12 Personality Assessments Your Team Needs to Improve Productivity

Anyone who runs a successful business knows the importance of having a productive team.

And while there are different strategies that can help you boost your team’s productivity levels, introducing personality assessments has multiple benefits both for the individual employees and the overall team. Moreover, they’re fun, engaging, and reveal a lot about an employee’s state of mind and overall personality.

But with so many such assessments on the Internet, picking the right ones for your team can be a challenge. And this is where our article can help.

Chapters

What Is a Personality Test?

Why Productivity Matters in the Workplace

Uses of Personality Tests

Personality Assessments

Final Words

What Is a Personality Test?

A personality test is an assessment tool used for getting insights into an individual’s personality. Such tests include questions specifically designed to measure human traits, emotional intelligence, and behaviors people exhibit in a wide range of situations and contexts.

And while personality testing used to be and is still part of:

diagnosing disorders; assessing patients’ overall mental health; evaluating treatment in patients; conducting risk assessments in forensic settings; counseling sessions; social psychology, clinical psychology, and other research in psychological sciences,

nowadays, they’ve become a huge aspect of corporate settings too.

Why Productivity Matters in the Workplace

A productive workforce is more likely to achieve their work goals, secure sales and high revenue, and drive the company forward. Productivity as a concept shows how committed your workforce is to their responsibilities and workload.

Being productive also translates into good customer service, effective product/service launches, and good rapport among peers.

Moreover, when employees are productive, it also means they’re probably highly motivated, engaged, and happy to be where they are.

And when a company is highly productive, it’s most likely successful too. This allows managers and employers to provide their employees with bonuses, pay raises, better insurance options, and other incentives.

All in all, keeping the productivity levels in the office high secures a company’s growth in all areas over time as well as more benefits for the employees.

Uses of Personality Tests

In the workplace, personality tests can be used for a wide range of purposes.

For instance, using personality assessments during the hiring process can help you get insights into the candidate’s compatibility with the rest of the team. This allows you to create teams that work well together and have a lot of things in common, or hire diverse employees with different skills and mindsets. In turn, this also prevents unnecessary turnover.

Moreover, personality tests reveal whether employees are making progress in some crucial areas of their business operations, like leadership, collaboration, motivation, and so on.

Personality testing is also used for team-building purposes. Not only are personality assessments fun, but also they provide employees with insights into their peers’ character. This helps team members understand each other better, communicate in a more meaningful way, and identify mutual interests among each other.

That said, personality tests can also be used to achieve specific outcomes in the office.

Namely, they can be used to improve a team’s productivity, which is basically one of the most important points in our article.

Put simply, by getting insights into your employees’ personality traits, strengths, preferences, (dis)likes, and communication styles, you can understand what motivates them and keeps them engaged. This will help you delegate tasks more easily, divide employees into suitable teams, provide assistance to those open to receive it, and allow employees to do more in less time.

In essence, improving a team’s productivity is a byproduct of addressing all the above-mentioned matters.

And now, onto the actual tests.

Personality Assessments

Below, we provide you with 12 personality assessments worth considering for team members ready to learn more about themselves and their peers.

Let’s start with our first suggestion.

1) Truity

Founded back in 2012 with the purpose of making personality tests more accessible and affordable both for businesses and individuals, Truity has been providing high-quality service ever since. And the proof is in their ratings - the company has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau and their tests have an average customer star rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars.

Truity provides users with free test results, however, there are additional detailed assessments as part of a paid report. Their business tests start at $29 per team member, and the cost scales down as your group size increases. There are also discounted personality assessment services through their nonprofit program.

To ensure validity and reliability, all of their personality tests have been subjected to a meticulous research process.

As Truty is designed for busy business professionals, using the platform is a piece of cake. All you need to do is create an account using your email and password, use a credit card if you’re using the paid services, and log in to access the dashboard area afterward. After choosing the test you want to start with, send test invites to your team members, and that’s it.

The best thing is that your team members don’t need formal knowledge in psychological science, social psychology, emotional intelligence, and so on to interpret the test results afterward.

