By Vistage member and speaker Daniel “Dana” Borowka co-author of Cracking the Personality Code

Many businesses now use personality tests to better understand employees and potential hires. These tests essentially describe a person’s pattern of behavior and thought process. Test results can help managers with employee development, team building, conflict resolution and succession planning.

Using the information gleaned in personality tests can improve hiring decisions and make teams and departments more productive.  These tests are now part of standard recruiting practice for many branches of the government and military and many Fortune 500 companies.

Personality testing has many uses for employers, here are the top seven:

1. Get the real picture on job candidates. It can be hard to uncover information on job candidates who always put their best foot forward during an interview. Personality test uncover a great deal about a person’s ability to work well with other personalities, their problem-solving skills, their thought processes, and their ability to tolerate stress. The objective information you get can help you make an informed decision about a candidate.

2. Pinpoint a candidate’s skills. Each employee has strengths and weaknesses. Personality tests help you uncover those with objectivity. Once you pinpoint the good and the bad, you can coach an employee to see measureable improvement.

3. Learn to manage difficult people. Face it, there will always be difficult people and flare-ups on the job. Personality assessments help to diagnose potential sources of workplace conflict. The best way to deal with a problem is to prevent it.

4. Get everybody to play nice. Sales, marketing, operations and financial people have to interact to make the company run smoothly. Many employees get frustrated with co-workers and wonder why everyone doesn’t act like them. Through the use of personality profiles, managers can coach employees how to interact better with peers.

5.  Make managers better leaders. When managers understand what makes their people tick, they become better leaders. Knowing personality traits can help to better motivate teams, communicate change and delegate authority.

6. Pick better teams. Today much work is done by ad hoc teams that come together for a specific purpose. Before you assemble a team, it pays to know the strengths and weaknesses of the team members. Sometimes this can be the difference between a productive team that gets the job done and one that pulls apart at the seams.

7. Set up employees for success. Sometimes we hire the right employee and put them in the wrong job.  Understanding preferred work styles and where a person would be happiest goes a long way to improving retention and productivity.

For more information on personality testing, you can see my book Cracking the Personality Code which explains what managers and business owners need to know about hiring and managing employees with the help of personality testing.

Vistage member and speaker Daniel “Dana” Borowka helps organizations in raising the hiring bar by using work style and in-depth personality assessments. Dana a partner of Lighthouse Consulting Services, LLC. Dana can be reached at dana@lighthouseconsulting.com.

Leadership, Something to Think About