In a world brimming with diverse individuals, understanding ourselves and others is essential for personal and professional growth. With hybrid and remote working environments limiting face-to-Face Interactions, it is even more challenging to gauge and understand others accurately.
Even though personality assessment tools exist, are wide-ranging in nature, and are also very accessible, their value is often underestimated. There is an assumption that people ought to know themselves well enough already. However, that's not always the case!
And since personality profiling, and assessing strengths and weaknesses isn’t something that is routinely done at either university or work and is often reserved only for leadership teams, it's both unfortunate and pretty short-sighted. Personality assessments should not only be a tool for leaders, they can empower all employees and bring value to both businesses and individuals alike.
Here’s the lowdown on some of the key benefits they can offer to your startup and your employees.
What are the benefits for business?
Team growth and development
Your employees will also gain deeper insights and knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses, whilst managers will be able to identify the opportunities or tasks that best match those strengths and allow employees to shine.
In addition, managers will have a much clearer understanding of how their teams like to be managed, coached, and developed as well as why certain individuals may either irritate each other or work better together. Employees will also have a better understanding of how they are perceived by others and how and when to adapt to different people and communication styles, thereby helping them grow as individuals and also develop more effective working relationships, leading to a more cohesive team environment.
TEAM HAPPINESS
Personality assessments can also help your team to learn more about each other, about each individual’s communication style, values, and perspectives on the world. They’ll be more conscious and appreciative of personality differences rather than being irritated by them!
As a result, there is likely to be less conflict, fewer misunderstandings, and a greater sense of belonging and team harmony! Having a happier team will also increase the potential for collaboration as when people understand each other, it’s much easier to share ideas, make connections and prevent silos from forming.
HELP FILL THE GAPS
Personality assessments can help you to assess and clarify what personality types you currently have in your startup and thereby also see what's missing. They will help you to identify any particular perspectives or traits that you don't have within your current team, which can then assist with your future hiring and talent pipelining.
Talent attraction and retention
If you're deemed to be the type of organisation that is proactive about using personality assessments for personal and professional development it can have a positive impact on how your startup is viewed and thereby help you attract new talent as well as retain the team you have. Employees and potential new hires will also feel more valued by your clear commitment to their personal development.
What are the benefits for employees?
Helps personal development
In terms of personal development, assessments will help your employees to understand how to communicate better and learn how to get along with other people more effectively and build stronger connections.
They'll also become more aware of how they'd be potentially perceived by other personality types and become more conscious of the need to respect differences, bridge gaps and minimise conflict and friction.
Assists career development
They can help employees to become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses, areas they need to work on and develop. As a result, they’ll be better equipped to make the right decisions as they carve out their career paths and take those next steps. Being more knowledgeable about their innate aptitudes or talents and abilities that they have perhaps previously overlooked, will also help them to reach their full career potential.
Increases job satisfaction
Having an employer who understands the value of personality assessments, will also help an employee to feel much more valued and increase their levels of job satisfaction. They’ll appreciate the focus being put on helping them to develop both personally and professionally.
What kind of things do they cover?
Personality
Assessments can be used to identify all sorts of personality traits that employees may have or exhibit - from openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness to extraversion, introversion, or neuroticism.
Social behaviour
They can also be used to assess typical behaviours, from how someone interacts with others and their communication style, to their leadership tendencies and ability to empathise and cooperate.
Emotional intelligence
They can also help identify and assess how well someone understands and manages their emotions. This may highlight both self-awareness and an ability to regulate their own emotions as well as being capable of respecting and empathising with others.
Cognitive Abilities
Assessments can also prove to be a really effective way of determining an individual's intellectual strengths and/or any areas requiring improvement. Cognitive assessments to assess verbal and non-verbal reasoning capabilities, problem-solving, memory, or creative thinking skills can be of great value.
Behavioural Patterns
They can also be used to assess an individual's decision-making style, risk tolerance, persistence, or adaptability. The insights provided can be really useful in predicting how an employee may respond in various situations.
Values and Motivations
Using assessments to help identify an individual's personal values, ethical beliefs, or motivations can also be highly beneficial. They can help to shine a light on what drives them, and what guides their actions and decision-making.
Stress Coping Mechanisms
They can help assess how individuals cope with stress, uncertainty, and adversity, identifying. particular coping strategies and levels of resilience as well as enabling individuals to better understand how they respond to stress and any potential areas needing improvement.
How much do they cost?
There are a huge variety of assessments available to meet all sorts of needs and budgets There are online tools that provide free results, assessments that provide reports and insights for under £50 or more detailed reports for under £100. Alternatively, there is also the option to bring in an external consultant to facilitate or deliver team days, assessments or sessions.
We’ve put together a list of some personality assessments worth considering, so no matter what your budget is, you'll hopefully find something that works for you and your startup.
Free
This online test aims to help assess what drives, inspires and worries different personality types. The basic test and results are free however you can pay to access additional more detailed reports or for team assessments.
Under £25
The DISC test assesses your behaviour towards others and the everyday things you do. You can get a free assessment or pay £15 to receive a more in-depth report on your personality profile.
Assessing the five core personality traits as identified by psychologists, you can complete this test for free and then have the option of getting a free report with the basic findings or paying £23 for a more comprehensive version. They also offer team and group packages.
This test assesses your personality type and how this reflects your motivations, fears and internal dynamics. You can get a basic overview of your results for free or receive a more detailed report for £23.
Under £60
Using positive psychology, this assessment identifies your top strengths out of 34 potential themes. It then provides you with a ranked list of your strengths, helping you focus on leveraging and developing them to reach your true potential.
Under £100
This company offers a range of options at varying prices, from their Insights Discovery foundation profile for £80 which is a tool that improves communication, career development and team effectiveness, to their Insights Explore option for £35 which helps people to explore their personality preferences and gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others to their Insights Discovery teaser test which is free!
Personality assessments are there to empower employees! They can help us to understand our own personality traits, gain a clearer picture of our unique qualities and inherent strengths as well as provide an opportunity to gain deeper insights into how our personalities interact with others. That self-discovery can help unlock hidden potential, enhance interpersonal relationships, and build stronger affinity with the company you work for.
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Who we are
Offering personalised, consultative service, at TableCrowd Talent we’re a specialist recruitment agency with our finger on the pulse of the startup and scaleup scene. We are committed to matching graduates, professionals, and C-level executives to exciting startup and scaleup jobs across London, the UK, and Europe.
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