There’s a wide range of personality tests available, including:

1. Enneagram;
2. TypeFinder;
3. BigFive;
4. DISC;
5. A career aptitude test;
6. Tests for the workplace, and others.

All in all, Truity allows you to unlock your workforce’s full potential, gain tremendous insights into their personality traits, and clarify their business motivations.

And in case you need further reassurance that Truity is the way to go, know that they have a repository of the personality test data of millions of customers.

2) High5 Test

By leveraging their unique personality traits, people can achieve amazing results both in their personal and professional lives. This is the reason behind the High5 Test creation. This personality assessment helps people find what they’re great at by taking them on a journey of discovering their personality and identifying their strengths.

High5 Test has a separate section devoted especially to teams which helps them have better job performance, reach peak motivation, and collaborate more efficiently with peers.

Test takers are first asked to reflect on their best selves during a 20-minute scientifically validated test and find out their top five signature strengths (what they're great at, what energizes them, and what gives them a sense of meaning). After they get their test scores, which are highly actionable, employees get career path suggestions, watch-out areas, best partner recommendations, and detailed insights, that help put everything together.

Employees are advised to share their results with the rest of the team and learn more about their colleagues’ personality traits and see how they can bring out the best in each other.

As you can see, taking this personality assessment allows you to help unlock hidden talents in your team and minimize your people’s job performance risks.

Because as the High5 Test website suggests,: “Teams that use their strengths perform better than teams that don’t”.

Finally, if you want to learn more about the wide variety of pricing options, head over to the official website.

3) DiSC

Disc is a personality assessment tool that helps people improve productivity, collaboration, and communication in the workplace.

The DiSC model is an acronym and each letter stands for the following four main personality profiles: dominance, influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness.

• People with D human personality are confident and strive to obtain impactful results.
• People with i human personality are open and place their focus on interpersonal relationships either by influencing or persuading others.
• Next, people with S human personality are dependable individuals who place emphasis on honesty and cooperation.
• Lastly, people with C human personality place their focus on accuracy, quality, competence, and expertise.

It’s worth explaining that the DiSC personality assessment doesn’t measure mental health, values, aptitude, or intelligence. In fact, DiSC profiles explain human behavior in a wide variety of situations. This may include examples such as how people deal with challenges, influence others, respond to procedures, and so on.

This personality assessment consists of simple statements on a five-point scale where people need to indicate how much they (dis)agree with each statement. There are no right or wrong answers. The test has around 80 questions and takes just 15-20 minutes to complete.

The test is used both by large corporate companies, such as Fortune 500 companies, and by small businesses and nonprofits. And no wonder - creating a DiSC profile helps employers see whether their employees are a good fit in their work environment, contemplate how to build stronger teams, and solve conflicts in a much more conscious way.

The DiSC personality test comes with every WorkStyle profile on our website.

4) HEXACO Model of Personality Structure Personality Inventory

The HEXACO Model of Personality Inventory or Personality Structure is a six-dimensional model of human personality traits created by Kibeom Lee and Michael Ashton, a team of psychologists.

These six dimensions, or factors, include:

1. Honesty-Humility (H)
2. Emotionality (E)
3. Extraversion (X)
4. Agreeableness (A)
5. Conscientiousness (C)
6. Openness to Experience (O)

Each factor (dimension) is made up of traits with characteristics that indicate high and low levels of the factor. Each one contains four so-called “facets”, or narrower personality characteristics. For example, here’s what Emotionality (E) looks like:

Facets: Fearfulness, Anxiety, Dependence, Sentimentality Adjectives: {Emotional, oversensitive, sentimental, fearful, anxious, vulnerable} versus {brave, tough, independent, self-assured, stable}

The model as such shares many common items with other human trait models. However, what makes the HEXACO personality inventory unique is the addition of the Honesty-Humility factor.

An individual’s personality is assessed by using self-report inventories - the six factors are measured through a series of questions designed to rate people on levels of each factor. More specifically, to complete the personality test, people need to indicate their (dis)agreement with a wide range of statements. All responses people provide are gathered and used for research purposes in social psychology and other psychological science contexts.

The whole assessment takes around 15 minutes or longer (there are 100 questions plus some extra research and optional demographic questions). Afterward, test-takers are provided with test scores on each of the six domains, along with 25 facets.

