Good help is hard to find. Individuals who work in HR or who are responsible for hiring employees to know just how true this is. A person may look great on paper. However, when they are in the actual working environment, there may be aspects of their personality or their behavior that qualify them as a bad hire. 

This is why recruiters need to go beyond looking at a potential employee’s resume. They should take advantage of pre-employment assessments and personality assessments to screen candidates effectively. Research has clearly shown that assessing the personality of a potential hire is a reliable and trustworthy method of predicting an employee’s future job performance. 

Not Every Employee Is Right for Every Work Environment

Just because a person has the ability to do a particular job does not mean that they are necessarily the right fit for a company’s work environment or that they will work well with the culture that has been created within the company. 

Research and experience have shown that cognitive ability is not the only indicator of whether or not a person will succeed professionally. Individuals who succeed have personality traits connected to leadership, cooperation, and achievement. Personality tests allow employers to quickly assess the candidate as to whether or not they are the right individual for a particular job. 

In order for a personality test to be effective, it needs to be well developed and scientifically proven. When these two criteria are met, a personality test may serve as an objective way for employers to predict employee performance. What makes personality tests so powerful is that they cover a wide range of job categories, which in turn allow an employer to select the right people based on the criteria that they have. 

A Tool to Encourage Growth, Not for Categorization

Potential employees or current employees being considered for promotion should not feel that these personality tests like the Berke are designed as a way to categorize or to judge them. Instead, they should be looked at as tools to help them develop and assist them as they grow into or with an organization. If a future hire or an employee being looked at for a promotion feels that the personality test is going to be used to categorize them or possibly judge them, they may be less inclined to answer the questions on the test honestly. Honest answers are needed for personality tests to produce the best results. 

Create a Positive Working Environment

A major part of creating a positive work environment is ensuring that your employees are in roles that are best suited for them. This means more than simply placing an employee in an area that they are interested in or that they have talent in. It also means choosing an area that best suits their personality. 

For example, a person who has a more introverted personality may enjoy working with more independence. An individual who has a more extroverted personality may enjoy collaborating with others. Personality tests make it possible for employers to know what works best for each person on their team while at the same time helping to unify the team. 

When employers get the results from personality assessments, they can use these to recognize patterns and similarities among their employees as well as their future hires. This allows employers to cater to their employees’ talents and interests. 

Why You Should Use Pre-Employment Personality Assessments

A person’s resume is not going to tell you whether or not they are the best person for a particular job. An interview is not always going to be the most accurate measure of a person. Scientifically created personality tests provide reliable and consistent ways of evaluating each potential employee, even before you do an interview with them. 

Pre-employment personality assessments can help you identify traits in potential employees that match the traits of your successful current employees. You will be able to minimize turnover, you will be able to improve the job satisfaction of your employees, and you will be able to minimize hiring costs. 

Personality tests can show you how a potential employee will interact in social environments. It will give insight into how they handle tasks and how they work. It will show whether candidates are flexible and adaptable or if they do not do well with a change in the work environment.

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  1. Job Description

The grave sin candidates usually commit when they are clueless about the job they applied for. The rule of thumb for applying to any job–no matter how many jobs–is to do the research. You might think that this mistake is only made by younger job seekers, but that’s not true. It is often also made by people who are desperately looking for another job so they can switch in no time, or by people who are applying for every job that comes their way. These people not only waste their time, but the time of job recruiters as well. On top of that, they make a bad impression in the initial minutes of the interview, when they are clueless about the nature of the position because they applied without reading the job description.

  1. Matching Skills

After reading and understanding the job description, make a list of the skillsets they are looking for, then write down your own skills to see how they match their requirements. Compare them with one another, contrast, and analyse. This exercise will make you confident and prepare you for all the expected questions in the interview.

  1. Study the Company

The best time to research about the company is during the application process. That way, you aren’t shocked when you receive a call for an interview. Such surprise could leave a bad impression. Peruse the official website of the company, research online about the nature of their business, find their clients, and follow them on social media.

  1. Get to Know the Employers

Do this after getting the call for an interview. At this point, you probably know the name of the interviewer(s), and you might have undergone an initial screening over the phone. Start with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a place where many professionals are reachable, and can be viewed with their online CVs. You can also check out the CEO’s profile. That’s how you can prepare for the interview to be more confident.

  1. CV Tweaking

Whether you are freshly graduated with no professional experience or you have plenty of work experience, it’s essential to proofread your CV before sending it anywhere. You may realize that you need to add or remove something, or fix your timeline of education and prior experience. You can go online to find CV samples, and then use the templates they provide. Some companies may ask for documentation to match with elements of your CV, and have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to discrepancies.

  1. Self-Introduction

The strictness of the interview depends on the type of job and the experience you have. Interviewers typically decides what to ask from candidate to candidate, and how tough they can be on you. Even if they plan to take conduct a test to evaluate your technical abilities, there should be time when they will ask you to give your introduction. Be very well-prepared about giving your self-introduction, because even though it may sound just like an ice-breaker or filler, it could have much greater influence on your entire interview than you might expect.

  1. General Knowledge

No matter how highly qualified and well-experienced you would are, a lack of general knowledge about the world could deter you from getting the job. You may be an Ivy League grad, but someone who can speak eloquently about anything always grabs extra attention in a room full of nerds. The ability to speak and to carry on the conversation helps the interviewers to evaluate your communication skills, which always gets you some additional points.

  1. Get Directions

Before you leave for the interview, confirm the location of the office where you are supposed to go. Plug that in your maps on the phone using Xfinity internet, and ask them about the nearest landmarks for more assistance. This is usually the reason people can’t don’t make it on time. When you know how far the location is from you, you know when exactly to leave so you can be there on time. It might sound cliché, but interviewers find it annoying when you call and tell them you are lost somewhere minutes before your scheduled time.

  1. Overconfidence

Say you have religiously followed all the preparation points discussed above. Perhaps you match the required skills to a tee, and everything looks and feels right. Don’t get this into your head and get overconfident. According to recruiters, even if they think a candidate is 100% fit for the job, they might not hire that candidate if they sense overconfidence. Why? Someone who is too confident about themselves and their abilities is often not approachable when it comes to rectifying mistakes. They may not this is the last point in my list, but it is the most significant one while making career choices.