Why Personality Matters When Hiring.

Personality is a big factor in determining what makes someone successful in their position. Not only does our personality and behavioral preferences influence how successful we are in any given job, it often impacts our level of engagement and contribution in certain positions as well, especially when we are either a really good or really poor match for that role.

For employers, finding the right personality fit for a position is one of the first steps to creating a compelling job description that will attract the types of candidates you’re looking for, and it also helps with employee retention too. If you have a candidate who’s disinterested in the job they’re doing, chances are that they won’t stick around for very long. Not only that, but while they’re working, you most likely won’t get to experience their full potential. Employees who are unhappy in their work not only work less effectively, they are also more likely to have conflicts with coworkers or leave their positions. This saves your company money and the inconvenience of mediating employee difficulties and repeating the hiring process.

Why Do We Care About Personality in the Workplace? 
When hiring new employees, you might not initially think that personality has much to do with your position. Hey, if the candidate has experience and knows what they’re doing, what does it matter?

Engagement

It is important to understand one’s interests and preferences in terms of their personality because it’s these very interests that will ultimately keep them engaged in whatever task they’re expected to perform over an extended period of time.

An employee’s level of engagement in a task and in their role as a whole is important for you, as the employer, because when your employees are interested in the work they are doing from a fundamentally personal position, they are more likely to report a higher degree of job satisfaction than those whose interests don’t align with their everyday work activities. Because they’re more interested in what they’re doing, they will probably also be better at doing these things, which serves to improve on-the-job performance, as well.

A pre-employment personality assessment can accurately assess a prospective employee’s social skills. It is important for any business that employees are able to cooperate, exchange ideas, and work efficiently together. The ability to interact positively with clients and customers can be a difficult trait to discern prior to watching an employee work. Personality assessments can help eliminate this type of uncertainty before you make your decision.

Performance

Researchers have found that pre-hire personality assessments can predict a candidate’s future performance at work. Employees who have desirable personality traits, including strong levels of motivation, empathy, and self-confidence, are shown to perform better in the workplace. These qualities are essential in employees who will be able to stay on task, present a positive attitude towards their jobs, and perform effectively. Pre-employment testing can accurately assess a candidate’s personality for these and other key factors of employee success.

There are a lot of different names used to describe the four main personality quadrants. In the coming weeks, we’re going to break down each for you, including each type’s preferences, common traits, and how to blend these together to create the optimal company culture and working environment. They are broken down as follows:

• The Controller / Assertive Quadrant

• The Expressive / Social Quadrant

• The Analyzer / Logical Quadrant

• The Supporter / Empathy Quadrant

Be sure to check out our posts in the coming weeks to identify what makes each one of them unique and how they fit into each role within your organization.

- Doug Myrick