Imagine hiring the perfect candidate, someone who not only has the right skills but also fits perfectly into your company’s culture. Sounds great, right? But how do you ensure that a candidate’s personality aligns with the role and your workplace environment?
The answer lies in pre-employment personality tests.
These tests help employers understand how candidates think, work, and interact with others. They can predict job performance, teamwork abilities, and leadership potential—all before the first day on the job.
But with so many options out there, which one is the best personality test for hiring?
In this article, we’ll break down the top 10 pre-employment personality tests. We will explore their features, pros, and cons to help you choose the best one for your company. Let’s get started!
Why Personality Tests Matter in Hiring: 5 Key Benefit
Hiring isn’t just about skills and experience, it’s also about finding the right personality fit.
For instance, a great candidate on paper might struggle in a fast-paced work environment. At the same time, another candidate with average qualifications might thrive due to their adaptability and teamwork.
This is where pre-employment personality tests help. Here’s why they matter:
1. Helps Predict Job Performance
Personality traits influence how a person works, communicates, and handles challenges. For example:
- Meticulous and industrious individuals tend to be organized and dependable, making them great for detail-oriented roles.
- Extroverted candidates may excel in sales and customer service.
- Those with high adaptability often thrive in fast-changing environments like tech startups.
By assessing personality traits, companies can better match candidates to job roles, leading to improved performance.
2. Reduces Employee Turnover
A bad hire is costly in terms of time, money, and team morale. If an employee doesn’t fit the company culture or struggles with job expectations, they may leave quickly.
When you use Personality tests for hiring it helps employers identify candidates who align with company values, improving job satisfaction and reducing turnover.
3. Improves Teamwork and Collaboration
A well-balanced team consists of different personalities that complement each other. Some employees thrive in high-energy, competitive settings, while others prefer structured, methodical workflows.
Personality tests help managers understand team dynamics and ensure a stronger, more energetic work environment.
4. Minimizes Hiring Bias
Hiring decisions can be influenced by unconscious biases, such as preferring candidates who share similar interests or backgrounds.
Pre-employment personality assessments offer an objective way to evaluate candidates based on their traits. It undoubtedly helps companies create a fair and diverse workplace.
5. Identifies Leadership Potential
Not everyone is a natural leader, but personality tests can highlight key leadership traits like decisiveness, emotional intelligence, and problem-solving skills.
Tests such as the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) or Caliper Profile help employers spot high-potential candidates for management roles.
Existing Content Relevance:
- Why the Pre-employment Personality Assessment Test is Important.
- Advantages and Disadvantages of Personality Testing for Hiring.
10 Best Personality Tests for Hiring
Choosing the right personality test for your hiring process is essential to ensure you’re selecting candidates who are not only skilled but also a good fit for your company culture.
In this list, we’ve compiled the 10 best pre-employment personality tests that can help you make informed, effective, and unbiased hiring decisions. Have a look.
1. SAJOKI Personality Assessment
On top of our list is the Sajoki Personality Assessment. It is a modern AI-driven, role-specific personality test designed to evaluate soft skills crucial for professional success. Unlike generic tests, it customizes assessments to match job-specific demands, ensuring high relevance and accuracy in hiring decisions.
Core Features:
- AI-powered assessments tailored to specific job roles.
- Focuses on soft skills essential for workplace performance
- Structured evaluation of key behavioral traits
- Data-driven insights to support hiring and team development
- Compares the profile of candidates
- Automatically generates job descriptions based on the job title
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Overall, Sajoki is best for companies that prioritize role-specific personality insights over generic personality profiling. It ensures smarter hiring, better team dynamics, and improved workplace performance.
2. Big Five Personality Traits
The Big Five Personality Test, also known as the Five-Factor Model (FFM) or OCEAN Model, is one of the most widely accepted frameworks for understanding human personality. It categorizes individuals based on five fundamental traits:
- Openness – Creativity & Curiosity
- Conscientiousness – Organization & responsibility
- Extraversion – Sociability & assertiveness
- Agreeableness – Compassion & teamwork
- Neuroticism – Emotional instability & low stress tolerance
By assessing these traits, the Big Five provides a well-rounded view of personality, helping employers gauge a candidate’s workplace behavior, adaptability, and job fit.
