Can You Fail a Personality Test?

The answer is yes… but then again, no. You see, in our 28 years of being in business in Dallas-Fort Worth, we have seen countless instances of candidates passing or failing personality and aptitude tests. How is this possible? Well, as HR managers strive to find the “right fit” for their company, they unfortunately often rely on inexpensive tools to offset their insufficient interview skills.

With results in hand, they look over the candidate’s scores, gaining a scantily limited look into his or her strengths and weaknesses, and decide if the potential new employee passes or fails. So, yes, it is possible to fail a personality test. But then again, is a personality test really meant to make that distinct of a judgment? No, it’s a “get what you pay for” proposition.

The fact is, even sophisticated assessment tools are at the mercy of the person receiving the results. One firm that has used personality testing successfully in their consulting practice for the past 34 years is the Rose Porterfield Group. Robyn Porterfield, PhD, and Bob Rose, PhD, caution that behavioral-level analysis requires assistance from experts who have studied your firm’s culture.

“The person who enjoys working with others in a group can be painfully shy one-on-one,” according to Robyn and Bob of the Rose Porterfield Group. “There can be two people with the same personality type, one of whom loves public speaking and the other who finds it impossibly frightening.”

Companies will come closer to meeting their goals of adding qualified productive people if they spend their money initially to hire someone to teach and train interviewing skills to their managers, including HR. Personality testing is not an alternative to or a better tool than an in-depth, well-prepared interview. And no, you can’t fail a personality test.