Personality Tests

Personality tests or questionnaires are psychometric tests which assess the different aspects of personality, character, and behaviour relevant to the world of work.

However, personality questionnaires, or 'self-reports' as they are sometimes called, are not tests in the true sense of the word, for two reasons:

there are no right or wrong answers
they are not timed.

What they are, though, is popular. Written by occupational psychologists and administered by trained HR personnel, their use has increased dramatically in the last few years. From shelf-stacker to director, apply for a job with any medium to large organisation, commercial or otherwise, and I can virtually guarantee you will be asked to complete a personality questionnaire.

The results of the personality questionnaire could determine your overall suitability to work for a particular organisation, or place you in an appropriate department or team once the decision has already been made to employ you. They're also very useful for recruiters, because it gives them something to talk about when they interview you.

There are two main types of personality questionnaire. The first is often referred to in HR jargon as 'competency' questionnaires.

Competency questionnaires

Competency questionnaires tend to be pretty short, and they focus on behavioural actions, which are things like:

Managerial qualities (leadership, planning, organisation, attention to detail and persuasiveness).
Professional qualities (specialist knowledge, problem solving, analytical ability, oral and written communication).
Entrepreneurial qualities (commercial awareness, creativity, understanding of the need to plan for the longer term).
Personal qualities (an ability to work well with other people, flexibility, resilience and motivation).

Competency questionnaires are frequently used on application forms and online application forms. Here's an example of the sort of question you might get:

I am the sort of person who....

Easily establishes rapport with reports.
Influences the course of meetings.
Speaks coherently.
Encourages colleagues to meet objectives.

Writes creatively.
Seeks answers to problems.
Is effective in communicating requirements.
Is aware of costs.

For each question you have to decide which statement is the most like you and also which is the least like you - not an easy task.

Competency-type questions are also a favourite with interviewers who, analyzing the answers you gave on the application form test, like to hit graduates with questions like:

'Tell me about a situation in which planning and organisation was vitally important to you.'

You can see what they're getting at; they want to know how you behave in the work situation. If, as a student, you have no formal work experience, think about how you behaved in similar situation at university, or another time in your life.

The way competency questionnaires are scored is that generally, each organization using them chooses a small number of qualities which they feel are essential to the particular job, and use these to put together their own unique scoring key. Very sensible actually, since nobody in the world has all the qualities listed above. So if you are rejected by a company on the basis of an application form test, don't worry. You could possibly be the 'wrong' sort of person for them, but perfect for the next company you apply to. Therefore I'd say it's best to forget about the scoring mechanism and just answer as honestly as you can, because it's in your interest to do so.

True personality tests

True personality questionnaires are usually much longer than competency-type questionnaires. For example, one version of SHL's very well known OPQ 32, which asks you to answer questions in a similar format to the Rating Statements test shown below, has 230 items. Another version, which is similar to the Making Choices test, also shown below, has 104 blocks.

Personality questionnaires are generally used when you go along to be interviewed, or when you attend an assessment centre. They are scored by measuring the test result against 32 different dimensions of personality. These include:

Relationships with people (how persuasive, controlling, outgoing, modest, caring, democratic, independently minded, confident or outspoken you are).
Your thinking style (how rational, evaluative, conventional, conceptual, innovative, forward thinking, detail conscious, conscientious or rule-following you are).
Your feelings and emotions (how relaxed, worrying, tough-minded, optimistic, trusting, emotionally controlled, vigorous, competitive, achieving or decisive you are).

Personality questionnaires measuring these qualities are used extensively to select graduates, but if the list looks a little daunting, don't worry. As with competency questionnaires, companies are just looking for the 'right' people - which means you could turn out to be the 'wrong' sort of person for one, but perfect for another.

How can personality tests be valid when candidates rate their own behaviours?

Recruiting organisations are fully aware that personality questionnaires reveal only your perception of yourself, which, as you are probably thinking, isn't necessarily the same thing as the way other people see you. However, the tests are very sophisticated, and in most cases (as I have found out myself recently) frighteningly accurate.

Will I be asked very personal questions?

No. Personality questionnaires are not puzzles or quizzes of the magazine variety; they never ask you about your favourite foods or your love life. The personality questionnaires used in recruitment simply assess aspects of your personality and character as they relate to the working environment, or a specific job.

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