--- title: When Should I Use a Personality Assessment? description: Discover the best opportunities to deploy personality assessments. image: https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/blog%20when@1.5x.png --- [Skip to content](https://talentui.com/blog/when-should-i-use-a-personality-assessment#main-content) [![TalentUi logo flat](https://talentui.com/hubfs/TalentUi%20logo%20flat.svg "TalentUi logo flat")](https://talentui.com) - SOLUTIONS - TALENT ANALYTICS - [TalentUI /Acquire](https://talentui.com/talentui-acquire) - [TalentUI /Develop](https://talentui.com/acquire-develop) - [Pricing and Plans](https://talentui.com/pricing) - ASSESSMENTS & TESTS - [Executive Assessment](https://talentui.com/executive-dimensions) - [Enterprise Family Assessment](https://talentui.com/legacy-dimensions) - [Browse Partner Assessments](https://talentui.com/browse-assessments) - USE CASES - - [Coaching and Therapy](https://talentui.com/coaching-and-therapy) - [Enterprise/Legacy Family Assessment](https://talentui.com/legacy-dimensions) - [Executive Assessment](https://talentui.com/executive-dimensions) - - [Executive Team Assessment](https://talentui.com/executive-dimensions) - [Hiring and Selection](https://talentui.com/hiring-and-selection) - [Succession and Development](https://talentui.com/succession-and-development) - RESOURCES - - [Blog](https://talentui.com/blog) - [FAQs](https://talentui.com/faqs-frequently-asked-questions) - COMPANY - - [Who We Are](https://talentui.com/who-we-are) - [Our Partners](https://talentui.com/our-partners) - [Work With Us](https://talentui.com/work-with-us) - [Contact Us](https://talentui.com/contact-us) [Sign In](https://app.talentui.com/) [Sign In](https://app.talentui.com) [Get Started](https://talentui.com/optimize-your-organization) [Back to Blog](https://talentui.com/blog) ![](https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/blog%20when@1.5x.png) [Hiring and Selection](https://talentui.com/blog/tag/hiring-and-selection) # When Should I Use a Personality Assessment? Discover the best opportunities to deploy personality assessments. ##### [![Christian Montoya](https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/christian.png) Christian Montoya](https://talentui.com/blog/author/christian-montoya) Sep 01, 2022 We’ve talked before about the [best ways to use personality assessments](https://talentui.com/blog/4-insider-strategies-to-get-the-most-from-any-personality-assessment-test-part-1), but when is the right time to use them?   Personality Assessments, when properly used, [deliver actionable intelligence](https://talentui.com/blog/the-what-how-and-who-cares-of-talent-analytics) about people we work with - whether it be clients, coworkers, supervisors, or executives. Personality assessment tests ask a set of standardized questions to deliver insights that see beyond the experience, interviews, references, resumes, and other traditional ways to get to know someone. They are your go-to for noticeably better hiring, coaching, succession planning, and professional/personal development. ## Hiring Hiring, or selection, is probably the best-known reason for using a personality assessment. Maybe you’ve taken one yourself at some point. Or maybe you’ve seen a documentary about how [controversial they can be](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14173880/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk). The [memes](https://www.psychologyjunkie.com/2022/03/31/the-hilarious-meme-you-relate-to-based-on-your-mbti-type/) are pretty funny, too. When we use personality tests for hiring people for our organization, we ask a candidate (job seeker) to take an online assessment. When the candidate completes the assessment, we receive a report that describes the candidate according to what the [test is designed to measure](https://talentui.com/blog/4-powerful-personality-assessments-that-youve-never-heard-of). Interviews, resumes, and references are popular methods to screen candidates based on the information that the candidates *themselves* provide. Let’s repeat that last part: information that the candidates *themselves* provide. We know job seekers are motivated to be hired, so we need to take what they say about themselves with a healthy dose of skepticism. This is where candidate testing shines through. Where a candidate claims that they pay a lot of attention to details, an assessment can give us insights into how likely it is that they do pay a lot of attention to details - without having to take their word for it. Two weeks into a critical hire is not the time to discover that your charming Dr. Jekyll is actually Mr. Hyde once he settles in. ## Coaching and Development Assessment tests are blind to whether they are testing a job candidate, a coaching or therapy client, or even someone who’s just curious - the assessment produces the same data about an individual. If we trust these insights for hiring the right person for the job, we can also trust these insights to identify our strengths and weaknesses for other noble purposes. In the same way that we fortify a castle against invasions by assessing its strengths and weaknesses, we fortify ourselves by leaning in to what we are good at and working on our shortfalls. A good coach knows how to consider both our gifts and our blind spots when advising their clients. Also, using personality assessments for clients gives the coach access to [insights](https://talentui.com/coaching-and-therapy) that might take weeks or months to uncover, if at all. Coaches use personality data to create development plans for their clients, both professionally and personally. This data enables coaches and clients to have something tangible to target, for example “Client’s goal is to practice assertive behavior in a team setting” or “Client will listen for cues to practice empathy skills with others” or “Client will seek opportunities to develop their natural aptitude for strategic selling.” ## Succession Planning We’ve taken a [deep dive into succession planning](https://talentui.com/blog/succession-planning-for-founders-and-family-owned-businesses)before and we