Finally, research suggests there’s a correlation between the HEXACO Model of Personality Inventory and negative work behaviors such as sexual harassment, workplace unproductivity, bad job performance, and so on. Therefore, the test results might show you what changes need to be made in your office and what may have been impacting your teams’ productivity levels, engagement, morale, and so on.

You can take the personality test by following this link.

5) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is one of the most well-known self-report inventories. It helps identify a person’s personality type, preferences, career path ambitions, compatibility with people, and strengths. It also shows how people make decisions and perceive the world.

The personality test assigns people four categories out of the following eight groups: introversion (I) or extraversion (E), thinking (T) or feeling (F), sensing (S) or intuition (N), and judging (J) or perceiving (P).

At the end of the personality assessment, people receive a specific profile out of 16 different possibilities by taking one letter from each category to produce four-letter test results such as “ISTJ”, or “ESTP”.

Here are all 16 personality options:

• ISTJ - The Inspector;
• ISTP - The Crafter;
• ISFJ - The Protector;
• ISFP - The Artist;
• INFJ - The Advocate;
• INFP - The Mediator;
• INTJ - The Architect;
• INTP - The Thinker;
• ESTP - The Persuader;
• ESTJ - The Director;
• ESFP - The Performer;
• ESFJ - The Caregiver;
• ENFP - The Champion;
• ENFJ - The Giver;
• ENTP - The Debater;
• and ENTJ - The Commander.

And, of course, there’s a detailed explanation of what each profile denotes.

When it comes to the test results, no personality type is better than another one. Personality testing isn’t here to find flaws in people - it simply helps your employees learn more about who they are. And when employees know who they are, they also understand why they’re here and what they’re meant to do next.

To learn more about how you can take this personality assessment, head over to this website.

6) Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI)

The Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) is a personality assessment composed of three basic types of elements: Extroversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism.

Here are the main character traits associated with each one of them:

1. Extroversion: lack of reflection, dominant, impulsive, risk-taking, active, sociable, and expressive.
2. Neuroticism: anxious, depressed, moody, low self-esteem, obsessive, and tense.
3. Psychoticism: aggressive, masculine, manipulative, egocentric, and assertive.

This personality test contains just Yes/No questions. The whole point is for test takers to go with the option that represents their typical way of feeling or behaving. People shouldn’t spend too much time analyzing the items or the actual questions - the test is interested in a person’s initial reaction.

This is a test that both you and your employees should approach with an open mind, without overanalyzing or overthinking it. Just go with the flow and see what the test results show for each person. That being said, spend more time discussing the personality traits and what they mean for the productivity levels in the office (for instance, what role do qualities such as “anxious”, “lack of reflection”, “risk-taking”, “masculine”, and so on, have in the office and what changes can be made?).

The test is available here.

7) Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is probably the most controversial personality assessment on our list, as it has undergone quite a few changes.

It was originally created to assess people’s mental health state and provide a diagnosis, however, later it started being used in a wide range of non-clinical contexts as well. For example, the test proved to be a great screening tool for some professions (high-risk jobs) to analyze the potential candidates’ psychological stability.

Today, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is administered in one of its two forms - there’s the so-called MMPI-2, which is comprised of 567 true/false options (takes 60-90 minutes to complete), and its slightly newer form, the MMPI-2-F version, with 338 true/false options (takes around 35-50 minutes to finish). There are a few other types, however, these two remain the most popular ones.

The latter is much faster to complete, however, the former remains much more popular due to its familiarity among psychologists and professionals.

This personality test includes 10 clinical scales, each one denoting a separate psychological condition. And while each scale comes with a different name, often people simply refer to the scales by using their numbers, as many of the conditions seem to have overlapping symptoms. Here are all ten:

• Scale 1 - Hypochondriasis
• Scale 2 - Depression
• Scale 3 - Hysteria
• Scale 4 - Psychopathic Deviate
• Scale 5 - Masculinity-Femininity
• Scale 6 - Paranoia
• Scale 7 - Psychasthenia
• Scale 8 - Schizophrenia
• Scale 9 - Hypomania
• Scale 0 - Social Introversion

Overall, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is used in the workplace to assess employees’ credibility and overall mental health, which shows a person’s capacity to handle the daily workload and other job-related responsibilities. This also helps with sorting people for different positions within the company - the better job placement you find for each employee, the more motivated and productive they’ll be.