Core Features:
- A scientifically validated framework for personality assessment.
- Measures five fundamental traits that can influence work performance.
- Provides insights into interpersonal skills, motivation, and emotional resilience.
- Used across multiple industries for recruitment, coaching, and leadership development.
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The Big Five Test is an excellent tool for understanding workplace behavior. However, it may need to be combined with other assessments for a more detailed job-specific evaluation.
3. The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)
Next up, we have the Hogan Personality Inventory. It is a workplace-focused personality assessment designed to evaluate how individuals behave in professional settings.
While it is based on the Five-Factor Model (FFM), it goes a step further by prioritizing behavioral tendencies, leadership potential, and work-related strengths.
This test measures seven primary personality scales, including:
- Adjustment – Emotional stability & resilience
- Ambition – Drive & leadership potential
- Sociability – Interaction & teamwork tendencies
- Interpersonal Sensitivity – Empathy & communication skills
- Prudence – Discipline & reliability
- Inquisitiveness – Curiosity & problem-solving ability
- Learning Approach – Adaptability & Knowledge Acquisition
By analyzing these scales, HPI can provide insights into potential job performance, leadership capabilities, and workplace compatibility.
Core Features:
- Evaluates how personality traits impact job performance, leadership, and workplace behavior.
- Identifies employees with the skills and temperament to succeed in leadership roles.
- Measures interpersonal skills to ensure smooth team dynamics and collaboration.
- Uses decades of research in industrial-organizational psychology to provide reliable results.
- Helps companies make informed hiring decisions by forecasting long-term employee success.
- Organizations can tailor results based on their industry needs and specific job roles.
- Designed to minimize bias and provide fair assessments for diverse workplaces.
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The Hogan Personality Inventory is a powerful tool for workforce planning. It is a preferred choice for leadership assessments, corporate hiring strategies, and long-term employee development.
4. Caliper Profile
Another best personality test for hiring is The Caliper Profile test. It is a scientifically validated pre-employment personality and cognitive assessment designed to measure job-specific competencies.
Now, unlike traditional personality tests, it provides an in-depth analysis of behavioral tendencies, problem-solving skills, and cognitive abilities. So you can be ensured of comprehensive evaluation of potential employees.
This test assesses 22 robust personality traits that can really help understand the candidate’s job performance. That is what makes it one of the most powerful tools for talent selection, leadership development, and workforce optimization.
Core Features
- Evaluates a wide range of traits, ensuring a deeper understanding of individual strengths and weaknesses.
- Matches assessment results with the requirements of specific job roles for precise hiring decisions.
- Translates personality traits into measurable workplace competencies for better performance predictions.
- Unlike many other personality tests, the Caliper Profile includes problem-solving and abstract reasoning components.
- Uses advanced analytics to provide insights into potential success and cultural fit
- Helps identify and nurture future leaders based on key behavioral and cognitive indicators.
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In summary, the Caliper Profile is best suited for organizations looking for a highly detailed, research-backed assessment to ensure the right hiring and leadership decisions. While it requires more time and effort, its accuracy and predictive capabilities make it a valuable investment.
5. DISC Assessment
The DISC Assessment is a behavioral-based personality test designed to evaluate how individuals respond to challenges, interact with others, and approach their work.
Unlike deep psychological assessments, DISC focuses on observable behaviors and is widely used in hiring, leadership development, and team building.
It categorizes individuals into four main behavioral styles:
- Dominance
- Influence
- Steadiness
- Conscientiousness
By doing it, DISC provides actionable insights for improving communication, teamwork, and workplace efficiency.
Core Features
- Measures how individuals behave rather than their intrinsic personality traits.
- Categorizes individuals into Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness (DISC).
- It takes only 10-15 minutes to complete, making it highly efficient for large-scale assessments.
- Helps organizations improve team dynamics, leadership development, and hiring decisions.
- Employers can tailor assessments to different job roles and workplace needs.
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It is perfect for organizations looking for a quick, practical personality test.
6. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a widely used personality assessment tool that classifies individuals into 16 personality types based on four key dimensions:
- Extraversion (E) vs. Introversion (I) – Focus on internal thoughts vs. external interactions.
- Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N) – Preference for concrete details vs. abstract concepts.
- Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F) – Decision-making based on logic vs. emotions.
- Judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P) – Preference for structure vs. flexibility.
By analyzing these dimensions, MBTI helps individuals understand their strengths, weaknesses, preferences, and compatibility with different work environments. It is commonly used for team building, leadership training, and career guidance.
Core Features
- Categorizes individuals into 16 personality types.
- Measures preferences, strengths, and interpersonal compatibility.
- Frequently used for career development and team dynamics.
- Accessible and easy to understand, making it a popular tool across industries.
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Overall, the MBTI is one of the most popular and valuable tools for self-awareness and team development. You can undoubtedly use this as a pre-employment personality test.
7. 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF)
The 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) is a scientifically validated psychometric tool that evaluates individuals based on 16 personality traits.
What makes it different from conventional assessments?
Well, it provides a detailed analysis of behavioral tendencies, interpersonal skills, and emotional responses. The test is widely used for hiring, leadership assessment, and career counseling.
Core Features:
- Measures 16 distinct personality traits, offering a comprehensive evaluation.
- Assesses both conventional and unconventional traits like warmth and emotional stability.
- Helps employers gauge candidates’ behavioral tendencies and workplace interactions.
- Recognized for its scientific reliability and validity in predicting job performance.
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In short, the 16PF is a reliable tool for in-depth personality evaluation, but its complexity and length may limit its practicality in fast-paced hiring environments.
7. CliftonStrengths (Formerly StrengthsFinder)
CliftonStrengths, previously known as StrengthsFinder, is a personality assessment tool designed to identify an individual’s top strengths.
Developed by Gallup, it categorizes strengths into 34 talent themes across four domains.
What are the four domains of CliftonStrengths?
Well, the four domains of CliftonStrengths are Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking.
The test helps employers recognize candidates’ natural abilities and allows them to optimize job roles based on inherent strengths rather than generalized traits.
Core Features:
- Identifies an individual’s top strengths from 34 talent themes.
- Categorizes strengths into four domains to provide a structured analysis.
- Helps employers leverage candidates’ natural abilities for better job fit.
- Offers customized, candidate-specific reports for deeper insights.
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Overall, CliftonStrengths is an excellent tool for identifying and maximizing natural talents. However, its lack of focus on weaknesses sometimes makes it insufficient for comprehensive hiring decisions.
8. Enneagram Personality Test
The Enneagram Personality Test categorizes individuals into nine distinct personality types. Each of them is shaped by core motivations, fears, and desires.
Here’s a great thing about the Enneagram Personality Test. It explores deep psychological and emotional drivers and provides insight into how individuals think, feel, and behave in different situations.
While widely used for self-awareness and personal growth, it lacks scientific validation compared to other assessments. Let’s have a quick look at its main features.
Core Features
- Categorizes individuals into nine personality types based on core motivations.
- Explores deep psychological and emotional drivers behind behavior.
- Helps employers understand how personality influences workplace dynamics.
- Often used for self-awareness, leadership coaching, and team development.
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With all its core features and specialty in focusing on profound psychological or emotional drivers, undoubtedly it is one of the best personality tools for hiring.
9. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-3)
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-3) is a widely recognized, scientifically validated personality assessment tool.
This one is Primarily used in clinical psychology and it evaluates a range of psychological conditions such as anxiety, stress, and mental health disorders.
The MMPI-3 is the latest version, updated to enhance its reliability and applicability for modern assessments, including workplace settings.
Core Features:
- Designed to assess a wide range of psychological conditions like anxiety, depression, and stress.
- Updated for increased reliability and relevance in contemporary assessments.
- Helps assess how candidates will cope with stressors and workplace challenges.
- Primarily used in clinical settings but increasingly applied in recruitment for high-risk or high-stress roles.
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The MMPI-3 offers an accurate and comprehensive understanding of a candidate’s psychological condition, but its complexity and length may require professional expertise to interpret, limiting its use in fast-paced recruitment.
10. HEXACO Personality Inventory
The HEXACO Personality Inventory is an advanced personality assessment model derived from the Big Five, with the addition of a sixth factor: Honesty-Humility.
This extra dimension helps assess ethical values, integrity, and interpersonal behavior. That is why it is particularly useful for evaluating workplace ethics and trustworthiness.
The model has shown cross-cultural validity, making it a reliable tool in diverse work environments.
