When recruiting new employees, I often get questions about the validity, structure, and cost of various personality assessments. This month, we will take a look at some of the most common assessments that I come across and administer.  Keep in mind, I am not the developer of these tools and have no affiliations with these companies. I am simply providing a general overview, based on my experiences and use of these tools.

So why use personality assessments at all? Contrary to some popular beliefs, qualities that are most easily measured such as GPA, GMAT/GRE score, and performance on the CFP® exam aren’t necessarily the best indicators of a good position fit. In organizations, small ones especially, I’ve found the best indicators of a good hiring fit to be more affective in nature versus cognitive, such as: motivation, coach-ability, attitude, communication and work style, and philosophies. All of these can typically be described and understood through a quality personality assessment.

Though you can gain a fair amount of insight into one’s personality through interviews, personal encounters, and observances in various settings, etc., a personality profile is still a worthwhile tool to get a better sense of how people are wired. In some cases, it can reinforce what your gut might be telling you, but in other situations the rigor, structure, and consistency of a personality assessment process can reveal opportunities or concerns that a traditional interview may miss.

Due to the myriad of providers offering hundreds of assessments, finding a solution can be confusing and overwhelming and, besides cost, is one of the main reasons firms don’t utilize these assessments as they should. See below chart for an overview of several of the most common.

Assessment	# and types of Questions	Cost	Length	Contact
DISC	24, forced choice questions	~$40	20 minutes	www.ttiassessments.com
Strengths Finder	177, forced choice questions	Varies	40 minutes	www.strengthsfinder.com
Caliper	150, forced choice questions and various others	~$195	90 minutes	www.calipercorp.com
Profile XT	247, forced choice questions and various others	~$250	60 minutes	www.profilesinternational.com

DISC (Dominance/Influencing/Steadiness/Compliance) – Provides a useful explanation and comparison of a candidate’s Adapted versus Natural behavior style. One thing to observe is how closely a respondent’s Natural and Adapted styles match each other. The wider the discrepancy the more adapting a person has to do which leads to increased strain in the work environment.   The reports regarding keys to managing and motivating, and guidelines for an ideal work environment sections, are helpful and can assist with on-boarding, integrating and on-going coaching. The Success Insights Wheel labels participants based on their DISC score which can be helpful in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your overall team.

Strengths Finder – Timed to keep respondents from over thinking the questions in an effort to secure a more pure result. The report generated contains much of the same information as the DISC, but focuses on the subject’s top 5 personality themes such as Achiever, Focus, Learner, Individualization, Competition, etc. It provides a narrative similar to DISC, but gives the subject questions to ponder after each theme for self reflection and professional development purposes. Interviewers can also use these questions to delve deeper into certain areas.

Caliper – Some of my clients rave about this assessment. Caliper includes much of the same information as DISC, but has a cognitive component as well.  Cost wise, it is one of the most expensive due to its thoroughness and its sheer length is a great deterrent for the less serious candidates. The abstract reasoning, ego strength and resilience, urgency, and accommodation are sections to pay attention to. This provides insight to a respondent’s cognitive ability, capability to take constructive criticism without getting defensive, how quickly they get things done, and work well with others.  It includes a job matching function as well. If the interviewer establishes Position Performance metrics, Caliper will score each candidate on position fit.

Profile XT – Similar to the Caliper in that it includes a cognitive measure and overall job matching. The report is longer than Caliper and includes more detail. The job matching function can be very helpful as well if interviewer builds out the position expectations.  There are 6 sections to this assessment and due to its length can be a deterrent to candidates who don’t want to commit the time. Pay close attention to the attitude, manageability, and decisiveness for insight on how likely a candidate will have a positive attitude when things are going well, how well they accept external controls and follow policies, and how quickly they make decisions.

I have found these assessments to be helpful in some way or another and urge you to consider employing at least one of them as part of your recruiting process, if you haven’t already done so.  As discussed, some of these assessments may measure a lot of different areas, making the deciphering of the results complex. Usually these companies have trained staff (clinical Psychologists, PhD’s in Organizational Behavior, etc.) to help interpret the results and unless you have the training, I recommend you seek out the counsel of these experts.

Keep in mind these assessments are not a panacea and certainly don’t guarantee a right fit hire, but they provide an increased likelihood that there is a right fit if incorporated in a thorough recruiting process . By far the biggest mistake I see firms make is waiting until they have essentially made the decision to hire the candidate prior to administering a personality assessment and then rationalizing, justifying, or completely ignoring the results.

Some may be wondering why the popular Kolbe assessment was omitted and the short answer is that the Kolbe A index isn’t affective in nature and therefore doesn’t measure personality. Stay tuned for next month’s post for a look at the Kolbe.