You can take this personality assessment here.

8) The Birkman Method

The Birkman Method reveals four important types of perspectives of every person: motivation, self-perception, social perception, and mindset.

By comprehending these perceptions and how they interact with one another, your employees can better understand their feelings and the actions they take in different scenarios. This self-knowledge will help your team communicate and collaborate better, which helps improve productivity.

This personality assessment has 298 questions. And while this may sound like a lot to work through, there’s no time limit and there are no right or wrong answers.

The first set of 250 questions are true/false statements that determine people’s expectations, behaviors, and needs. The other 48 are multiple-choice questions that determine people’s motivations (this helps deduce which of the Birkman interest matches a person’s profile best).

To further explain the validity of the Birkman Method, it’s useful to note that:

• The personality assessment was developed based on data from workplace-specific and other representative samples;
• There’s a strong theoretical basis stemming from organizational psychology as well as other disciplines such as management, educational psychology, and social psychology;
• Empirically demonstrated model-data is also taken into account.

All in all, there’s a lot of research, data science, and intense evaluation when it comes to how this method is created and applied in practice. As Dr. Birkman himself put it: “Impressive scientific advances have been made in every field of endeavor. But nowhere seemingly is there a greater challenge to the creativity and ingenuity of man than that which personality measurement presents.”

To learn more about how you can take the Birkman Method personality assessment, visit the official website.

9) Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)

The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) is a personality test often used for predicting job performance in corporate contexts. In fact, HPI was specifically developed for the business community, so no company can go wrong with it.

It’s an ideal assessment tool to assist you in employee selection, ongoing management processes, leadership development, and team communication. Improving these aspects also has a positive impact on the team productivity levels, so it’s a win-win!

The test helps you identify employee strengths and shortcomings, how people would react in various situations, and whether a person is a good fit for specific job positions. There are also suggestions about how you can manage a person’s career path.

The test consists of 206 true/false statements, and it takes about 15-20 minutes to complete. The HPI is composed of seven primary scales and 42 subscales. Here are the seven basic types:

1. Adjustment: confidence, self-esteem, and composure under pressure
2. Ambition: initiative, competitiveness, and desire for leadership roles
3. Sociability: extraversion, gregarious, and need for social interaction
4. Interpersonal Sensitivity: tact, perceptiveness, and ability to maintain relationships
5. Prudence: self-discipline, responsibility, and conscientiousness
6. Inquisitive: imagination, curiosity, and creative potential
7. Learning Approach: achievement-oriented and up-to-date on business and technical matters

If a person scores high on the Ambition scale, they’re perceived as competitive and eager to make progress in their career, whereas if they score low, they’re seen as non-assertive and not interested in advancing their careers.

The test also has six additional occupational scales: Service Orientation, Stress Tolerance, Reliability, Clerical Potential, Sales Potential, and Managerial Potential.

Check out this link if you want to take the Hogan Personality Inventory.

10) Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS)

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter (KTS) is an awesome personality assessment that helps people understand not only themselves, but also those around them. Temperament is understood as a configuration of a person’s values, overall attitudes, distinct personality traits, ways of communicating, patterns of action, and so on, and each temperament has its own set of genuine advantages and disadvantages.

KTS provides four such temperaments as follows:

1. The Artisan - includes people who are playful, persuasive, optimistic, impulsive, excited, and adaptable;
2. The Guardian - denotes individuals who are careful, steady, concerned, and logistical;
3. The Idealist - refers to romantic, intuitive, kind, sensitive, imaginative people;
4. The Rational - this group of people is curious, independent, pragmatic, calm, and strategic.

These temperaments are further subdivided. So, if test takers fall into The Guardian Category, there are four separate Guardian types: Guardian Supervisor (ESTJ), Guardian Inspector (ISTJ), Guardian Provider (ESFJ), and Guardian Protector (ISFJ).

