Not all assessments serve the same purpose — or the same audience.
Understanding how different types of assessments work can help HR professionals and hiring managers select a tool that matches both their job requirements and organizational goals. In this article, we’ll explore common pre-employment tests, their strengths and limitations, and what to look for when selecting the right one for your team.
A Review of Common Assessment Types
There are many types of pre-employment tests on the market today. Some focus on personality, others on cognitive ability or basic skills. Among the better-known options are the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Caliper Profile, the Predictive Index, and DISC assessments. Each of these has strengths, but they also have limitations when it comes to actual hiring decisions.
- Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness (DISC)
DISC is often used to improve workplace communication or team dynamics. While DISC can offer insights into how a person tends to behave, it is not designed to predict job performance or assess role fit. For hiring purposes, its results are often too general and are best used in tandem with more job-relevant assessments. - Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
While MBTI is widely recognized and used in team-building or coaching environments, it was never intended for employment selection. It lacks the reliability and predictive validity needed for high-stakes hiring decisions. As SHRM cautions, MBTI does not meet the legal or scientific standards required for employee selection in most cases. - Caliper Profile
This personality assessment measures key traits related to workplace behavior and leadership. It has strong validity backing, but is expensive and typically involves working with a trained consultant. For companies with lean HR departments or fluctuating hiring needs, this can be a barrier to use. - Predictive Index (PI)
PI’s behavioral measures emphasize alignment between hiring and business strategy. While useful in large-scale, consultant-driven environments, PI often requires upfront training and multi-year contracts, making it less ideal for smaller or more agile organizations. Many customers find it’s also more effective when used for talent optimization than for talent acquisition. - Skills-Only Tests
Assessments focused solely on hard skills — like software fluency, typing speed, or math proficiency — help screen for basic qualifications. However, they rarely provide insight into long-term success or interpersonal dynamics. As research from Harvard Business Review suggests, cognitive ability and soft skills often predict on-the-job performance more accurately than technical knowledge alone.
Why Role-Specific Assessments Perform Better
While generic personality or cognitive tests can offer broad insight, tests developed for specific jobs or industries tend to be more useful for hiring. That’s because context matters. A role in public safety, for instance, places high demands on stress tolerance and quick decision-making—traits that may not matter as much in a data-entry or administrative role.
A job in finance might call for careful adherence to rules and procedures, while a job in construction may prioritize spatial reasoning and teamwork under changing conditions, among other useful traits. Tests that account for the nuances of these roles—rather than applying a one-size-fits-all measurement—are more likely to help employers identify the candidates who are truly best suited.
Industry-aligned assessments also help prevent misinterpretation of results. A high extraversion score, for example, may be ideal in a customer-facing retail job, but less beneficial in a role that demands deep focus and minimal distraction. The same personality trait can be an asset or a liability depending on the environment.
Factors to Consider When Selecting a Test
When evaluating pre-employment tests, organizations should consider the following:
- Job relevance: Is the test designed to reflect the behavioral and cognitive demands of the role?
- Scientific backing: Has the test been validated for predictive power and workplace outcomes?
- Flexibility: Can the test be administered on-demand without needing to purchase in bulk or commit to contracts or annual subscriptions you may not take full advantage of?
- Ease of use: Is the testing process clear, user-friendly, and supported as needed?
These criteria can help organizations choose assessments that streamline hiring and improve decision-making and retention.
A Note on Personality-Driven Hiring
There is growing consensus that personality fit often matters more than skills alone—particularly in jobs requiring communication, adaptability, or self-direction. A candidate with the right traits can often be trained on specific tools or processes, but it’s much harder to train someone to be naturally detail-oriented, dependable, or collaborative.
That’s why many companies now start their hiring process by evaluating personality and cognitive ability, rather than treating them as afterthoughts. Doing so allows them to identify promising candidates earlier and avoid costly mismatches later.
Final Thoughts
Pre-employment testing can be a powerful way to add structure and objectivity to hiring. But selecting the right tool requires a clear understanding of what the test measures and how it relates to the demands of your workplace. When possible, look for assessments built with your industry or job role in mind—they often produce more relevant and useful results.
If you’re exploring options, Resource Associates offers assessments grounded in validated research and designed with workplace performance in mind. Our library of role-specific tools can support more precise, data-informed hiring decisions — without complexity or high costs.