learned that personality tests can make the difference between a lasting and short-lived company legacy. Imagine if Coca-Cola, General Motors, McDonald’s, or Microsoft never survived past their first CEO. It’s not easy, right? All these legendary companies make use of personality assessments to ensure that their vision endures beyond the lifetimes of their current leadership. Personality Assessment data tells us what makes the people in a company great (or not so great). When we want to repeat our successes and minimize our failures, we need to the data to understand what got us to this place. Often, we look to an income statement or balance sheet or the entire ledger to understand what brought the organization to this point in time. This makes sense because accounting tools are a record of the company’s transactions. But what, or better, *who*, is behind these transactions? Economics teaches us that human behaviors turn the wheels of our global economic system. And how do we better understand the mechanics of human behavior? Personality Assessments. Bottom line: we get valuable insights into ourselves and others when we use personality assessments - insights we might never have the opportunity or perspective to realize. It's up to us what we do with it. If you aren’t using all the [available tools](https://talentui.com/succession-and-development) to understand the personalities driving the past, present, and future of your business, you really are missing the big picture.   ### Ready to optimize your workforce with premium talent analytics and personality assessments? [![Request a Demo](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/20941596/acf389e2-6d96-441c-a139-3cbd275c4c97.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/20941596/acf389e2-6d96-441c-a139-3cbd275c4c97) [![Christian Montoya](https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/christian.png)](https://talentui.com/blog/author/christian-montoya) ### [Christian Montoya](https://talentui.com/blog/author/christian-montoya) Principal at TalentUI. I am a talent strategist and toolmaker who works with enterprise, private equity, and enterprise family clients. ![news](https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/news.svg) ## Subscribe to our newsletter ## Latest Articles Browse Articles ![Personality Assessments in the Hiring Process: Five Real-World Case Studies](https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/TalentUI-blog.png) #### Personality Assessments in the Hiring Process: Five Real-World Case Studies Uncover how companies like Google and Amazon unlock hiring success through personality assessments. Dive into five real-world case studies ... ![Personality Assessments in the Hiring Process: Five Real-World Case Studies](https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/christian.png) ###### Christian Montoya August 30, 2023 [Featured](https://talentui.com/blog/tag/featured) ![Successful Integration of Personality Assessments into Recruitment](https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/Untitled-1%20%282%29.png) #### Successful Integration of Personality Assessments into Recruitment Delve into a journey where a renowned SaaS company triumphed by integrating personality assessments in their hiring processes, unlocking ex... ![Successful Integration of Personality Assessments into Recruitment](https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/christian.png) ###### Christian Montoya July 13, 2023 [Hiring and Selection](https://talentui.com/blog/tag/hiring-and-selection) ![Harnessing People Analytics to Identify and Develop High-Potential Employees](https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/BEE5A16C-17C8-4735-89C6-BB1FE55AA26F.png) #### Harnessing People Analytics to Identify and Develop High-Potential Employees How organizations use people analytics to identify and develop high-potential employees effectively ![Harnessing People Analytics to Identify and Develop High-Potential Employees](https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/christian.png) ###### Christian Montoya June 15, 2023 [Development](https://talentui.com/blog/tag/development) [![TalentUi logo flat](https://talentui.com/hubfs/TalentUi%20logo%20flat.svg "TalentUi logo flat")](https://talentui.com) ### Subscribe to our newsletter for our latest talent insights ##### People Analytics [TalentUI: Acquire](https://talentui.com/talentui-acquire) [TalentUI: Acquire + Develop](https://talentui.com/acquire-develop)   ##### Assessments [Executive Assessment](https://talentui.com/executive-dimensions) [Enterprise Family Assessment](https://talentui.com/executive-dimensions) [Partner Assessments](https://talentui.com/browse-assessments) ##### Use Cases [Coaching and Therapy](https://talentui.com/coaching-and-therapy) [Enterprise/Legacy Family Assessment](https://talentui.com/legacy-dimensions) [Executive Assessment](https://talentui.com/executive-dimensions) [Executive Team Assessment ](https://talentui.com/executive-dimensions) [Hiring and Selection](https://talentui.com/hiring-and-selection) [Succession and Development](https://talentui.com/succession-and-development) ##### Resources [Blog](https://talentui.com/blog) [FAQs](https://talentui.com/faqs-frequently-asked-questions) [**Pricing**](https://talentui.com/pricing)   ##### Company [Who we are](https://talentui.com/who-we-are) [Our partners](https://talentui.com/our-partners) [Work with us](https://talentui.com/work-with-us) [**Privacy Policy**](https://talentui.com/privacy-policy) [**Cookie Policy**](https://talentui.com/cookie-policy) Copyright 2023 © SDL Technologies LLC ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Christian Montoya", "url" : "https://talentui.com/blog/author/christian-montoya" }, "dateModified" : "2022-12-21T04:12:33.269Z", "datePublished" : "2022-09-01T12:13:00.000Z", "headline" : "When Should I Use a Personality Assessment?", "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://talentui.com/blog/when-should-i-use-a-personality-assessment", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://sdlgo.com/hubfs/TalentUi%20logo%20flat-1.svg" } } } ```