How to Pass a Pre-Employment Assessment

How to Pass a Pre-Employment Assessment

By: Jennifer Feldman

As many of you are well aware the recruitment process becomes increasingly more difficult with each passing year. There are thousands of candidates applying for every open position. To streamline the hiring process, and make sure that they are hiring the correct applicant for the job, employers have started to increase their usage of pre-employment personality screeners. According to an NBC News article, the use of personality screeners in the recruitment process is increasing by as much as 20% annually. The personality screening industry is currently earning over $500 million dollars annually, with over 2,500 different personality screeners out on the market. Most candidates don’t go into these tests prepared or understanding what to expect. It is time to wake up and smell the roses and understand what employers are looking for when they screen your personality.

What Is Pre-Employment Personality Screener?

A personality test is a screening tool used by many employers to ensure that they find a potential employee whose character traits are best matched for an open position. These screeners are designed to reveal specific personality traits that will show whether the candidate will excel in a specific position.

Why Are Employer Using These Pre-employment Personality Tests?

According to research conducted by Gallup, poor candidate placement often leads to low employee engagement. Low employee engagement results in lower productivity and higher turnover. The typical cost of replacing a poorly matched new hire is about 1.5 times the individual’s salary and benefits. This accounts for the time and money spent on the recruitment, training, and processing two people for one position. On top of that, in the current metric-based society, companies are looking for a tool to give them quantifiable measures that stand up to legal challenges.

What are Some of the Popular Pre-Employment Personality Screeners Out There? What Should I Know Before Taking Them?

1. The Caliper Profile

The Caliper Profile is one of the oldest screeners on the market. This assessment is one of the most widely used assessments by companies. The Caliper Profile assesses how an individual’s personality traits relate to their potential job performance. The assessment is comprised of different types of questions. The most common question involves a series of statements, and you must decide which statement aligns with your personal point of view. There will also be questions that ask you to identify statements that least reflect your viewpoint. What is unique about the Caliper Profile is that it examines both positive and negative characteristics, giving a holistic picture of the candidate.

Test Taking Tip:

Employers can easily individualize the profile allowing them to target specific traits. They receive a report outlining job-fit match and potential for success in a specific role. Therefore, it is important to prepare in advance for the exam and understand what is expected of you for the specific position you are applying for. Practice for your upcoming screener with this practice Caliper Profile, it includes a character trait guide, which lets you know what traits are important for specific roles.

2. The SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire

The SHL Occupational Personality Questionnaire was originally distributed by Saville but now is distributed by CEB SHL Talent Management. The OPQ32 assessment, which was specifically designed for use in the workforce, gives companies an idea of how certain behaviors might influence an individual’s work performance. The test is comprised of 104 questions which measure 32 basic characteristic traits. The test measures a candidate’s traits in three primary areas: Relationship with People, Thinking Style, and Feelings and Emotions. The applicant will be required to chose which statement best/ or least describes them.

Test Taking Tip:

The OPQ32 score report gives employers not only a normed score but also describes your strengths and weaknesses in detail. This report includes easy-to-read graphical summaries, which make it simple to directly compare you to a competing applicant. Take look at this practice pack featuring practice tests and detailed score reports. Get access to customized feedback and gain an understanding what to expect from the OPQ scale.

3. The Big Five Personality Test

The Big Five model or the five-factor model (FFM) consists of five basic personality traits. The five traits in the Big Five Model are usually referred to as “OCEAN”: Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion/Introversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. The Big Five Personality Test define an individual’s personality type based on these five dimensions. Many employers use pre-employment personality tests based on the Big Five model. The test contains diverse types of questions: true/false, agree/disagree/neither, like scale (1 to 4, 1 to 7), or a statement ranked by least/most. The Big Five Model is one of the most universally recognized models used by recruiters.

Test Taking Tip

Tests based on the Big Five Model tend to be lengthy. Practice at home prior to the test to ensure that you don’t fatigue on the actual exam. Pacing is extremely important because employers not only look at your answers but at patterns in your score report. To learn more about the Big Five Personality test click here.

4. Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)

The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) was originally developed for socio-analytic use, then adapted for use in the workplace. The HPI is also based on the Five-Factor Model, but it is a shorter exam comprising 206 true and false questions to be completed in around 15–20 minutes.

Test Taking Tip:

The HPI, which is tailored for use by companies, evaluates six occupational scales: Service Orientation, Stress Tolerance, Reliability, Clerical Potential, Sales Potential, and Managerial Potential. The score report includes information on how a candidate might act in specific work-related circumstances and gives them feedback on your interview style. Know what to expect on this short but comprehensive screener. Take a look at this practice HPI with more than 266 Hogan–style questions and responses.

How Should I Prepare?

Behavioral reasons are cited as the top reason why executives fail. You want to prove to your future employer that you are worth the investment and that you have the right personality for the job. How do you go about doing that? Try to find out which personality screener you will be given in advance and then home in your answers. Look at this free personality test to get a picture of what to expect in your interview. Remember, the results of your personality profile are an easy and quantifiable way to compare candidates. Make sure you come out ahead by knowing what to expect.

This article was contributed by Jennifer Feldman. She is a speech and language expert and blogger at JobTestPrep. She specializes in writing about the employment hiring process.