Arguments For & Against Personality Assessments in HR Selection

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Many HR personnel believe that personality assessments should not be used as part of selection. Discuss what you believe are some of the arguments for or against the use personality assessments in HR selection?

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I believe that in some job situations personality assessments can be vital to hiring associates that would seem to be the right fit for a particular position. Of course, there may be some outliers even with personality assessments as being part of the initial hiring process. In other words, a person can score well on a personality test and not be suited for the position. However, if the person is chosen at the time, will he or she remain fit for the position over a period of time. Time can mean more than four to five years or one-two years depending upon the nature of the position.

We have all seen outliers however drastic it may sound such as disgruntled employees in which situations have resulted in violent confrontations.

There are many different types of personality tests. These tests can be required job skills, personality characteristics, and mathematical and interpersonal communication skills just to name a few. As I am familiar with the hiring process in a customer service environment, I will comment on the type of personality assessment that was used as part of the initial hiring process.

The company (Bank of America) that I worked for has customer service call centers that currently use personality testing as part of its hiring process. This is a global financial company.

They recently began to use personality assessments five years ago. This type of test covers customer service skills, reasoning skills, mathematical skills and potential leadership skills. The leadership side of the test was to determine if the candidate would eventually move up in the company. As within any customer service environment one has to be a friendly at all times. It is often difficult to hire associates that can handle calm to extreme situations on the phone or even off the phone. It is even more difficult when a company is global.

In order to better understand the hiring process; the HR (human resources) department had the ...