One of the most undervalued resources in your organisation may be gathering dust in a drawer. And no, it’s not the cake from last week.
Every time you recruit a new employee, both the company and the candidate invest time and energy in a personality test. But how often is that test revisited during onboarding? Often, the answer is never. And that’s a big mistake! It’s a bit like buying a KitchenAid food processor and only using it for whipped cream.
The problem: Waste of resources and loss of knowledge
Imagine your organisation has just hired a new employee. You’ve spent time finding the right candidate, tested their personality and intelligence and made a decision based on that insight. But what happens after that? If the test is ‘archived’ and never used again, valuable knowledge is lost.
- It’s a waste of resources – if the employee needs to be reassessed later, you’ll have to start all over again.
- You lose a unique opportunity to tailor the onboarding process to the individual.
- Opportunities for development are overlooked because no one is looking at how the employee can grow best within the organisation.
Solution: Ensure active use of the test – even after recruitment
Instead of seeing the personality test as a one-off tool, it should be integrated into the employee’s development journey. Here are two obvious occasions when to revisit the test:
- Onboarding: When a new employee starts, the test provides an insight into how best to customise the onboarding process. Should the person take on very independent tasks from the start? Do they need quick recognition? How steep a learning curve can you expect? This makes their start-up much more effective – and saves you from endless guesswork and improvised solutions.
- Performance reviews and appraisals: The personality test can provide an explanatory framework for employee well-being and performance. Maybe some tasks are not a good match? Perhaps there is untapped potential that can be harnessed? By having a dialogue based on the test, tasks can be better prioritised so that the employee creates maximum value – and doesn’t just end up doing things.
Can a personality test be too old?
Personality is relatively stable over time, but it can evolve, and exactly how long a test is useful depends on several factors.
Firstly: Age plays a role. We typically see the biggest personality changes around the ages of 18 and 30. It makes sense – you go from being young and curious to being more established in your career and personal life. The younger you are when you take the test, the more likely your personality is to develop.
In addition, major life events can also leave their mark. A career change, a crisis or significant changes in our personal lives can change the way we think and act. If an employee has gone through a major life change, it may be relevant to revisit the test to make sure it still gives an accurate picture.
So how long does a personality test last? As a rule of thumb, data can often be reused for 2–5 years. However, the most important thing isn’t necessarily the age of the test – it’s whether it still makes sense in the current context. If not, it might be time for an update.
Conclusion: Ask yourself this question
When was the last time you revisited an employee’s personality test?
If the answer is ‘we don’t remember’, then there’s a great opportunity waiting. By actively using these tests, you can create better onboarding, more targeted development and a workplace where employees thrive and perform better.
So next time a new employee is tested – don’t let the test results end up in a drawer. They can be the key to both company and employee success. And who knows? You might even avoid an onboarding so chaotic that the employee gets flashbacks to the time they had to assemble IKEA furniture without a manual – and always ended up with one screw left over.