In general, the Keirsey Temperament Sorter suggests that people’s core pursuits depend on their temperament. Therefore, each employee will discover what job suits them best and what workload they can cope with. And the more employees learn what they’re good at, the more productive they can be. Moreover, given that each of these four temperaments is meaningful for the office in its own way, you’ll also get to see how diverse your workforce is based on these four temperaments.

Make sure to visit the official Keirsey website to learn more about this personality assessment and how you can take it.

11) True Colors Test

The True Colors Test allows test takers to get insights into pragmatic planning, independent thinking, and taking action. These are all qualities that contribute to higher productivity, and can help team members understand how they function when they’re part of a team. And to ensure the validity of test scores, an extensive statistical analysis of the test is carried out.

This personality assessment deals with four temperaments expressed in colors (hence the test’s name):

• 1. Gold: individuals with a gold temperament value tradition, dependability, and sensibility. They’re highly organized, responsible, and great at planning and achieving their ambitions. They prefer working in environments where rules and goals are laid out in a clear fashion.
• 2. Blue: these people place value on spirituality, intuition, and interaction with others, and know how to be in touch with their emotions. They’re natural diplomats, and know how to look beyond the present moment they’re in.
• 3. Orange: these individuals always seek out excitement. They’re independent, witty, and action-oriented. They’re great communicators and risk-takers, and want competition, leadership, and attention. People with an orange temperament experience the present moment to its fullest.
• 4. Green: this temperament denotes people who cherish free thought and autonomy, but at the same time appreciate academic knowledge. They’re detached, great thinkers, and have perfectionistic tendencies. They always question the traditional way of doing things and want to push themselves beyond the given limits. People with a green temperament look for mental stimulation in everything they do and seek intellectual freedom at all times.

Follow this link to take the True Colors Test and get further insights.

12) Rorschach Inkblot Test

The Rorschach Inkblot Test is different from all the personality assessments we’ve covered so far because it belongs to the group of so-called projective tests, as opposed to self-report inventories (but more about this in the FAQ section).

With this test, subjects are asked to give their perspectives on ambiguous inkblot images they’re presented with. There are ten such bilaterally symmetrical inkblot cards, always shown in the same order to comply with the test requirements and people’s previous performance. Once the test administrator (usually a psychologist) gives the image to the test taker, they ask “What might this be?”. The idea is not to impose suggestions or provide test takers with any ideas.

The test is meant to trigger people to come up with imaginative stories that relate to these specific inkblot images and present interesting points of view. Not having much external guidance is what gives them the freedom to express their personalities openly.

Despite thinking hard to decipher the meaning of the images, there are many commonalities among people’s answers. For example, some popular responses for the first inkblot image include: a bat, moth, or butterfly. This image is also one of the easiest ones, as it’s the first, the point is to introduce the person to the actual test and get them to feel more comfortable with the rest of the series of images. On average, it takes around 1.5 hours to administer and score the test.

And while the Rorschach Inkblot Test was initially created to look for patterns of thought disorder in schizophrenic people, it has evolved to provide insights into other areas, such as emotional intelligence, cognitive ability, a person’s self-reflection capacity, and their ability to cope with stress. Such insights are inevitably useful not only for an employee’s approach to productivity, but their overall character too.

To take the Rorschach Inkblot Test online, follow this link. Please note that such online assessments have been adjusted to suit a test taker’s needs and the virtual circumstances - for instance, there are multiple choice options people need to choose from instead of the face-to-face setting in which the test taker communicates with the professional psychologist and provides answers on their own.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What are the two basic types of personality assessments?

The two basic types of personality tests are self-report inventories and the so-called projective tests.

The personality assessments we outlined in the article belong to the self-report inventories group, with the exception of the Rorschach Inkblot Test.

The former group denotes test takers going through questions with yes/no and true/false items, or rating how much a specific statement applies to them. These tests are highly standardized and use already-established norms and scoring systems. Administering them is fairly easy, and they’re also considered to be more reliable than projective tests.

On the other hand, projective tests involve a not-so-standard approach because test takers are presented with a “vague” object, scene, item, or question, which prompts them to provide their own interpretation and perspective.

Plus, test administrators can also get insights into a person’s body language, voice, and overall attitude when they take such projective tests as opposed to self-report inventories.

What are some tips for taking a personality assessment?

