Personality Assessments And Stereotypes
Personality assessments, or “communication style” as I prefer, are highly valuable in the hiring process for one important aspect - communication. How many office conflicts have you seen where poor communication was adding oxygen to the fire? We see it in almost every office conflict.
One way to diffuse these situations is to assess candidates before they join your team. Doing so allows the manager to know the preferred communication style of the new employee. This knowledge can also predict potential conflict areas between two employees before any conflict develops.
However, there are still companies out there who harbor concerns about assessments. One common concern is mentioned in this BusinessWeek.com article - Personality and the Perfect Job:
Isn’t there a danger that employers who use personality tests as part of the employment process stereotype individuals?
Enlightened employers consider personality as only one facet of the selection process. Finding the right “fit” between the job and the person should be a win-win proposition and should be a matter of discussion for any professional interview process.
Some of the personality traits to consider: Do you prefer a structured environment, or is a variety of tasks more important? Do you thrive in crisis situations or value consistent processes? Would you rather work primarily by yourself, or as a member of a team? Are you a big-picture thinker, or do you excel in making sure all the details of a job are completed? Knowing both your own preferences and the requirements of a prospective job can help you (and the employer) make a choice that will give good prospects for ongoing success.
The key point in there is to know what the job requires. My concern with personality assessments is not that they stereotype individuals but rather that hiring managers think there is only 1 personality that can succeed in the position. This reason is why I prefer to use the term “style” instead. Personality is really more about style and how someone will approach people, problems, data, etc. It is not indicative of skills, aptitudes and motivations.
This distinction must be made when hiring. In the end, assessing solely for style is still better than not assessing at all.
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Posted By Derrick Moe | Aptitudes, Assessing, Communication, Hiring Salespeople | |
Far from ’stereotyping”, an accurate assessment of someone’s communication style and personality traits is an essential part of the hiring process, for both the candidate and the hiring manager. Too often in the business world, a a mismatch of communication styles makes the workplace uncomfortable for everyone. When I’m working on placing a candidate in a specific role, I try to learn all I can about the work environment as well as the candidate’s personality type, so that I help make the right fit for both parties.
Bob-thanks for your comment. You bring up a good point about work environment or culture. Some styles are going to have a difficult time in certain environments. Identifying the culture (at least as best possible) and then assessing a candidate’s style takes much of the mystery out of a sales hire. Thanks for bringing up that point.
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