address gaps with targeted onboarding, role design changes, or coaching to improve retention.
Track turnover rates by personality profile to see which traits predict exits in your company. Don’t use personality tests as the sole hiring gate. Combine results with realistic job previews and references to avoid wrongful rejections or legal risk.
Enhancing Team Dynamics
Personality assessments help you build balanced teams. You can map team strengths—such as idea generation, detail orientation, and conflict tolerance—and hire to fill gaps. That improves collaboration and reduces recurring friction.
Use results in team building and role assignment. Share aggregated, non-identifying profiles so team members understand communication preferences and decision styles. A recruiter or hiring manager can use this information during interview debriefs to select candidates who complement existing skills and temperaments.
Monitor team performance and engagement after adding new hires. Adjust team structure or training when profiles show recurring weaknesses, like low openness or poor stress coping, to protect productivity and morale.
Types of Personality Tests for Hiring
You will pick tests that target traits, observable behaviors, or core motivations. Each type fits different hiring goals: screening for culture fit, predicting on-the-job actions, or guiding employee development.
Trait-Based Personality Tests
Trait-based tests measure stable characteristics like openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion.
These are common in pre-employment personality tests because they predict broad work outcomes. For example, a high score in conscientiousness often links to reliability and attention to detail, useful for roles with tight deadlines.
Usually, you get a personality questionnaire with Likert-style items (agree–disagree). The result becomes a personality profile showing scores across several traits. Use these tests for initial screening or to match role demands, but avoid using them alone to reject candidates.
Strengths: standardized, easy to compare, and backed by research (e.g., Big Five). Limitations: can miss context-specific behavior and may be faked unless validity checks are included.
Behavioral Assessment Tools
Behavioral tools focus on how candidates act in work situations. These include situational judgment tests, DISC-style assessments, and gamified simulations. They show likely on-the-job behaviors—how someone solves problems, handles pressure, or interacts with teammates.
You can use behavioral assessments during later-stage interviewing to validate trait-based results.
Reports often include action-oriented recommendations, such as communication style tips or team role fit. These tools are strong for roles that need specific interaction patterns, like customer service or sales.
High predictive value for observed behaviors depends on test design and how closely scenarios match real tasks.
Motivational and Emotional Intelligence Tests
Motivational and emotional intelligence tests measure why people work the way they do and how they manage feelings. Enneagram-style or motive inventories reveal core drivers (achievement, security, affiliation). Emotional intelligence (EQ) tests assess self-awareness, empathy, and regulation.
Use these for roles where leadership, teamwork, or customer relations matter. A motivational profile helps design job tasks and employee development plans. EQ scores can predict leadership potential and conflict handling.
These tests offer deep insights for employee development and coaching. They are less suited for pure technical screening and work best combined with trait or behavioral assessments to form a fuller pre-employment assessment.
Most Popular Personality Tests for Hiring
These tests measure work-related traits, predict job fit, and are used by HR for selection, team design, and leadership decisions. Each tool differs in what it measures, how it predicts performance, and whether it’s validated for hiring.
Big Five Personality Test (OCEAN Model)
The Big Five (also called OCEAN or Five-Factor Model) measures Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. You get scores on trait continuums, not fixed “types,” which makes the results easy to compare across candidates.
Conscientiousness often predicts job performance across roles, so you should weight it heavily for positions needing reliability and attention to detail. Openness helps for creative or ambiguous tasks. Extraversion matters for sales and client-facing jobs.
Agreeableness and low Neuroticism can support teamwork and stress tolerance. Use validated Big Five instruments if you need legally defensible, predictive data. Combine trait scores with work samples or structured interviews to reduce false positives.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
MBTI sorts people into 16 types from four preference pairs: Introversion/Extraversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving. Reports describe communication style and team dynamics rather than predict job performance.
You can use MBTI for onboarding, team-building, and helping people understand work preferences. Avoid using MBTI for hiring decisions. The tool lacks the strong predictive validity required for selection and can oversimplify behavior into categories.
If you apply MBTI, use it alongside objective measures. Treat results as development tools, not pass/fail criteria, and document how you use them to avoid selection bias.
DISC Assessment
DISC divides behavior into Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. It gives practical, action-oriented profiles that show how someone might approach tasks, deadlines, and team interaction.
DISC is useful for role fit in sales, customer service, and team role mapping. It’s straightforward to interpret, so managers can quickly apply insights to coaching and communication. However, many DISC versions are more developmental than predictive.
Use DISC for quick behavioral insight, training, and interview probes. For hiring, pair it with cognitive tests or structured job simulations to improve accuracy and meet compliance standards.
Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) and Hogan Suite
Hogan focuses on work-relevant personality and risk factors. The HPI measures normal, “bright-side” personality traits linked to job performance. Hogan’s suite adds the Hogan Development Survey (risk/derailers) and the MVPI (values/motivators).
You should use Hogan when hiring for leadership or high-stakes roles because it has strong research linking scores to performance and derailment under stress. Certified administrators typically interpret results to give context and reduce misapplication.
Combine Hogan reports with structured interviews and reference checks. That mix lets you see both typical strengths (HPI) and potential risks (HDS), and understand if a candidate’s values match the role (MVPI).
Other Leading Employment Personality Tests
These assessments measure traits that predict workplace behavior and fit. They vary by length, trait coverage, and the type of report you receive, so pick one that matches the role and the decisions you need to make.
Caliper Profile
The Caliper Profile is a long, in-depth personality assessment used to predict job performance and leadership potential. It measures about 23 traits, including leadership, assertiveness, time management, and problem solving.
The test mixes multiple-choice, true/false, and abstract reasoning items and usually takes 2–3 hours to complete. Reports are role-specific and translate trait scores into practical strengths and risk areas for a given job.
You get narrative summaries for Leadership, Interpersonal Skills, Problem-Solving/Decision-Making, and Personal Organization. Employers often use Caliper when they need detailed insight for mid- to senior-level hires or leadership pipelines.
16pf (Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire)
The 16pf evaluates 16 primary personality traits and several global factors that relate to workplace behavior. It has roughly 185 items and takes about 30–60 minutes.
The format uses scaled responses, which helps produce reliable subscale scores for traits like Warmth, Reasoning, Perfectionism, and Rule-Consciousness. Your report shows scores on each factor, grouped into categories like Thinking Style and Management of Pressure.
The 16pf is useful if you want a scientifically grounded profile of underlying traits to guide role fit, career coaching, or selection decisions across many job families.
SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire (OPQ32)
The OPQ32 (SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire) measures 32 work-related characteristics and organizes them into three domains: Relationships, Thinking Style, and Feelings & Emotions.
The test uses forced-choice items (choose the most/least like you) and usually runs up to about 104 items. Reports map scores to job-relevant competencies (e.g., organizing, influencing) and provide visual comparisons to benchmark groups.
SHL’s OPQ32 is practical when you need competency-based results that link personality traits to on-the-job behaviors, especially for larger-scale hiring or talent mapping.
Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment
The Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment is a short, four-factor behavioral screener that takes about five minutes. It measures Dominance, Extraversion, Patience, and Formality using a checklist format. The goal is rapid, actionable insight rather than deep clinical profiling.
Results produce a workplace behavioral pattern and a short profile that hiring managers can use to predict teamwork style, decision tendencies, and how a candidate responds to structure. Use PI when you need quick screening, role-matching, or to align candidate behavior with job demands in high-volume hiring.
How to Choose the Best Personality Test for Your Hiring Needs
Pick a test that measures the exact traits you need, gives repeatable results, and follows employment laws. Focus on fit to the role, evidence the test works, and fair use with clear candidate consent.
Assessing Job and Company Requirements
Start by listing the core traits the role needs. For example, prioritize conscientiousness and team orientation for operations roles, but emphasize extraversion and persuasion for sales. Match those traits to tests: Big Five (OCEAN) maps well to broad work styles, DISC highlights interaction preferences, and role-specific culture-add surveys show cultural fit.
Define how you'll use results. Use personality test scores to shape interview questions or team placement — not as sole hiring gates. Decide cutoffs, if any, and make sure they align with job tasks in the job description.
Include stakeholders early. Ask hiring managers and team leads what behavioral tendencies matter day-to-day. Pilot the test on current employees in similar roles to see if results connect with real performance and retention.
Evaluating Test Reliability and Validity
Check published evidence. Look for reliability metrics (Cronbach’s alpha > .70) and validity studies that link test scores to job performance or other relevant outcomes. Tests backed by peer-reviewed research or vendor technical manuals usually perform better than unvalidated quizzes.
Request technical documentation from vendors. Ask for reliability, construct validity, and criterion-related validity reports specific to roles like yours. If the provider lacks role-specific evidence, compare candidate scores to later performance ratings to validate the test yourself.
Watch for consistency. Reliable tests produce stable results over time and across different administrators. Avoid short, informal quizzes that change outcomes wildly. Prefer standardized, normed assessments that let you compare job candidates to a relevant population.
