INDUSTRY ISSUES AND TRENDS
OUTDATED TESTING METHODS
Older personality tests were developed to be paper-based tests. Even though many have been updated and digital versions exist, they are still largely the same question-answer tests as before.
These tests are often inconsistent because good test takers know how to take a test to achieve the desired results by understanding its logic. On the other hand, many people experience test anxiety and are unable to perform well on a test. Both of these situations can skew test results.
Older tests cannot adapt to different groups and testing situations. It’s not possible to change the situations, rules, circumstances, or deadlines in the middle of a test to gauge the candidate's reactions and adaptability. Many of these people are great candidates in real-life situations, but they get overlooked due to a subjective test that is not interactive.
Finally, older personality tests also have a so-called “halo effect.” People try to manipulate answers on a test to make themselves seem the way they think the employer wants them to answer.
A DIGITAL GAMIFICATION VOID
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There is a general trend towards the digitization of traditional paper-based tests. However, the general approach is to simply transform the paper-based test into a digital version without changing it or adding value to it.
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Gamification, on the other hand, takes existing personality tests, but adds value by making them into games that are adaptive, interactive, and have a variety of scenarios that test various characteristics within a single test.
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The market has a void in terms of gamified personality tests, as so far the only gamified tests that have been developed are for individual companies and not for the market in general. There are currently no gamified tests that can test more than a few candidates at the same time in a single game.
LACK OF CUSTOMIZED TESTING
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In the real world, jobs, skills, and responsibilities change often, but there is currently a lack of customization when it comes to personality tests. They are all largely the same and do not change. Each candidate goes through the same test as the thousands of candidates before them.
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Tests available on the market do not make it possible to test specific qualities needed for a particular job. There is no ability to test job candidates in real testing scenarios with future colleagues, which would provide a real-life glimpse of how a new employee would fit with a current team.
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When looking to assign a new project or task to an existing work team, it would be beneficial to evaluate the team overall and the individuals within it. This would make it possible to develop a team that is most likely to be successful on the project. When seeking a candidate for a position on an existing team, adaptive, customized testing would make it possible to find someone who excels in the specific skill set that is required, which has previously been lacking in the existing team.
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For existing teams, adaptive, customized testing would help make improvements and objectively identify team members who are pushing the team forward and those who are holding the team back to make changes to the team that would improve its overall productivity and effectiveness.
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The above is currently impossible to achieve with the tests available on the market.
TEAM ASSESSMENT
To this day, personality tests have been used to test individuals, not teams. It is hard to find a job where a person will always work alone and not interact with others, making it imperative to test team member compatibility. Although there are no hard rules for compatibility between individuals, some personalities fit together better than others.
Existing tests do not identify the strengths and weaknesses of team members objectively and do not make goals for improvements in their individual weakness areas.
STRESS SCENARIOS
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Time
Tests available on the market have a fixed-time allotment, but this is usually the only time constraint. For professionals in any industry that know how to work under the pressure of a deadline, this is rarely a stress test.
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Noise
When taking a personality test the typical setting is a quiet room with earmuffs and absolutely no noise. The ideal situation for test-taking, but far away from a real-world scenario on the job. Various noises impact decision-making, which would add stress to the test taker. With so many different work environments, including working from home, candidates for any position should be capable of working in noisy environments to be effective at their future job.
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Distractions
Test takers are rarely distracted when taking a traditional personality test. This may have worked in the past with personal offices at every workplace, quiet meeting rooms, and cubicles, but this is not representative of the current work environment where open spaces and home offices dominate. Children, spouses, deliveries, home chores, and much more are active distractions and the reaction of the candidate to them must be tested.