Psychometric tests are commonly used in recruitment to ensure that candidates have the right skills and abilities for the job. However, the hiring process isn’t the only time that psychometric testing can be beneficial to a business.

Psychometric Tests: Which Personality Assessment is Best For Your Team?

Psychometric tests are commonly used in recruitment to ensure that candidates have the right skills and abilities for the job. However, the hiring process isn’t the only time that psychometric testing can be beneficial to a business. Current employees can also benefit from personality tests that help them better understand themselves and others, enhancing communication and boosting team cohesion.

So, what are the different personality assessments, and which can most benefit your team? Here’s a run-down of the strengths and limitations of the main personality tests: Myers-Briggs, the Big Five, and DISC assessment.

What are psychometric tests?

Psychometric tests are used to measure the personality, skills, and thought processes of individuals. There are two main branches of psychometric tests. The first is aptitude tests – assessments that measure an individual’s skill or aptitude at a task. These might be related to specific careers, for example an accounting test for people applying to accounting jobs, or might be more general tests of verbal reasoning or situational judgement. The key point of aptitude tests is that they can be passed or failed, which makes them ideal for use in recruitment to find those perfect candidates.

In contrast, the other type of psychometric testing is personality assessments. These are designed to measure and categorise the personality profile and behavioural style of individuals. Personality assessments are not linked to a specific job or career (although some personalities are advantageous in certain roles), and are often used in pre-employment testing or for current employees to improve team cohesion. Personality assessments cannot be passed or failed because no type of personality is better than the others. Instead, these tests provide useful insights that are useful for recruiters making hiring decisions, managers trying to improve teamwork, and individuals who are seeking greater self-understanding and personal growth.

There are a wide range of personality tests in the world and millions of people use them every year. Here are some of the strengths and limitations of the world’s most popular personality tests.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, more commonly known as just the Myers-Briggs test, is probably one of the world’s most well-known personality assessments. Developed during the second world war by a mother-daughter duo, the test was originally intended to be used to help women entering the workforce for the first time find jobs they were suited to.

The Myers-Briggs test uses a self-assessment where individuals are given pairs of statements and have to pick the ones that are most relevant to them. After completing the questionnaire, they are assigned a four letter result which indicates their personalities. The four letters correspond to whether a person’s personality is more aligned with:

• Introversion (I) or extraversion (E)
• Sensing (S) or intuition (N)
• Thinking (T) or feeling (F)
• Judging (J) or perceiving (P)

This means that there are 16 possible personality types, such as ESFP or INTJ.

Strengths of Myers-Briggs

Detailed results

With 16 different personality types, one of the strengths of the Myers-Briggs type indicator is that it has a lot of detail. Each letter corresponds to its meaning, so it’s easy for people to interpret their results.

Commonly known

As one of the most commonly known personality tests, it’s likely that many people already know their MBTI profile or at least know what some of the letters stand for. This makes the personality test fairly accessible.

Limitations of Myers-Briggs

Too complicated

On the flip side, 16 personality types is a large number. Even if you already know what each of the letters stand for, it’s hard to keep any more than your own Myers-Briggs result in your head at any time. In the workplace, this isn’t ideal because the complexity of the system makes it harder to create balanced teams or adapt your communication style to a coworker’s preferences. ‘What’s my manager’s type again? E… S… Q? R? Who knows?’

Overly personal

The personal nature of some of the Myers-Briggs questions make this less suitable for a workplace setting. Employees might feel uncomfortable revealing their results or talking about them with others because of the way this profile focuses on their personal lives, not their careers. For example, one of the questions is, ‘Is it harder for you to: a) identify with others, or b) utilise others,’ the answer to which many people may feel uncomfortable discussing with their coworkers.

Not ideal for hiring

Although it is estimated that 1 in 5 Fortune 500 companies use Myers-Briggs in their hiring process, the Myers-Briggs Foundation specifically advises against this. Because of the specificity of the MBTI, this can be limiting for hiring purposes.

Big Five Personality Test

The Big Five personality test, also known as the five factor model, measures individuals’ personalities on five scales, which are commonly referred to as OCEAN:

1. Openness to experience
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extraversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neuroticism

After taking the self questionnaire, the test taker receives a score for each of these five factors on a scale from 1 to 5.

Strengths of the Big Five

Lots of detail

By presenting the results as a separate score for five different categories, this psychometric test provides a lot of interesting detail about the test taker’s personality. While Myers-Briggs assigns a dominant category to a person (for example, they will be either Introverted or Extraverted), the Big Five allows a person’s personality to exist anywhere on a scale of extraversion. This brings nuance to the personality test.

