Hot job market spurs new interest in personality tests

As millions of workers are returning to the workplace in the wake of COVID displacement, employers are searching for ways to find the right people for the right job and the right context—at work, hybrid, remote. This effort includes a growing recognition that resumes of past achievement are too often imperfect predictors of future success. As a result, increasing numbers of employers are turning to personality tests, hoping to find desired character traits beyond those reflected in a CV.

Background
In 2007, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a guidance on “Employment Tests and Selection Procedures,” which included only a single reference to personality tests. As recently as 2018, however, the agency settled a claim against Best Buy, asserting the company’s use of personality tests/assessments during the application process adversely affected applicants based on race and national origin.

At issue, was the unexplained disparate impact resulting from the use of a test unvalidated for the positions and purposes for which it was used. Since then, as the use of personality tests has expanded (media reports tell of a $2 billion industry), state and federal enforcers are turning their focus on these often amorphous tests.

‘Old’ standards prevail in new contexts
While seeking to find “the diamond in the rough” by means of a personality test, employers must continue to observe all the traditional EEOC standards affecting preemployment testing:
Employment tests and selection procedures should be job-related and consistent with business necessity.