Core Features:
- Expands on the Big Five with a sixth trait: Honesty-Humility.
- Evaluates personality traits such as conscientiousness, emotionality, and openness.
- Offers insights into ethical views, integrity, and interpersonal behavior.
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The HEXACO Personality Inventory expands on the Big Five by adding Honesty-Humility, offering deeper insights into integrity and ethical decision-making. While it has strong predictive power for workplace behavior, its applicability across all industries is still being explored.
How to Choose the Best Personality Test for Hiring: A User’s Guide
Selecting the right personality test for your hiring process can make a huge difference in finding the perfect candidates for your company.
The right test helps assess soft skills, workplace behavior, and cultural fit. So, how do you choose the best possible personality test for your very own business?
Here are the key factors to consider before making your decision:
1. Identify Your Hiring Goals
Before choosing a personality test, define what you want to achieve. Ask yourself:
- Are you looking for leaders, team players, or independent thinkers?
- Do you need to reduce turnover by hiring employees who fit your company culture?
- Are you trying to assess soft skills like communication, adaptability, or decision-making?
Your hiring goals will determine what kind of test you need.
2. Consider Job Relevance
A good personality test should align with the specific job role. For instance:
- Customer-facing roles require strong interpersonal and communication skills.
- Leadership positions demand emotional intelligence, decision-making, and strategic thinking.
- Technical roles may require problem-solving abilities and adaptability.
Choose a test that evaluates the traits that matter most for the job.
3. Ensure It’s Easy to Use
A personality test should be simple to administer and interpret. You can consider the following things:
- Time Required: Is it short and efficient, or too lengthy for candidates?
- Ease of Understanding: The results should be easy for hiring managers to interpret.
- Scalability: It should be used for multiple candidates at once.
A well-structured test saves time and provides actionable insights.
5. Check for Legal Compliance
Always, we mean always check if the test is legally authorized in your country. It should:
- Be job-related and unbiased against race, gender, age, or disabilities.
- Not be the sole deciding factor in hiring.
- Provide fair and ethical assessments.
A compliant test protects your company from legal issues and ensures fair hiring practices.
6. Choose Between Free vs. Paid Options
Some tests are free but may lack depth, while paid tests offer detailed reports and better analysis.
- For small businesses: A free or low-cost test may be enough.
- For large companies: Investing in a professional assessment tool is often worth it for better hiring accuracy.
7. Decide When to Use the Test in Hiring
You can use a personality test at different stages of hiring:
- Pre-screening stage: Helps filter out candidates who don’t match job expectations.
- After the first interview: Provides deeper insights into personality and work style.
- Final selection process: Helps choose between top candidates.
Using personality tests strategically can lead to smarter hiring decisions. That is why, keep these things in mind and choose the best test possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are personality tests 100% accurate?
No test is 100% accurate, but well-designed personality assessments provide valuable insights. They should be used alongside other hiring methods like structured interviews, skills tests, and background checks for the best results.
Can candidates “cheat” on personality tests?
While candidates can try to manipulate answers, modern personality tests use built-in mechanisms (such as consistency checks) to detect dishonest responses. So, the best approach is to answer honestly, as many tests can spot forced or exaggerated traits.
Are there any legal considerations for using personality tests in hiring?
Yes, companies must follow standard compliance rules before applying one of these tests. Moreover, employers must comply with the candidate’s privacy rights.
Should personality tests be the only factor in hiring?
No, Absolutely not! Personality tests should be one of multiple hiring tools. While they provide useful insights, employers should also consider skills assessments, experience, and interviews when making a hiring decision.
Can small businesses use personality tests for hiring?
Yes, absolutely! Many affordable personality tests like Sajoki are available for small businesses. Even without a large HR team, companies can use these tests to improve hiring decisions and team dynamics.
Final Thought
By now, you have a clear idea of how pre-employment personality tests can improve the hiring process. These tests don’t just help in selecting the right candidate. They also reduce turnover, improve team dynamics, and promote fair hiring decisions.
However, remember that no test should be the sole deciding factor in hiring. Combining personality assessments with structured interviews, skills tests, and background checks will give you the best results.
If you’re looking to improve your hiring strategy, choosing the right personality test from our list will help you build a stronger, more productive team. That’s all for today, Happy Hiring!
