An Introduction to Personality Tests vs. Behavioral Assessments
Just because you have an open seat doesn’t mean you want to fill it with just anyone – trust us, the short-term benefits of a quick, barely assessed hire do not outweigh the financial and morale benefits of a well-fit long-term candidate.
But you already know this, so you’re looking for the person who will thrive in the role and contribute to your organization’s success.
Personality tests and behavioral assessments have emerged as popular tools to help HR leaders, like you, make smarter hiring decisions.
So, which is more effective for hiring teams when screening candidates to find the right fit?
Let’s explore both to help you decide.
What Are Personality Tests?
Personality tests are psychological tools designed to measure stable traits like extroversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability. They aim to describe “who” a person is based on their preferences, tendencies, and attributes.
You’ve probably heard someone proudly rattle off their Myers-Briggs letters — “I’m an INTJ!” — as if it’s their personal motto.
Personality tests have a way of sticking with people because they tap into something universal: the desire to understand ourselves and how we relate to others.
Some examples include:
- The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) categorizes individuals into 16 personality types based on preferences like introversion vs. extroversion or thinking vs. feeling.
- The Enneagram dives deeper into motivations and fears, assigning one of nine personality archetypes.
- The DISC assessment focuses on communication styles and interpersonal tendencies.
Personality assessments have been around for nearly a century. One of the earliest models was Cattell’s 16PF, developed in the 1930s to categorize personality traits into measurable factors.
Later, psychologists unified these frameworks into the Five-Factor Model (also known as OCEAN: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism), which remains a cornerstone of modern personality testing today.
While personality tests are great for understanding broad traits, they’re less effective at predicting specific job-related behaviors — a limitation that becomes clear when screening candidates for high-stakes roles.
That’s where behavioral assessments come in, shifting the focus from who someone is to how they’re likely to perform on the job – a pretty important factor when it comes to utilizing these assessments for candidate screening, don’t you think?
What Are Behavioral Assessments?
Behavioral assessments are predictive tools that evaluate how candidates are likely to perform specific job-related tasks or competencies. They focus on “how” a person will behave in a work environment.
While personality tests focus on “who” a person is, a behavioral assessment takes it a step further by analyzing “how” they are likely to perform in specific job-related tasks based on who they are.
These predictive talent assessment tools are designed to evaluate whether a candidate’s behaviors align with the demands of the role, offering insights that go beyond general traits.
They help answer questions like:
- Will this candidate thrive in a fast-paced environment?
- Can they effectively prioritize tasks under pressure?
- Are they likely to build strong relationships with clients or colleagues?
- Do they show leadership skills or potential?
For example, a behavioral assessment doesn’t just tell you if someone is extroverted or agreeable — because that really doesn’t impact job function — it predicts how they’ll behave in critical areas like task prioritization, problem-solving, or relationship-building.
This shift in focus makes behavioral assessments uniquely valuable for hiring decisions, as they directly address job-specific competencies rather than broad personality descriptions.
How Behavioral Assessments Work
Behavioral assessments rely on science-backed methodologies to connect candidate behaviors with job success.
Based on the underpinning statistical model, these tools predict how likely a candidate is to excel in areas critical to the job — such as teamwork, adaptability, or strategic thinking.
For example, many behavioral assessments use competency mapping. With frameworks like the Occupational Information Network (O*NET), we can measure key work activities for a role and map them to specific behavioral competencies.
Most organizations find success when they list the most important 5-10 work activities for a role. For a sales manager, key work activities might include building client relationships, closing deals, managing team performance, and developing sales strategies.
Once you have that identified, you can match those work activities with a behavioral trait. Continuing with our sales example, building client relationships might align with traits like empathy and interpersonal communication while closing deals could correlate with assertiveness and strategic thinking.
Then, the assessment provides questions designed to rate candidates on that trait. Questions for sales candidates might include how they would prioritize tasks during a busy sales cycle or approach resolving customer objections during negotiations.
Based on the answers, you’ll be able to see the predicted “match” level for that role — strong, medium, or weak (or other categories depending on the assessment tool you’re using).
Check out an example of what this looks like inside our Predictive Talent Assessment.
As you can see, when it comes to evaluating candidates, personality tests and behavioral assessments take very different approaches, measuring distinctly different things.
While personality tests offer a broad understanding of traits and tendencies, behavioral assessments focus on predicting job-specific behaviors that directly impact performance.
Understanding these differences is key to choosing the right tool for your hiring needs.
What About Skill Assessments?
At this point, you might be asking yourself if behavioral assessments and skill assessments or skills tests are the same thing.
It’s a great question to ask.
The short answer is no, they’re not the same thing at all; they serve very different purposes in candidate screening and selection.
