The Use of Personality Assessment in the Recruitment and Selection Process - Essay Example

Looking for the right candidate to fill in a job can be tough. Seeking the right employee is critical to a company’s total performance because it is after all its human resources that would ultimately determine how a company would perform. Having the right people would mean increased productivity and output while the opposite would mean lackluster performance that can undermine the company’s bottom line. Needless to say, looking for the right candidate for a job is very important. 

  Personality tests and hiring interviews are used but research revealed that they have low levels of reliability and validity. There are several methods of measuring personality.  They are personality inventories, projective tests and simulations, role-playing exercises, and stress interviews Personality tests also might yield an inaccurate assessment of a candidate’s real personality and character trait because a candidate might “fake“ the employment test by providing a distorted response to the tests.

Thus to ensure the reliability of a screening process, three methods are employed to establish the reliability of the screening process. These reliability measures are test-retest reliability, parallel forms, and internal consistency.  Test and re-test only meant that a prospective candidate is likely to provide the same answer when given the same employment test.  Parallel forms are like a validity generalization whereby a candidate is likely to perform just the same even in settings that are different from the one in which it was validated while internal consistency meant that there are no contradictions with the information given by a prospective candidate for a job.

Some of the widely used methodology in determining personality is the Big Five personality dimensions or Big Five-Factor Model. These are composed of an individual’s extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness to experience.  When properly administered, the “Big Five Personality Dimensions” can be very helpful in determining an individual’s character that relates to the job.  Its five dimensions can capture the components necessary for performing a desirable work outcome.