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Finding the Right Workplace Personality Test Provider

Workplace personality testing has been around for more than a century, when the first objective personality testing was developed to identify soldiers prone to nervous breakdowns during enemy bombardment in World War.
 
Since then, a booming industry has emerged around personality testing at work, and with that growth has come a wealth of options among providers. Millions of workers worldwide now take employment personality tests each year as part of recruiting, development, and promotion processes.
 
With so many workplace personality test providers out there, how do you know which one is right for you?

What to Look for in a Workplace Personality Test Provider

The popularity or name recognition of a test is no guarantee that it will help your organization collect meaningful results that will drive good decisions. Look for tests that are supported by sound science and good design. These are baseline requirements. Without them, you won’t have sound data to make employment decisions, and you may be putting your organization at legal risk.
 

Robust Psychometrics

Psychometrics is the scientific discipline concerned with the construction of assessment tools, measurement instruments, and formalized models that may serve to connect observable phenomena. In this case, the model is connecting responses to a test to personality types.
 
Your assessment provider should be eager to share the psychometric standards behind its test design, including validity, reliability, and objectivity.
 

Validity

Validity refers to the degree of certainty with which results predict that test takers are a good fit for the role. For example, if you’re hiring a front-line manager, you might look for qualities like patience, self-assuredness, and extraversion. A valid pre-employment test for this role would accurately measure these qualities in candidates, providing insights into their ability to perform the job.
 

Reliability

Reliability refers to how consistently assessment tools measure the personality traits they claim to measure. Repeated testing should produce consistent results. Assessment vendors should be able to provide proof of their tests’ reliability.
 
A perfect reliability score is a coefficient of 1.00, but no test is perfectly reliable. However, you shouldn’t invest in tools with a coefficient of less than 0.7.
 

Objectivity

Invest in assessment tools that are proven to be objective and fair. Workplace personality tests should assess candidates equally, regardless of their gender, race, ethnicity, culture, or socioeconomic background. Tests that aren’t objective and fair could introduce or reinforce existing bias in your hiring process.
 
As part of your exploratory process, ask workplace personality test providers to share proof of robust psychometrics.
 

Evidence of ROI

The benefits an assessment brings to your business should always exceed the costs. If that’s not the case, keep looking.
 
The pricing model is a key part of that conversation. Make sure the cost structure is easy to understand and a good match for your needs. Before implementing workplace personality tests, establish a baseline for the results you want to track, such as productivity and turnover costs. Then track those metrics post-implementation to determine your ROI.
 
Ask to see client case studies of businesses similar to yours, walking you through the results they yielded.
 

Commitment to Service

Workplace personality test providers offer a variable range of service levels. The best ones include ongoing account management and support to ensure the tool continues to meet your needs. They track validation evidence to ensure the effectiveness of the solution.
 
Your assessment partner may also assist with the change management process within your organization, as well as provide monitoring against the outcomes you are targeting (e.g. improve quality of hire, decrease time-to-hire, reduce attrition, etc.).
 

Good providers also update their products frequently to maintain their quality. Workplace personality tests are based on psychology. As the research changes, you need to know that your provider keeps products accurate.
 
The same is also true for compliance. Find a vendor who has the means to anticipate legal changes (in employment, data, or privacy laws) and will proactively maintain compliance with those standards.
 

What to Consider When Assessing Personality Test Providers

Not every vendor that meets the preceding criteria will still be the right fit for your company and specific business needs. Here are some business considerations to factor into your decision.
 

Technical Integration

You’ll be using the test results of your workplace personality assessments to support your hiring decisions. That means you need the gathered data to integrate into your existing applicant tracking system and other human resources software systems.
 
Workplace personality test results can inform other HR programs, like internal mobility or learning and development processes. But to use that data, you need to be able to pull it into your workforce analytics software.
 
Identify vendors who can integrate smoothly with your current HR tech stack. Can you pull assessment data into your hiring dashboard? How effectively does the data translate into your existing systems? Ask vendors questions about their ability to integrate with your current technology.
 

Scalability

Depending on your company’s strategic vision, consider your vendor software’s ability to scale. If your company intends to expand globally, look for vendors who can serve other regions effectively while meeting those areas' privacy and legal requirements.
 
Before deciding on a workplace personality test provider, work with business leaders to understand the company’s five-year vision. Identify the markets you’d like to break into along with the products or services the company plans to offer. Use this vision to guide your decision-making process.
 

User Interface and Experience

The HR department won’t be the only internal user of workplace personality test software. Hiring managers will also have to learn how to implement the products and interpret their results.
 
Is the software complicated? Are the test results challenging to understand? If so, you risk investing a lot of money in a resource that hiring managers may not use to make hiring decisions.
 
Identify providers with an easy-to-navigate interface. User-friendly technology will improve the overall user experience and increase the likelihood of buy-in from other parties within your company.
 

How to Choose the Right Provider for Your Company

There are elements of your brand that are unique in your industry. Use those differentiators to guide your workplace personality test provider choice.
 

Align With Your Brand

Your company has a specific employer brand, and you need to find assessment providers who support that carefully-curated brand. For example, If your company is known for robust career advancement opportunities, prioritize providers that allow you to align test results with potential career tracks.
 
Work with your marketing team to identify the critical elements of your employer brand and use them as criteria when making your decision.
 

Consider Candidate Experience

Job candidates will be among the top users of workplace personality test software, so make their experience a priority as you review test providers.
 
Consider the candidate experience your company is known for. Has your company has always provided a highly interactive and engaging candidate experience? If so, consider a testing provider who offers gamified assessments and mobile-first delivery over traditional multiple-choice tests.
 
Perceptions of fairness also factor into candidate experience. The assessment products you purchase shouldn’t read like a personality profile generated from the Internet. You need robust instruments that measure traits clearly related to job performance.

 

Assess Vendors for Values

Values alignment is an essential piece of employer branding. If your career site advertises your efforts to improve diversity and inclusion, for example, consider prioritizing vendors who share those values.
 
Many companies are expanding their diversity, equity and inclusion programs to include vendors. Find providers you’re proud to collaborate with and who are just as dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion as your company.
 
The same is true for sustainability. If you make a sustainability commitment but then partner with a vendor that doesn’t value sustainability, you could undermine your own brand’s credibility.
 

Take the Next Steps

Different workplace personality test providers comes with unique strengths and weaknesses. Prioritize the criteria most important to you and identify the vendors that deliver the best of these elements.
 
When selecting a personality test provider, the primary criteria should be reliability, validity, and objectivity. If you choose a provider that misses the mark on any of these factors, you open yourself up to significant legal risk.
 
Many of the factors that go into your decision aren’t good or bad but simply specific to your company. These include your five-year plan, values alignment, and candidate experience.
 
Consider working with a consulting industrial-organizational psychologist to rank your selection criteria and review vendor options. The decision you make will impact your hiring outcomes for years to come, so take the time to do it right.


 
Aon

Aon | Assessment Solutions

Aon's assessment solutions provides clients with powerful tools and insights to help them make better talent decisions at every stage of the employee lifecycle. This includes pre-hire assessments, identifying future leaders, screening for digital skills and agility, and AI-enabled solutions.

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