Skill assessments grade a candidate’s ability to perform specific tasks — like coding, writing, or operating machinery. While, again, behavioral assessments focus on predicting how a candidate will approach their work, measuring competencies like teamwork, adaptability, and problem-solving.
You can dig into skills tests a bit more in our comprehensive talent assessment landscape guide.
Reducing Hiring Bias with Behavioral Assessments
Behavioral assessments are great.
But you might be wondering about hiring bias — and how the tech accounts for, and actively avoids, hiring bias.
A quality behavioral assessment is designed to provide objective, data-driven evaluations that focus solely on job-relevant competencies.
Behavioral assessments actively reduce bias through:
- Objective Scoring: It relies on scientifically validated models to evaluate candidates based on their responses to job-specific questions. These responses are scored objectively against predefined criteria, ensuring consistency and fairness across all candidates.
- Standardized Evaluation: Every candidate is assessed against the same set of competencies tied to the role’s requirements. This consistency eliminates the variability that can arise from personal biases during interviews or resume reviews.
- Focus on Job-Relevant Competencies: By tying assessments directly to the behaviors required for success in a specific role, behavioral assessments avoid irrelevant factors that might otherwise influence hiring decisions.
- Anti-Bias Design: A good behavioral assessment solution is developed using rigorous validation processes to ensure they are free from cultural, gender, or other demographic biases. This includes pilot testing the assessments with diverse groups and conducting statistical analyses to confirm fairness across different populations.
By implementing behavioral assessments, organizations of all sizes can ensure every candidate is evaluated fairly based on their ability to perform the job.
Key Differences Between Personality Tests and Behavioral Assessments
As you should have a good grasp on at this point in our article, personality tests and behavioral assessments take very different approaches.
While personality tests offer a broad understanding of traits and tendencies, behavioral assessments focus on predicting job-specific behaviors that directly impact performance.
Not entirely sure how yet? Let’s break it down further.
The Primary Focus: Traits vs. Behaviors
Imagine you’re hiring for a customer service role.
One candidate’s personality test results show they’re highly extroverted and agreeable—traits that suggest they’ll thrive in a people-facing role.
But how do you know if they’ll stay calm under pressure when dealing with an upset customer or prioritize tasks effectively during peak hours?
This is where the distinction between personality tests and behavioral assessments becomes critical.
- Personality tests measure stable traits that paint a broad picture of “who” a person is. For example, someone scoring high on conscientiousness might be detail-oriented and reliable — great traits for many roles, but not necessarily predictive of their performance in specific job situations.
- Behavioral assessments evaluate competencies directly tied to job success. For instance, a behavioral assessment might predict whether that same customer service candidate can de-escalate tense situations or juggle competing priorities effectively — skills critical to excelling in the role.
By focusing on behaviors rather than just traits, behavioral assessments provide actionable insights into how candidates are likely to perform in specific roles, giving you the confidence to make smarter hiring decisions.
How They’re Best Used
Both personality tests and behavioral assessments have their place at work.
But not in the same way.
Knowing what we do about these tests, it becomes easier to see that personality tests are often best suited for team building or self-awareness exercises.
For example, a new leader on a team might use personality tests to understand each member’s communication style or preferences.
They might also use these tools to identify how each person on their team tends to handle stress, success, and their overall perspective and point of view.
This can be extremely helpful when it comes to giving feedback or building development plans.
So really, personality tests are better used after you hire someone.
Behavioral assessments can be leveraged before you hire someone.
That’s because they are built to mirror the competencies needed to excel in a specific job. You can measure skills like problem-solving, initiative, communication, relationship-building, and more.
When you focus on job-specific behaviors (not personality inclinations), you get a more accurate (and less biased) picture of whether or not this person will find success in the role at your company.
Their Predictive Validity
One of the most significant differences between these tools is their predictive validity — their ability to accurately forecast job performance.
Behavioral assessments consistently outperform personality tests in this area:
- Personality tests have a predictive validity coefficient of approximately 0.23, meaning they offer moderate reliability for predicting success in specific roles.
- Behavioral assessments boast a much higher predictive validity coefficient — around 0.43 — making them far more accurate for hiring decisions.
Learn more about the predictive validity of Spark Hire Meet’s Predictive Talent Assessment, here.
So if you’re looking for a more reliable predictor of candidate performance and success, behavioral assessments are the way to go.
Smarter Screening, Stronger Candidates
You know how important your screening process is to finding the right talent.
And as you’ve hopefully learned today, amplifying it with behavioral assessments gives you a powerful advantage — especially over personality tests.
By focusing on job-specific behaviors rather than broad traits, they provide real insights that help predict job success and reduce costly employee turnover.
*Humble Brag Alert*
Our Predictive Talent Assessment stands out as one of the few behavioral assessment solutions available, empowering organizations to hire smarter and build stronger teams for long-term organizational success.
Check it out for yourself with a demo!