Easy to compare different traits

One of the strengths of the five factor model is that it makes it easy to compare the different aspects of an individual’s personality because the five OCEAN factors are scored separately. This means that test takers can get a detailed overview of the different parts of their personality style.

Limitations of the Big Five

Negativity

One problem with the Big Five when used in a workplace setting is the sense of negativity implied in some of the categories. For example, the test assumes that personality is a fixed and permanent trait, but a person who scores highly for neuroticism may feel discouraged by this. Some tests switch the scoring around and relabel Neuroticism as Self-Confidence, but this brings its own problems: because personality tests assume that personality is fixed and unchanging, a person being labelled with low self-confidence might feel that they have no hope of improving their confidence. This can be frustrating and disheartening for test-takers.

Hard to remember and use

Because the Big Five test doesn’t put people in memorable categories, it can be hard to remember the specifics of your own or others’ results. This limits its usefulness in a team setting where individuals may want to know their coworkers’ personality styles in order to communicate and work better with them.

DISC Assessment

Far simpler and more user-friendly than Myers-Briggs or the Big Five, the DISC model categorises individuals’ personality styles into four types: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance. By taking a short questionnaire, individuals can learn the dominant style(s) that their personality falls into.

People with the Dominance personality style are direct and assertive; they are ambitious and enjoy working towards their big-picture goals. They like making decisions and taking risks. However, they may have little patience for people who are less ambitious or decisive than them.

Influence types, on the other hand, are friendly, enthusiastic, and energetic people. They tend to be optimistic team members who motivate everyone else and make a lot of friends at work. However, their enthusiasm can sometimes mean that they get bored by repetitive tasks or overlook details, and they may struggle with healthy conflict within a team because they don’t want to upset anyone.

People with the Steadiness behavioural style are patient and reliable. They’re great team workers who enjoy routine and consistency. Moreover, they’re good at forming strong bonds with others and are great listeners. However, they don’t like making decisions, taking risks, or dealing with change, which can limit their creativity and effectiveness.

The final type, Compliance, also sometimes referred to as Conscientiousness, is pragmatic, methodical, and creative. People with this personality profile like poring over the details, gathering information, and doing things perfectly. However, they can sometimes be perfectionistic or overly critical and their productivity can be limited by their desire to do things perfectly.

Strengths of DISC assessment

Ideal for workplaces

Used in the workplace for over 80 years, the DISC assessment remains an ideal tool for enhancing the workplace and the people in it today. The four behavioural styles illuminate different types of behaviour that are necessary in the workplace, for example communication, decision-making, leadership style, and attention to detail.

Easy to understand and use

Comprised of four distinct and easy-to-remember types, the DISC model is perhaps the most user-friendly of all the personality tests. The assessment makes it easy to remember the four categories and their characteristics without oversimplifying the complex nature of personality. Many individuals may find that they do not have a single dominant DISC style but rather are a combination of two types – I and S, or D and C, for example. Nonetheless, the fact that the four categories are so distinct and easy to remember makes it easier to use DISC in everyday life, for example by remembering that one’s coworker is a C type and therefore likes being given lots of information about a task, or that one’s boss is an S type and therefore prefers consistency and reliability.

Encourages sharing with coworkers

Less private and personal than Myers-Briggs and less likely to lead to negativity or judgement than the Big Five, the positive nature of DISC encourages assessment takers to share and discuss their results. Because DISC identifies four main categories, all of which have their clear strengths and benefits, employees are likely to be more willing to share their DISC type and discuss what it means to them. Consequently, individuals can make the most of DISC by learning to better understand their coworkers, managers, and subordinates.

Limitations of DISC assessment

Intended for the workplace

The main limitation of DISC is that it was created with the workplace in mind and puts particular emphasis on how individuals’ personality styles impact the way they work. For organisations looking to improve communication, team building, and company culture, this is ideal. However, individuals who are not interested in this focus on how personalities impact work and leadership styles might not find the DISC assessment as useful.

Conclusion: Which personality test is best for your organisation?

To decide which personality test is best for your organisation, you’ll need to analyse your reasons for using a test in the first place. If you’re using it for personal self-understanding and growth, Myers-Briggs or the Big Five might be suitable. However, if you’re using it in the workplace to improve communication, team cohesion, and performance, DISC is the best choice. Designed for the workplace and used by over a million people around the world each year, the DISC model has been tried and tested as a way to boost workplace culture and productivity.

If you’re interested in embedding DISC in your organisation or learning more about the benefits of psychometric testing, DISC Group can help. DISC Group provides powerful personality assessments and training to help unlock the potential of your workforce.

To try out their customised personality profiles or train your team in the DISC values, contact DISC Group today.