Get Answers to the Most Popular InVista Select Questions

What is a personality test?

Personality tests often mean different things to different people and different vendors. But to professional psychologists, a personality test is an assessment of an individual’s standing on a set of dimensions that describe personality. These dimensions of personality are based on a model of personality that has been tested, developed, and refined over many years by multiple researchers. Note that personality is relatively stable and enduring over time. It’s not something that can be easily changed or developed, but by understanding one’s personality, it’s possible to learn new ways of engaging with others that are more effective.

 

With InVista, our personality assessment is based on the NEO, which has a rich history of being studied and verified in both research and applied settings.

What is the difference between a new hire personality test and a skills test?
  • A personality test measures specific aspects of how a person would engage with the world, other people, and work. The InVista personality test measures how a new hire candidate may fit in at your organization and contribute to your mission and goals.
  • A skills test focuses on an individual’s ability to perform certain skills, usually whether they can perform them at all, and sometimes scoring how well they perform those skills. A skills test determines if you can do certain levels of the job, i.e., computer coding, graphic design, lifting a 20 pound box, driving a fork lift, keyboarding, etc
How long does it take for a person to complete the personality test?
  • It usually takes 30 minutes or less and is completed 100% online. No preparation is needed by the candidate or hiring manager.  The link to the assessment is automatically sent out by the InVista platform.  Our online platform is called Connect2Vista.
Are personality tests accurate?

A properly developed personality test can be very accurate and provide meaningful information about a person that a hiring manager would likely not otherwise be able to obtain. But the key is in the “proper development” of the test. It takes a tremendous amount of time, expertise and careful work to design a psychological assessment correctly. They must be built on a sound theoretical foundation and developed using carefully collected and compiled data, thorough statistical analysis, and carefully designed deployment to be effective.

 

Additionally, personality tests minimize bias and differences in outcomes among different demographic groups. And they are typically received favorably by test takers.

 

InVista’s personality assessment is based on the NEO, the gold standard in measures of the Five Factor model of personality.

 

What is personality theory?

Generally speaking, personality theory is a system of factors that psychologists use to describe the unique sets of attitudes, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are unique to each individual and capture how they relate to the world around them.

What are the Big Five dimensions of personality?

The Big Five are the most well-developed and established dimensions of personality. The are openness, extraversion, agreeableness, even-temperedness, and conscientiousness.

What is a Big Five Personality test?

Different personality tests are based on different models of personality, and they measure different dimensions. As the name implies, a Big Five personality test provides scores on at least the Big Five personality factors. It’s worth noting that the dimensions, or factors, can be broken down further into facets of personality.

Can InVista help me hire the right person for the job?

Absolutely! Our InVista Select selection tool and the accompanying report(s) are specifically designed to assist you in making the best hiring decisions. Not only do the tools provide critical information you need, but we also provide a structured interview tool to help you go beyond just personality measures to drive the decision.

What is a structured interview?

A structured interview is a specific type of interview in which the interviewer asks predetermined questions in a standardized fashion. Interviewers ask all candidates consistent questions about job-relevant behaviors, use behavioral rating scales to evaluate responses, and take thorough notes on their observations.  Our Structured Interview Guide is a key component of InVista.

What is a structured interview guide?

InVista provides a Structured Interview Guide that walks you through the structured interview process, including specific questions, rating scales and scoring. You can use this tool to conduct your own structured interviews and to ensure that other members of your team conduct their interviews in a fair and consistent manner.

What is the Candidate Report?

The Candidate Report is generated after a potential new hire takes the online personality test.  It includes both management considerations and test results.

The Candidate Report gives insights on how employees pursue goals, do they take responsibility, do they prefer cooperation over competition, do they have a positive attitude toward job versus negative and cynical, do they adapt well to change, are they good at resolving conflict, are they open to others’ perspectives, are they goal oriented, do they prefer well-structured environments or do better with ambiguity, are they focused on building positive social relationships, how do they perform in crisis, and do they prefer to work alone or in a team.

 All these factors help you render a decision if the candidate will fit into your organization.

How can a candidate personality test tell me if a new hire will fit into our organizational culture?

A personality test can provide you with in-depth information about how a person engages with the world around them. Personality tests that focus on the workplace, like InVista, focus on how individuals engage with their work, managers, coworkers, and clients. All this information combined can provide insights into how an individual will fit into an organization’s culture. However, organizational cultures vary, and there is no “one size” solution to determine whether a given person will fit a particular culture. Some of his requires interpretation by the user of the test, and some is determined by how well-defined the culture is. 

Can InVista’s test help me reduce attrition and turnover?

Yes. People’s personalities can be predictive of an employee’s likelihood of staying in a particular role or job or organization.  Personality tests can provide insights into how people want to engage, whether they seek a stable environment or thrive on change.  People of different personality types will be apt to stay in different types of organizations. The more you know about a potential hire up front, the better the employee and company will be in the long term. For example, employees who seek a stable environment may be less apt to resign from an organization that is stable, thereby leading to less turnover. 

If you can identify aspects of personality that your organization values (aspects that fit well into your organization) the test results give you insight into the type of people you want to look for.  Hiring those that are similar to your company’s culture may in the long run decrease your turnover rate.

Is the Five Factor Model of Personality equal to the Enneagram system with 9 personality types?

The Five Factor and the Enneagram models are not similar and are based on different theories.  InVista’s foundation is the Five Factor Model, which is a highly researched psychological model with proven outcomes. 

Is InVista a predictive hiring model?

We do not use algorithms in our hiring decision solutions.  InVista provides you the tools to make the hiring decision.  We believe that the human element is important when adding a new person to your team.

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