Stop Letting a Quiz Pick Your Team
By VICKY BROWN
Are Personality Tests Helping or Hurting Your Hiring Process?
If you’ve ever been tempted to add a personality test into your hiring flow, you’re not alone. Small business owners are often told that tools like Myers-Briggs, DiSC, or the Predictive Index will help them hire the “right” person. The promise sounds appealing — less guesswork, better fit, and more confidence in your decision.
But the truth is more complicated. And if you’re not careful, using personality tests in hiring can actually lead to poor decisions, missed talent, and even legal risk.
What Personality Tests Are — and Aren’t
Let’s start with a quick definition. Personality tests are tools designed to measure consistent patterns in how someone thinks, behaves, and interacts. They come in two broad types: personality type indicators (like Myers-Briggs) and behavioral assessments (like DiSC or Predictive Index).
The problem? These tests aren’t designed to measure skill, experience, or job performance. In other words, they can’t tell you if someone is good at their job — just how they might show up in a work environment.
That makes them a risky basis for go/no-go hiring decisions.
“…they can’t tell you if someone is good at their job — just how they might show up in a work environment.“
Why These Tests Aren’t Hiring Tools
Tools like Myers-Briggs are wildly popular, but that doesn’t mean they’re useful in hiring. Most of these tests weren’t developed or validated to predict on-the-job success. In fact, many are better suited for coaching, onboarding, or team-building — after someone is already on the team.
Even more concerning is the legal exposure. If a test hasn’t been validated as job-related and consistent with business necessity, and you use it to screen out candidates, you could be opening the door to discrimination claims.
Some assessments may even cross the line into ADA territory if they probe into mental health, emotional stability, or anything that could be interpreted as a medical inquiry. That’s a compliance risk you don’t want to take.
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What to Do Instead
If you want better hiring outcomes, focus on tools that actually work: structured interviews, skills assessments, and job simulations. These approaches give you real, observable data about how someone performs in the role.
And if you do want to use personality assessments, save them for onboarding or team development. Use them to spark conversations about communication styles and motivation — not to decide who gets hired.
Hiring Is Too Important to Outsource to a Quiz
At the end of the day, hiring decisions deserve more than a personality profile. They need thoughtful evaluation, clear criteria, and a process that treats every candidate fairly.
So before you add a personality test to your hiring workflow, ask yourself: is this helping me get closer to the best candidate — or just giving me a false sense of security?
Because building the right team is too important to leave to chance — or to a quiz.
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