In the modern world, personality test has continued to be used by human resource managers and companies not only to determine skills, cognitive abilities, and knowledge but also other characteristics of applicants and employees, personality traits and in predicting behaviour. Moreover, for employers to successfully identify characteristics of job applicants and thus retain or hire the right type of qualified individual for a particular job have increasingly used personality testing. Employers have also used personality test to determine if job applicants will be successful in certain types of jobs by attempting to create a success profile based on the job. Nevertheless, personality tests have sometimes failed in identifying precise characteristics of job applicants such as in the scenario of Superbrand. This paper will focus on discussing some of the advantages and disadvantages of personality testing.
Pros and cons of personality testing
According to the Fact Sheet on Employment Test and Selection Procedures, Personality tests are defined as tests used to assess the degree in which an individual has certain disposition and traits such as safety, dependability, and cooperativeness or are aimed at predicting the likelihood that an individual will engage in particular conduct such as absenteeism (Weiner and Greene, 2017). The precise hiring decision can genuinely define an organization. In this light, employers and human resource departments are increasingly turning to advanced tools such as personality tests to help them in their hiring decisions in an effort to build a top-quality workforce (Judge and Zapata, 2015). Additionally, personality tests evaluate the behaviours, thoughts, attitudes and emotional traits that make up an individual’s personality absenteeism (Weiner and Greene, 2017). Personality testing has proved to be substantially reliable in that they are not often influenced by chances. This is the case because job applicants are asked to undertake personality tests that consist of several questions where the applicant answers are based on their opinion regarding the matter by selecting whether they strongly disagree, disagree, unsure, agree and strongly agree (Judge and Zapata, 2015). Besides, personality testing assists significantly in measuring personal traits of job applicants because they give correct inferences and accurate predictions which substantially help the employers to analyze appropriately individuals applying for the job hence providing strong personality traits. Regarding the case, Superbrand has employed personality testing in their process of hiring new employees as well as pleasant existing staffs, and this has significantly aided the company’s success in delivering product quality and outstanding customer services in spite of the challenging economic environment (Judge and Zapata, 2015).
On the contrary, personality testing has its disadvantages, and they have adverse impacts on the success of an organization hiring job applicants with good personality traits (Judge and Zapata, 2015). Personality tests have been proved to have neither unreliable nor valid results in their utilization in trying to quantify noncognitive attributes on job applicants. This has been as a result of individuals not always being truthful concerning their backgrounds and themselves. Majority of job applicants lie about their education and work history, and this has created a significant problem with personality testing by making them not infallible predictors of a job applicant behaviour due to applicants lying and faking the results absenteeism (Weiner and Greene, 2017). In addition, personality tests have substantial diversity and equality risks because there is a lack of diversity in the workplace if all the employees have the same traits. The tests are expensive since they have to be paid for as well as paying someone to score the tests.
Conclusion
Concerning the case, whether Superbrand decides to use personality tests in the hiring process or not, it is vital for the disadvantages and advantages to be considered on what is precise for the organization. While some companies and particular roles may benefit more from using personality tests, it can also deter an applicant from applying for the position. It is paramount that the personality tests are not used as a stand-alone criterion in hiring because it can be more detrimental to the future success of the business.
References
Judge, T.A. and Zapata, C.P., 2015. The person-situation debate revisited: Effect of situation strength and trait activation on the validity of the Big Five personality traits in predicting job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 58(4), pp.1149-1179.
Weiner, I.B. and Greene, R.L., 2017. Handbook of personality assessment. John Wiley & Sons.
