How Agreeableness Can Impact Recruitment: A Comprehensive Guide

March 7, 2023
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Claire Stachniewska
How Agreeableness Can Impact Recruitment: A Comprehensive Guide

Agreeableness is one of the most important traits that a job candidate can possess. Not only will your candidate's personality help them to succeed in the position, but it will also help to create a positive work environment. 

By assessing candidates personality traits, you will be able to identify which candidates would be best suited for the position. Not convinced this personality trait can have such a big impact on recruitment? 

Read on to find out just how important agreeableness is when it comes to making a solid hire.

The Importance of Assessing Agreeableness in Pre-Employment Screening

Personality tests have become increasingly popular over the past few decades, particularly among employers. These tests can provide valuable insights into a candidate's agreeableness and other traits.

Wondering why? Well, agreeable colleagues are invaluable in a team setting and can make a greater impact than their more conscientious counterparts. Their positive demeanor makes them attractive to other team members, leading to better collaboration. 

They can also be central to creating a pleasant organizational culture and for unearthing the other members' full potential. Agreeable team members can be essential for positive outcomes and achieving maximum productivity.

However, it is important to keep in mind that these tests are not infallible; they are only one part of the hiring process. Employers should also take into account a candidate's resume and interview performance. By utilizing personality tests in combination with other methods, employers can get a more complete picture of a candidate's suitability for the job.

What is Agreeableness and Why Does it Matter in the Workplace?

Agreeableness is one of the five major personality traits identified by psychologists. It is defined as a tendency to be cooperative, helpful, and conciliatory. People who are high in agreeableness are typically nice and easy to get along with. They are good at solving other people's problems, and they tend to be favorable toward others. 

In the workplace, agreeable people are often seen as excellent team players and good conflict resolvers. However, there’s a fine balance. Too much agreeableness can lead to passivity and a lack of assertiveness. People who are too agreeable may also be taken advantage of, since they tend to be trusting and willing to please others without questioning motives. 

The Benefits of Using Personality Tests in Pre-Employment Screening

Employment screening can be an important step in shaping the culture and success of an organization. However, traditional methods of screening can be limited in their scope and may not always provide an accurate depiction of a candidate's potential. 

Personality tests, on the other hand, can offer a more detailed view of an individual's traits, skills, and aptitudes. By using personality tests, such as The Big Five Check, as part of pre-employment screening, companies can gain a better understanding of how a candidate will fit into the team and the workplace environment. 

In addition, personality tests can be used to gauge a candidate's likely reactions to various workplace situations, helping to better predict the workplace performance of potential employees. 

Lastly, when used in conjunction with other assessment methods, such as cognitive ability tests or job simulations, these assessments can provide a more comprehensive view of a candidate's overall suitability for the job.

Measuring Agreeableness: Different Types of Personality Tests

Personality tests have become a popular way to assess candidates’ agreeableness, with variations ranging from online quizzes to in-depth clinical assessments. As such, personality tests that measure this trait can be an important tool in helping to understand an individual's social behavior. 

There are several different types of tests that can be used to measure agreeableness, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. For example, self-report questionnaires provide an overview of a person's traits based on their own perceptions. 

However, they may be susceptible to biases and subjectivity in how they answer the questions. In contrast, behavior-based measures such as the videotaped "dyadic" interactions between one individual and another can provide a more objective assessment of social skills and behaviors. 

Ultimately, the best measure of agreeableness likely involves a combination of different types of assessments in order to gain the most comprehensive understanding of a person's personality.

Fast, easy, and bias-free. Our job-specific candidate assessments help you find the candidates who fit the job the best.

Using Agreeableness as Part of a Comprehensive Assessment Strategy

As hiring managers continue to be faced with endless numbers of candidates, they are increasingly relying on hiring assessments to help sift through possible applicants. Believe it or not, 82% of companies are already using pre-employment assessments to fast track their recruitment process.

But what exactly are hiring assessments and why are they so important? Hiring assessments are a range of tests and interview questions designed to help employers evaluate job candidates. They can include everything from personality assessments to process-based questions. The goal of these tests is to provide employers with a more complete picture of the applicant, including their skills and personality traits. 

Hiring assessments can help employers weed out unqualified candidates, identify the best-qualified candidates, and make more informed hiring decisions. In short, they play an essential role in the hiring process. Without them, it would be near impossible to find the right fit for each job vacancy.

Leveraging Assessments to Build a Stronger Team

Now that you know how important agreeableness is to a team’s cohesion and effectiveness, it’s time to get to work on pre-employment screening. With a little planning and consideration, you can make sure that your next team is brimming with agreeableness. 

Remember that this process is only the beginning of your journey to create a harmonious team; be sure to continue assessing your team members’ personalities and adjusting as needed. If you have any questions about how to go about pre-employment screening or about the agreeableness scale in general, don’t hesitate to contact us – we would be more than happy to help you!

Go to our comprehensive test library to assess your candidates on personality traits, soft skills, hard skills and more.