Job Applicants who have Personality Problems: Pre-Employment Tests Help You Avoid Hiring Trouble

Oct 21
07:15

2011

Michael Mercer, Ph.D.

Michael Mercer, Ph.D.

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certain pre-employment personality tests can help you avoid hiring people who have personality problems. Here is how specific personality tests can enable you to hire people with productive personalities – and avoid hiring those disgusting people with personality problems that will drag down your company’s organizational culture and financial success.

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Imagine your horror as you observe an employee making trouble in your company.  Imagine how this troublemaking employee with personality problems . . .

-  increases costs

-  hurts profits

-  harms productivity

-  disrupts co-workers

-  needs extra management attention

-  makes you cringe

Fortunately,Job Applicants who have Personality Problems: Pre-Employment Tests Help You Avoid Hiring Trouble Articles certain pre-employment personality tests can help you avoid hiring people who have personality problems.  Here is how specific personality tests can enable you to hire people with productive personalities – and avoid hiring those disgusting people with personality problems that will drag down your company’s organizational culture and financial success. 

7 PERSONALITY PROBLEMS of PEOPLE YOU WANT to AVOID HIRING

As pre-employment test researcher and creator, as a Ph.D. in industrial psychologist, I discovered troublemaking employees most often display seven personality problems: 

1.  Liars – dishonest, hate following instructions, and refuse to admit work difficulties

2.  Obnoxious & Pushy – ‘eat people up before breakfast, and spit them out before lunch’

3.  Anarchists – rebel against following your company’s rules, policies, and procedures

4.  Complainers – react to pressure by whining, moaning, and complaining

5.  Pessimists – down-in-the-dumps, low-confidence, and seek to drag down co-workers’ moods

6.  High Strung – cannot sit still and concentrate and, even worse, does not want to concentrate on work

7.  Emotionally Volatile – enjoys focusing on their array of negative emotions

GOOD NEWS = PRE-EMPLOYMENT TEST FORECASTS JOB APPLICANT’S PERSONALITY PROBLEMS

On one pre-employment test I created, “Behavior Forecaster(tm) Test,” I devised personality test scales that reveal if a job applicant has certain personality problems.  Here are examples of test scores of applicants with certain personality problems:

1.  Liars – low score on the test’s Honesty/”Accuracy” scale

2.  Pushy and Obnoxious applicants – horribly high score on Assertiveness scale

3.  Anarchists who despise your rules & procedures – low score on Following Rules & Procedures scale

4.  Complainers – low score on Reaction to Pressure scale

5.  Pessimistic – low score on Optimism scale

6.  High Strung – score Excitable on Calm-Versus Excitable scale

7.  Emotionally Volatile – score Feeling-Focused on Feeling- versus Fact-Focused scale

QUESTION = WHY DOES PRE-EMPLOYMENT TEST “CATCH” PERSONALITY PROBLEMS BETTER THAN INTERVIEWS & REFERENCE CHECKS?

Answer #1 = Interviewers typically are lousy at evaluating applicants in job interviews.  For instance, most applicants act nice and accommodating during job interviews.  That is a ‘show’ to win a job offer.  Unfortunately, most interviewers fail to uncover personality problems during interviews. 

Answer #2 = Reference checks very often fail to uncover personality problems.  When you call an applicant’s previous bosses, those ex-bosses typically (A) refuse to reveal useful information or (B) sugarcoat their comments by not mentioning ex-employees’ flaws.  The flaws they hide from you usually are productivity and personality problems. 

Given common problems of job interviews and reference checks, what can you do to avoid hiring people with personality problems?  The answer is to use a personality test designed specifically for pre-employment testing. 

MORE GOOD NEWS = PRE-EMPLOYMENT PERSONALITY TEST MAKES IT EASY FOR YOU TO AVOID HIRING PEOPLE WITH PERSONALITY PROBLEMS

The best way to not have troublemakers on your payroll is not to hire troublemakers. 

The best way to not have employees with personality problems is not to hire people who have personality problems, such as

-  Lying

-  Terrible aggressiveness

-  Dislike for following your company’s rules and procedures

-  Complaining, blaming, & moaning

-  Pessimism & lack of confidence

-  Hyper-excitability

-  Emotion-focused on their feelings rather than getting work done

A pre-employment personality test that forecasts such horrible personality problems immensely helps you.  The personality test helps you identify good applicants – those applicants who have personalities of hard-working, productive employees – the type you crave to hire.  

Also, the pre-employment personality test can warn you about other applicants with personality problems – the ticking time-bombs you must avoid hiring if you want to operate an efficient, productive, profitable company. 

COPYRIGHT 2011 MICHAEL MERCER, PH.D., www.Pre-EmploymentTests.com