Insights on Developing and Customizing Personality Inventories for Selection and Recruitment

Dear All,

I would like to know whether personality inventories can be customized to a particular firm's requirements and if expertise help is needed to do so. Can someone suggest websites or books that will help in designing and developing a personality inventory?

Thanks & Regards,

Durga

Durga:
Do you need to develop your own? Why not use one that has already been developed? Personality is only a part of job success.

Hi, Durga,

It takes a long time and much effort to create and develop a personality inventory. This job is done by only trained and certified psychologists. An effective personality inventory is standardized and validated over time. If this procedure is not done, then the results of such tests will not be valid and will not bear the desired results. Customization of already existing personality inventories itself takes a long time, and you will need to take permission from the original creator of that inventory (mostly you will not get it - try asking CPP whether you can customize MBTI!).

I suggest you use only standardized and validated inventories to ensure that you can measure exactly what you want to measure.

Besides this, personality inventories are not of much value in selection and recruitment. I suggest that you go in for some competency tests based on person specification and role/job profiles or competency maps that your organization may have developed. This would be a far more objective way of selecting the right person for the right job.

Hope that helped.

Regards,

Maliha Raza

Trainer, Coach, Consultant

Contact me at maliha_raza@vsnl.com

Hi Maliha,

Thanks for your suggestion. Aren't personality inventories widely used in selection and recruitment? If not, how can the traits required for the job be measured?

Regards,
Durga

Robert,

I am interested in developing a personality inventory. One's career must be a projection of one's personality to be a success. Is it not?

Regards,
Durga

Hi Durga,

I think personality inventories need not be customized as they are validated. You can use the Thomas Profile as a tool, as this helps you not only for recruitment but also for the training and career development of the individual. You can visit www.careerconsultants.co.uk for details.

Gautam

Hi Durga,

Yes, personality inventories are being used widely for selection, promotion, and development. Personally, I have found that simply using a personality inventory is not helpful. After all, personality is a subjective thing. What I mean is - let us say you are measuring team effectiveness using the ABC personality inventory. The parameters that ABC uses may or may not be the right parameters to use. Frequently, you find that different inventories use different parameters to measure the same supposed trait. Besides this, is it really ethical to select and place people based on something as subjective as "personality" - after all, what IS personality really? Is it behaviors? Is it attitudes? Beliefs? Values? Is the person really able to help being the way he/she is? It's like selecting a person based on their gender, race, or color. The debate on this topic is endless. I have resolved this issue in my own mind by preferring to use competency tests for the primary selection and using personality inventories as "support" mechanisms only.

My personal recommendation is that you develop a job profile and person specification for the position you want to recruit for and then use some objective methods like a behavioral-event interview for assessing the competencies you may have identified. If you want more help and information on how to do this, please feel free to write to me at maliha_raza@vsnl.com. I will be glad to be of help.

With regards,

Maliha Raza

Trainer, Coach, Consultant

Hello Durga:

I am interested in developing a personality inventory. Do you mean you want to develop your own personality inventory or a new, well-designed, validated, and reliable assessment? The assessment we use took years to research, test, validate, etc., and it cost multiple millions of US dollars.

"One's career must be a projection of one's personality to be a success. Is it not?" We use that concept in our business, so I agree with you.

Hello Maliha and Durga,

Yes, there is a way to have a personality inventory, and it can be customized. It is already being done in India. As a consultant, I am already getting software developed by an HOD of the Psychology Department, which will cater to the IT industry only. The other is for students in the age group of 12 to 24. We are already in the process of developing two modules for leadership traits and motivation levels.

Dear Reema,

Namaskar.

Happy to meet you and very happy to learn about your pursuits. I hope your area of expertise will continue to expand further. Wishing you all the best.

Regards,
Jogeshwar

Hey...

An old topic, I guess... but interesting anyway.

I agree with Robert... Developing a personality test is a huge task that requires a significant investment in all respects: time, money, and effort.

Personally, I use some personality tests like the 16 PF in training programs, either in isolation or in tandem with outbound training programs. By the way, I am a psychologist and an outdoor trainer (we use the outdoors as a medium for learning). This gives me an opportunity to use these instruments after validating them with the data generated in outdoor settings. Believe me, some of these tests provide fantastic insights when used for the right purpose. Two key things to be mindful of are using an instrument that is culture-specific and utilizing these tools for development purposes. If they are to be used for recruitment, it is better to supplement them with other data like interviews.

Reema, I would be interested in knowing more about the Psychometric Test (For IT) you are talking about... If you would like to share...

Take care, Mamta

Hello Reema,

I am very delighted to hear that personality inventories are customized in India. I am also involved in designing an inventory for an IT company. I have identified the traits to be measured.

It would be great to hear more about the inventory you were talking about. Also, I would be obliged if you could assist me.

All the best in developing other modules successfully!!!

Regards,
Durga

There is a book named "Training Instruments in HRD and OD" by Udai Pareek. It talks about a lot of personality inventory tools. It might be helpful to you.

Regards,
Poonam