The Use of Personality Testing in Companies

The Use of Personality Testing in Companies

In this day and age, many companies have determined that it’s important to understand individual personalities, and so personality testing has been implemented in more than 20 percent of American companies and all the Top 100 companies in the UK. But do these tests help or hinder a company?

Of course, there is always someone trying to cheat the system when it comes to the application process, but more importantly, several legal complications have arisen for companies in the past because of certain personality tests. However, it’s not difficult for a company to avoid such a situation by choosing a personality test that doesn’t offend or intrude on an individual’s private life, verifying that the test is valid, having an expert administer and analyze the test, and having the hiring manager weigh the data appropriately, a company can avoid a legal downfall.

Personality tests can have massive positive impacts on a company’s productivity and effectiveness because they allow companies to build the best teams with appropriately placed employees that fit the corporate culture, they reduce company costs, and they also increase the company’s income through teams that have better cooperation. With that being said, companies should definitely incorporate personality testing into their hiring processes, whether it’s before or after, in order to create the most productive and successful teams.

Personality is defined by Organizational Behaviour authors Robbins, Judge, and Campbell (2010) as “the sum total of ways in which an individual reacts and interacts with others.” As social beings, a comprehension of personality is crucial for our happiness because it helps us to build and maintain positive relationships with others. By gaining insight into several personality types, we can understand which experiences and choices will satisfy not only us, but also those who we interact with. If everyone is aware of the...