Personality and aptitude tests (psychometrics) are helpful for managing people and for understanding yourself.
A personality test can provide us with a way to categorized different characteristics or traits that we might otherwise not be aware of.
Additionally, this categorization will help us learn how others might react to something in their environment.
These tests can be used for self-reflection and understanding, for job placement, and for learning how to better interact with others in a team or work group.
a) Job Placement:
If a job requires specific characteristics and personality types, then a personality test can be used for placement purposes. For example, if you are joining a company where you will be placed into one of several close knit teams, the company might use a personality test to determine which group of people you would work best with.
In addition, if the personality test is properly configured to identify people who will be highly satisfied with important aspects of a job, hiring such people will significantly reduce turnover. For example, if a large part of the job requires the daily performance of a series of highly routine tasks, then it behooves a supervisor to hire people who can not only perform the tasks, but will be very satisfied performing the tasks over an extended period of time. The personality test can provide just that type of information. In other words, organizations interested in hiring high quality employees and reducing turnover can achieve greater success in both areas by employing a well-developed personality test in the hiring process.
b) Group Interaction:
In addition to understanding your own personality type, it is often beneficial to understand the personalities of those around you. For example, many work teams and even sports teams, use personality tests to help the team members learn more about each other. Since the personality test indicates some of your innate preferences, it can be very useful for other team members to understand what makes you tick.
Personality tests can also be used as a tool to help dysfunctional teams learn more about each other and begin to work through some of their differences. Each team member would take the same personality test and then would share their results with the other members of the team. Then, as a team, they would discuss the results and how to function as a more cohesive team.
Increasing the teams’ awareness of the personality types of the other members can create a more functional and cohesive team atmosphere. Once the team members realize that someone has a different personality type that might make them more suited to one type of communication than the other, they can adapt and work together to create the best team dynamics. Personality tests can be a great tool to use to bring team members together and create more productive teams.
c) Self – Reflection:
By taking a personality test, one can often learn about his/herself and encourage self awareness. For example, if a job involves presenting speeches and mingling with large crowds of people, but you’ve always felt a little uncomfortable performing the job functions, knowing that you are naturally introverted can help you to better understand yourself. You will realize that performing these social functions will drain you of your energy. By making this realization, you will be better able to cope with your job and create happiness for yourself. For example, you can learn that you might have a better evening if you spend some quiet time alone before the functions to gather your energy.
Personality tests and quizzes can also provide insight into how you react to other people. For example, certain personality types have a tendency to get along better, while other personality types often are prone to arguments and clashes of style and opinion.