Personality tests are “growing like wildfire,” said Josh Bersin, president and CEO of Bersin & Associates, an Oakland, Calif., research firm. The employment assessment market overall is worth about $2 billion, up 15 percent from last year, he said.
About one-third of employers use testing for hiring and promotions, according to Development Dimensions International, a talent management firm. A Society for Human Resources Managements poll in 2005, the most recent data available, found that 23 percent of surveyed organizations used "online, minimum qualifications screening questionnaires, questions that may knock candidates out of the recruiting process.”
When applicants apply for a job online these days, they are increasingly being asked to take personality tests even before they exchange an e-mail or have a phone interview with a hiring manager.
Such tests are being used by companies inundated with resumes in this tough job market as a way to prune the endless job applications they get via job boards and their own sites. But these assessments may also be used to weed out job seekers with mental disabilities, and that’s a legal no-no.
About one-third of employers use testing for hiring and promotions, according to Development Dimensions International, a talent management firm. A Society for Human Resources Managements poll in 2005, the most recent data available, found that 23 percent of surveyed organizations used "online, minimum qualifications screening questionnaires, questions that may knock candidates out of the recruiting process.”
When applicants apply for a job online these days, they are increasingly being asked to take personality tests even before they exchange an e-mail or have a phone interview with a hiring manager.
Such tests are being used by companies inundated with resumes in this tough job market as a way to prune the endless job applications they get via job boards and their own sites. But these assessments may also be used to weed out job seekers with mental disabilities, and that’s a legal no-no.