Legal and Ethical Considerations
Follow nondiscrimination laws and privacy rules. Use tests that do not adversely impact protected groups for the specific job. Keep test data confidential and limit access to the hiring team.
Obtain informed consent and explain purpose. Tell candidates why you test and how results will be used. Offer reasonable accommodations for disabilities and provide alternative ways to demonstrate fit when requested.
Document your process. Keep records showing why you chose the test, how you interpreted scores, and how results influenced hiring decisions. This helps defend your method if a legal question arises and supports fair, consistent use across all job candidates.
Integrating Personality Tests into the Hiring Process
Use personality tests to target traits tied to job success, team fit, and long-term development. Plan timing, pair tests with skills interviews, and guard against bias to protect fairness and predict performance potential.
Timing in Recruitment
Give tests after you screen for basic qualifications but before final interviews. This avoids wasting candidate time and focuses test use on those who meet minimum skills and experience.
For entry and mid-level roles, send a short validated test after the phone screen. For leadership roles, require a longer, validated leadership assessment early in the on-site stage so results can inform succession planning and leadership development conversations.
Set clear deadlines (48–72 hours). Track completion rates and drop-off points to improve candidate experience. Store results in the applicant record so hiring managers and leadership coaches can reference them during interviews and onboarding.
Combining Tests with Interviews and Skills Assessments
Use personality results to shape interview questions and task design. Translate a candidate’s scores into 3–4 targeted behavioral questions and one work sample or case that tests relevant workplace behavior.
Example process:
- Step 1: Skills test or work sample to confirm technical ability.
- Step 2: Personality test to reveal communication styles and team fit.
- Step 3: Structured interview tailored to test findings for performance potential.
This approach helps you evaluate both competence and culture fit. For leadership hires, add a leadership assessment plus a coaching-readiness probe to support future leadership coaching and succession planning.
Minimizing Hiring Bias
Choose tests validated for the populations you hire and check for adverse impact across gender, race, and age. Use standardized scoring and blind nonessential demographics when sharing results with hiring teams.
Train interviewers to interpret test outputs as one input, not a final judgment. Require at least two panel members to review results and link them to observable behaviors in interviews. Log decisions and reasons to create an audit trail for fairness and improvement.
Use tests alongside development plans so weaker areas become employee development goals rather than disqualifiers. This protects diversity while still measuring traits that predict workplace dynamics and long-term potential.
Turning Personality Insights into Better Hiring Decisions
Choosing the best personality test for hiring isn’t about replacing human judgment—it’s about improving it. When you use reliable, validated assessments, you make decisions grounded in evidence, not instinct.
At Jackson Advisory Group, we bring expertise in implementing behavioral assessment frameworks that align with your hiring strategy. Our approach ensures compliance, fairness, and predictive accuracy—helping you turn assessment data into lasting results for your business.
If you’re ready to improve your hiring process with data-driven insights, explore our hiring and talent solutions to see how evidence-based selection can transform your workforce.
Frequently Asked Questions
This section answers specific hiring questions about which tests employers trust, free options for teamwork, how the Big Five maps to job traits, whether tests predict performance, legal limits, and how career-focused tools differ from general screens.
What are the most reliable personality tests used by employers for hiring?
Employers often use the Big Five (OCEAN) and the Hogan Personality Inventory because they have strong research backing and relate to workplace behavior. Tests that combine personality with cognitive or job-specific measures, like the Caliper Profile, also rank highly for predicting job outcomes.
Which free personality assessments are recommended for team-building purposes?
For low-cost teamwork, simple DISC-style questionnaires and short Big Five inventories work well. They give quick, practical descriptions of communication style and work preferences without deep clinical claims.
How do the Big Five personality traits apply to employment screening?
Openness relates to creativity and learning new methods. Conscientiousness predicts reliability and task follow-through. Extraversion links to social roles like sales or client-facing work. Agreeableness affects teamwork and conflict handling. Neuroticism (emotional stability) helps gauge stress tolerance.
Can a personality test truly predict job performance and fit?
Personality tests can improve prediction when combined with work samples, structured interviews, and cognitive measures. Used alone, they give useful signals about behavior and fit, but are not strong enough to guarantee performance by themselves.
What is the legal standing of using personality tests in the recruitment process?
You must ensure tests are job-related and validated for the role to comply with employment law and avoid discrimination claims. Keep documentation that links test content to job requirements and use the same testing standards for all candidates in similar roles.
How do career-oriented personality tests differ from general employment screenings?
Career-focused tests help people discover their long-term interests and vocational preferences for career planning. Employment screens measure specific job traits, such as skills, cognitive ability, and behavior at work.
