Personality Assessments at Work: The Best Way to Use Them

Unlocking the Power of Personality Assessments at Work for Advanced Talent Management
When applied thoughtfully, personality assessments at work can serve as a scalable, cost-effective cornerstone for hiring, coaching, development, and succession planning. Yet, their value hinges on careful implementation. Talent leaders must navigate potential pitfalls to ensure the insights they gather are fair, accurate, and truly meaningful — providing actionable data that drives better decisions for individuals and the organization alike.

The Top Issues with Personality Assessments at Work

It’s not just a matter of choosing the right personality assessments at work — how the assessment is applied can be just as critical, distinguishing effective use from ineffective.

• Varying Degrees of Reliability and Validity
  Not all personality assessments at work are created equal — two key measures distinguish the effective from the flawed: reliability and validity. Reliability reflects an assessment’s consistency and accuracy. In other words, if someone takes the same personality test twice under similar conditions, the results should be comparable.
  
  Validity, on the other hand, measures whether an assessment truly captures what it claims to measure and whether it predicts meaningful outcomes. For example, while roughly 75% of Fortune 500 companies report using the MBTI in hiring, the tool has not been validated for predicting job performance. MBTI can provide valuable insights for self-awareness and team dynamics, but relying on it to make hiring decisions can mislead organizations and even create legal risk.
  
  
• Susceptible to Manipulation
  Even well-designed personality tests can be influenced by candidates’ conscious choices. Individuals may answer questions in ways they believe will improve their chances of landing a job or promotion. If the test is not constructed to account for this tendency, such deliberate responses can compromise both the validity and accuracy of the results.
  
  
• Rising Legal and Diversity Risks
  Personality assessments at work can carry significant legal and diversity implications. Recently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reached settlements with CVS and Best Buy, citing the companies’ use of personality tests in hiring. The EEOC found that these assessments had a disparate impact on applicants based on race and national origin, prompting both organizations to discontinue their use.
  
  Beyond legal concerns, relying on personality results to mirror existing employee profiles can unintentionally stifle diversity. Homogeneous teams — while seemingly harmonious — may limit innovation, suppress constructive debate, and reduce the organization’s capacity to tackle complex challenges from multiple perspectives.
  
  
• Aptitude Risks Being Overlooked
  Personality assessments alone can reveal motives, interests, and behavioral styles — but they provide little insight into aptitude, skills, or actual ability. To avoid overreliance on personality data, savvy talent leaders combine validated personality assessments with behavioral interviews and leadership aptitude simulations, creating a more complete picture for hiring, development, and succession planning.

The Bottom Line
Effective hiring, development, and succession planning rely on assessing critical job-relevant factors through multiple, validated methods. Personality assessments at work offer valuable insight into an individual’s typical thinking and behavioral patterns, but they provide only part of the picture. To enhance accuracy and predictive power in talent decisions, the most effective organizations integrate personality assessments with behavioral observations and learning or aptitude evaluations, ensuring a well-rounded view of potential and performance.

To learn more about how to hire, develop, and promote high quality employees, download 3 Surprising Ingredients for Talent Management Success

Tristam Brown

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.