No one can prepare for a personality test, but here are some tips and tricks that can ensure the results closely reflect a person’s personality.

• Be honest. Don’t present some ideal version of yourself just because you think you may score better (most tests don’t have a right or wrong answer anyway) or because you believe that you need to fit a specific stereotype. Be yourself and allow the test to reflect your authenticity.
• Follow the instructions closely. If you neglect the guidelines, you might not get accurate test scores.
• Be focused. It’s best to take a personality test when you’re in a good mood and have no worries. While taking the test, avoid any distractions and remain centered. Your emotional state (both positive and negative) affects how you approach answering the questions.
• Don’t rush. Just because most tests seem straightforward doesn’t mean you shouldn’t double-check things or re-read parts just to make sure you got everything right. Take your time, but if the test has time limits, use your intuition to complete it.
• Don’t overthink things. Most of the time, the initial response is the true response. Trust your gut, but don’t forget your reasoning and logical thinking.
• Don’t be influenced by someone else. You know yourself the best, and no one can answer all series of questions the way you would.
• Be consistent in your responses. For instance, some tests have so-called clone questions to check whether you stick to one and the same answer all throughout the assessment.

Finally, to help your employees make the best out of their personality assessment experience, we recommend sharing these tips with them before they take the test. It might be just what they need to feel comfortable with such assessments.

Are personality tests accurate?

There are many factors that may influence the accuracy of a personality assessment. For example, a test taker may be feeling under the weather and this could affect their cognitive ability at the moment, therefore, the answers might not be quite reliable.

Also, sometimes employees might provide answers they believe are suitable for the job position they’re currently in or applying for during the hiring process, so they’ll try to align their answers with the company’s values and criteria.

Therefore, let your employees or new hires know that the test doesn’t have right or wrong answers, and their job is not dependent on them.

Moreover, it depends on the tests that are being chosen. For instance, most of the free personality tests on the Internet are just for fun, whereas others, such as the tests we reviewed, even some others like The Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) or the International Personality Item Pool (using the Five-factor model), have been generally accepted worldwide as come of the more highly regarded and accurate personality questionnaires backed by extensive research, making them much more suitable for serious contexts.

Finally, even if you believe you’ve chosen the most accurate personality assessment, don’t follow the results blindly. The tests are tools to help your decision-making and interpret your employees’ behaviors better. Your own reasoning and the opinions you have about your employees are much more valuable and credible than any personality test results.

Should I ask new hires to take personality tests?

Some employers ask their new employees to take a personality test as part of the hiring process, while others don’t. There’s no right or wrong approach here, it all depends on how your company and HR team approach the hiring process.

As long as you’re not violating any employee rights or forcing your new hires to do something that isn’t aligned with their values, you’ll be fine either way.

However, if you do decide to ask your new hires to take a personality test, make sure to decide what it is you’re looking for in the test. For instance, are you trying to measure your new hires’ emotional intelligence? Are you trying to learn more about their strengths? Or maybe you’re just interested in finding out who they are as a person?

Whichever test you opt for, don’t forget to give your new hires a chance to express their personality in the office before you arrive at any conclusions, regardless of what their test results may suggest.

What is the best personality test?

This is a difficult question, as there’s not a single correct answer. What seems to be the best personality test for one employer, could be the last resort for another one.

Also, it depends on whether you prefer objective personality tests or projective tests; whether you want a short test or have no issue with tests that take a lot of time to administer, and what the test is meant to measure, to name a few.

In general, we advise you to consider the factors and the criteria you have for personality assessments, create a list with tests that live up to them, and start by eliminating them one by one. The last test you’re left with is probably the best one for you and your company.

That said, it’s good to be open to changes and include different personality assessments that your employees can take. That way, you’ll get different insights as all tests have their own way of explaining test results, different scoring systems, and distinct questions.

Final Words

All in all, although personality assessments are closely linked to concepts such as factor analysis, emotional intelligence, social physiology, clinical psychology, or any psychological science, they provide test takers with down-to-earth tangible results.

And that’s what employers such as yourself are interested in!

And while we can’t tell you which personality assessment you should pick first, as you understand your team’s current needs best, we can reassure you you can’t go wrong with any of those on our list.