- Employers are using personality tests to find productive workers—but not all quizzes are legitimate. Hogan Assessments has been running personality tests since the 1980s, and shared some questions workers might see on an assessment.
Employers are looking for ways to drive performance, from withholding bonuses to mandating in-person work. Personality tests are another established method bosses are using to build workforce dream teams.
Hogan Assessments has been creating and distributing personality assessments that predict performance since 1987, and has quizzed 11 million people around the world so far. The company says its tests measure reputation, not identity. The test analyzes how a candidate is viewed by others, not how that individual views themselves. This information can come in handy for hiring managers in sussing out how an applicant may fare in their company’s work environment.
“We’re evaluating people’s personalities all the time,” Ryne Sherman, chief science officer at Hogan Assessments, told Fortune. “The reason to use a personality test instead is because that standardizes that process to make sure it’s equal for everybody.”
While personality tests like the Hogan Assessment and Myers-Briggs are much more solidified in the corporate world, the industry can seem like the Wild West. There are very low barriers to entry in making these assessments, Sherman said, and if someone jazzes up a quiz, they can promote it as a legitimate tool. The best tests have a degree of scientific accuracy, with peer-reviewed academic research backing up the questions. Poor assessments can sometimes fly under the radar when the technology looks reliable.
“Anybody can make a personality test, and in fact, lots of people do. Then they just start selling them,” Sherman said. “It’s easy to fall in love with one that looks really fancy, and say, ‘Oh, this looks great. It must work really well.’”
With the practice lacking guardrails, job-seekers may be faced with zany questions that they have to answer. But in actuality, the tests shouldn’t be so kooky. And even when they do provide legitimate questions and analysis, there are still limitations.
What a personality test looks like—and what it can’t quiz
Hogan Assessments shared these examples of what a job-seeker might be quizzed about in an assessment, asking whether they agree or disagree:
- I would rather not criticize people, even when they need it
- Deadlines don’t bother me
- I ask other people a lot of questions
- Doing well in school was important to me
By analyzing many of these statements, hiring managers can get an idea of their personality, according to Hogan Assessments. While Sherman said these test results can be helpful in the wider picture of choosing a candidate, he stipulates it’s not a foolproof way to choose a candidate. Employers should take the responses and weigh them alongside the résumé, cover letters, certificates, and interview rounds.
Test results are limited in scope because they can’t parse out certain candidate qualities, according to Sherman; the assessments don’t spell out technical skills like résumés can, and interviews are better at gauging an applicant’s disposition. And for candidates in the running for imaginative industries and roles—like a creative writing job, or working in entertainment—that trait is even harder to gauge.
“It can be difficult to measure someone’s deep creativity with a personality test,” Sherman said. “Innovative, creative ideas can be harder to grasp from a personality test.”
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