
With the plethora of highly educated, skilled and talented job seekers, many organizations are experiencing chaos to find the most suitable employee for their company. Every organization is in search of that ideal candidate who can go the extra mile to achieve the business objectives.
It’s quite evident that companies would want to hire somebody who is not only technically competent but behaves in a manner that infuses positivity in the environment. Therefore, many organizations use tools like personality tests to assess and find the best fit for their company culture.
Understanding Personality Tests
Personality tests, as a matter of fact, have become an essential part of the recruitment process in many large-scale organizations. They are conducted to elicit information about a person’s motivations, strengths, weaknesses, preferences, and manner of interaction with other people. Such insights enable the company to guide its employees or find a suitable position as per the potential of a candidate.
These personality tests are conducted either through interviews, observer-ratings, or self-report inventories (questionnaires). The Candidates are assessed on the basis of traits which include extroversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness and openness to experience. These five personality traits are collectively known as Big Five and can be used to easily examine what improvements an employee needs to thrive in an organization
How Personality Tests Contribute to Employee Development?
While personality tests do cost a hefty sum, this cost is easily compensated when the right employees show high productivity and generate significant revenues for their company. Therefore, with their proper application, personality assessment tests provide high returns on investment to a company.
An effective assessment tool assists the company in making smarter hiring decisions. The data retrieved from such tests can help to identify who is a better fit as per the culture and environment of the company.
When the results of these assessment tests are reviewed by managers and their team together, every person gains a deep insight into his/her co-workers. While this helps employers develop proper strategies to capitalize on the strengths of their subordinates, employees get a chance to understand the psyche and tendencies of their colleagues.
Such information also motivates employees to work more productively, communicate with other team members and cooperate as a team. When people understand each other better, they deliver better, thus helping in both the growth of the employee and the company.
Greater Employee Development Enhances Return on Investment
A Return on Investment (ROI) is always expected by organizations that invest a large sum of money in the training and development of its employees. But before investing, the most important thing is to recognize, which are those potential areas that will offer the highest returns.
Since domain knowledge and expertise is something that is equally taught to all employees in their training, it is their emotional quotient that acts as a differentiating factor. But, while all organizations invest in employee training and workshops, only a few works on capitalizing on their Emotional Quotient.
Those companies that make use of EQ in their employee development policies use tools like personality assessment tests to gain a deep understanding of their workforce. So, in addition to the strengths and weaknesses of each employee, the understanding of their personality can also aid supervisors to group and manage their teams.
For instance, by knowing what triggers each person, managers can decide the seating arrangements, the people who should be included in one team, the employees working on one project, the kind of rewards each need, etc. By fulfilling the emotional needs of its workforce, companies can create an inspiring and motivating work environment and uplift everyone’s morale.
Such a collaborative and cooperative work culture would lead to better productivity, resulting in better returns for the company. Therefore, the efficient use of personality tests can go a long way in boosting the ROI of a company.