YOU CAN’T “FAIL” IT
Personality questionnaires don’t measure competence.
They describe how you prefer to work.
The real risk is when results are used as a quick “yes/no” filter.
Let me start with something that might surprise you: personality questionnaires weren't designed to tell you whether you're good enough for a job. They were created to describe how people naturally prefer to work, how you make decisions, how you interact with others, and how you approach planning and problem solving.
So no, you can't actually "fail" one of these assessments.
But here's the thing I see happening too often: some organisations use personality results as a quick filter to thin out the candidate pool. And that means people who could have been excellent in the role get screened out early, not because they lack skills or potential, but simply because their profile didn't match a narrow template someone decided was "ideal." The misuse of assessment instruments has left many South Africans with a negative perception of psychological assessment and its use in selection (Maree, 1998).
That doesn't feel fair to candidates, and frankly, it's not good practice either.
When personality assessment actually helps
When we use personality tools the right way, they add real value to the hiring process. Here's how:
· They anchor conversations in what the job actually needs. We start with the job description and use it to identify the key behavioural competencies required for success in the role. Research shows that selection procedures should always be job-related and supported by validity evidence (Tippins, Sackett, & Oswald, 2018). The personality data then helps us understand whether someone's natural style aligns with those specific competencies.
· They make interviews better. Instead of generic questions, we can delve into specifics: "Tell me about a time you had to influence someone without authority" or "Walk me through how you'd typically plan a complex project." The personality profile gives us smart places to probe, not a verdict (Tippins et al., 2018).
· They support people after they're hired. Some of the most valuable conversations happen in onboarding and development: helping new team members understand their own working style and how to work well with others (ISO, 2020).
The South African context
Here in South Africa, we have clear legal guidelines about how personality assessments must be used. Section 8 of the Employment Equity Act requires that any psychological test used in selection must be scientifically valid and reliable, must not unfairly discriminate against any employee, and must be based on inherent job requirements (Employment Equity Act No. 55 of 1998).
The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) classifies tests that measure psychological constructs, and these can only be administered by registered psychology professionals. This protects candidates from misuse of these powerful tools.
South African researchers have also highlighted an important consideration: personality assessments show lower adverse impact against previously disadvantaged groups compared to other selection methods like cognitive ability tests, while still predicting performance effectively (Van Lill & Coetzee, 2021). This makes them particularly valuable for making selection decisions that are both accurate and fair.
Where it goes sideways
Personality assessment becomes a problem when organisations hire for a fantasy "ideal type" instead of what the role genuinely requires, treat the profile as a stand-in for actual performance or capability, or use it as a cheap shortcut to cut down applications rather than doing the work to assess people fairly and thoroughly.
When candidates tell me they feel like they "failed" a personality test, it's usually because the process treated them that way, and that's on the organisation, not the tool.
How we think about it
At Best of People Consulting, personality assessment is one lens among several, never the whole picture.
The most defensible and respectful approach combines structured competency-based interviews, work samples or simulations that mirror the actual job, thorough reference checking, and carefully selected assessments interpreted by someone who knows what they're doing (ISO, 2020; Tippins et al., 2018). Research consistently shows that using multiple assessment methods leads to better hiring decisions (Van Aarde, Meiring, & Wiernik, 2017).
When you build a process like that, personality insights don't screen people out arbitrarily. Instead, they help everyone (HR, the recruiting line manager, the candidate, etc) make a smarter, fairer decision that's more likely to work out in the long run.
Because at the end of the day, good hiring isn't about finding a personality type. It's about finding the right person for the role, the team, and the work that needs doing.
References
Employment Equity Act No. 55 of 1998. Government Gazette, Republic of South Africa.
International Organization for Standardization. (2020). ISO 10667-1:2020 Assessment service delivery: Procedures and methods to assess people in work and organizational settings, Part 1: Requirements for the client. https://www.iso.org/standard/74716.html
Maree, J. G. (1998). The use of psychological tests with minority groups in South Africa: A brief review and critique. Acta Criminologica, 11, 65–75.
Tippins, N. T., Sackett, P. R., & Oswald, F. L. (2018). Principles for the validation and use of personnel selection procedures. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 11(S1), 1–97. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2018.195
Van Aarde, N., Meiring, D., & Wiernik, B. M. (2017). The validity of the Big Five personality traits for job performance: Meta-analyses of South African studies. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 25(3), 223–239.
Van Lill, X., & Coetzee, M. (2021). Exploring the criterion validity of the 10 personality aspects for performance in South Africa. African Journal of Psychological Assessment, 3, Article 129.
If you're designing a selection process or wondering whether your current approach is working as well as it should, let's talk. We specialise in building practical, fair hiring systems for organisations that want to get it right.
Best of People Consulting (www.bestofpeople.co.za)