Hire With Your Head, 4th Edition

Chapter 5Using the BEST Test to Reduce Unconscious Bias

• Two Huge Flaws in Personality Assessments That Are Often Ignored
  • Statistical Validation Understates the Impact of False Negatives
• Personality Assessments Are Valuable When Used Later in the Hiring Process
• Take the BEST Test Before Interviewing Anyone
  • Changes in BEST Style Reveal Growth and Flexibility
  • Assess Team Skills by Observing Changes in BEST Type over Time
  • Assess Flexibility by Observing Changes in BEST under Stress
  • Increase Interview Accuracy by Becoming Your “Least BEST”
• Summary: Use the BEST Test to Confirm Rather Than Predict

This chapter will demonstrate how to use personality assessments, also called psychometric tests, in a few unique ways to help increase objectivity and improve interviewing accuracy. These are not the normal uses of these tests, but as you'll discover, that's what makes them much more useful. For example, to get the best results it's helpful for the interviewer to take the same tests to uncover their own biases and control them during the interview.

BEST personality test, introduced in this chapter, is a simple way to accomplish this in a few minutes. The idea behind this technique is that by becoming “least like” themselves personality style-wise, interviewers will learn a huge lesson in what it takes to fully understand someone else's point of view.

Another way to make these tests more useful is by asking candidates to describe their major accomplishments for each of the major ...