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Job hunting? Personality can help
When companies go headhunting, they have more weapons today than ever before, thanks mainly to the vast number of skills tests and personality surveys being used by recruiters, often online.
Many firms have even produced detailed personality profiles of their best employees in order to help them find new workers with the same traits. Companies that give entry-level workers access to cash or sensitive financial data often use integrity tests.
It all comes down to this: Getting a job today depends not only on what your skills are like, but also what your personality is like.
“Temperament is very key to any job,” said Maureen Townson, vice president and managing director of Toronto-based McGuaig Institute, one of the leading companies in the jobs-testing industry. “If I have the right temperament, I’ll enjoy coming to work in the morning; so I will be motivated to do the job, and the chances are I will be successful in it.”
Critics of the jobs-testing industry contend that many of the personality surveys are flawed. And they say that, even when a test has been validated, employers rely too heavily on the results.
“All of these are based on a kind of one-size-fits-all notion,” said Robert Schaeffer, director of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing in Cambridge, Mass.
But companies embrace jobs testing because they say it works. Hiring mistakes can be expensive to fix, and a high turnover rate can cost a company thousands of dollars every time an employee quits, according to a report by the Society for Human Resource Management.
Hiring managers say tests especially those that can be taken online let them screen more job applicants than a traditional, interview-only process. They also help reduce the size of a pool of candidates more quickly and fairly, said Kendal Reynolds, recruiting manager for Computer Aid Inc., which uses skills based tests and personality surveys.
“You could just quickly hire somebody based on their technical skills,” Reynolds said. “But you also may want someone who works well in a team.”