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Growing in popularity, the personality test has become a valuable recruitment tool in recent years. They offer insight into how an individual acts and thinks, which is clearly an important indicator of how they’ll perform at work, fit in with colleagues and an organisation’s culture.

As much value as the tests offer, it’s important for employers to look beyond the personality and consider more, including an individual’s abilities and their motivations and interests.

It’s an assessment not a test
There is more to recruiting the right people than a simple personality test. In our experience, a far more comprehensive assessment that covers verbal, numerical and spatial reasoning, will prove more useful.

You will note that we are keen to refer to assessment, rather than test, as there is no right or wrong answer, as perhaps use of the word test implies – you are what you are and the assessment just helps draw a more accurate picture than a CV will ever reveal.

Look beyond the results
We are confident there is no more scientific pre-employment assessment than those available through Coensus, but it’s still important employers do not rely entirely on the results.

The assessment will offer a job-fit score to demonstrate how well an individual fits the criteria for a defined role, but two people can achieve the same score and yet still be very different. The interview will still be important in recruitment process and our assessment report will suggest questions to ask of the candidate to focus on potential areas of concern.

Training may change the result
There would be little point in undertaking training if it did not affect an individual’s personality or view of the working environment. Although personalities are developed up to around the age of 20, growing up, becoming wiser, getting married, becoming a parent, suffering loss are all events likely to alter how someone sees the world.

When assessments are used to recruit the right person for the right job and they undertake training throughout their career, any promotion or leadership qualities should be re-assessed in the future. The initial assessment used to recruit them, should be superseded with a new assessment to ensure any changes are considered as they have matured in their role.

Results are no guarantee
Assessments are a great indicator of how a person will react in the role you have selected them for, but there is no guarantee they will be the employee you want or need. The accuracy of the result in fitting your criteria will not be in doubt, but relies on you having first defined the role by benchmarking the expected performance of the ‘perfect’ employee.

Our assessments introduce more science to the recruitment process and reduce the impact of instinct, ensuring you get a great job-fit candidate, but have you built the right role description?

The results of the assessments will help you recruit the best person for the job, but you should not rely solely on the results; they are only a guide.

An assessment that discovers an individual’s abilities, motivations and interests, as well as their personality is far more comprehensive than a simple personality test and will give you better results in the long term. Assessments are the future, not tests.