Ever Taken The Myers-Briggs Test? One Expert Tells You Why It Should NOT Be Used for Hiring
Anyone you met ever tell you they are an INTJ, ESFJ, ENFP, or some other esoteric-sounding mix of letters? The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI as it is often called, has been taken by many people. Have you ever wondered whether it is good to test to hire people?
One expert, Dr. Handler, has raised some questions as to whether this is a good test to hire people, including:
1. It is a clinical tool;
2. It is difficult to link to key job-related behaviors;
3. There are better available tools to achieve the same purpose.
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Comments
Thanks, Anita.
I would go a few steps further.
First, I’m not sure how accurately the tests measure personality for ANY purpose.
Second, I’m not sure how productive it is to think about how you relate to the world and others in terms of fixed personality traits
Third, wouldn’t it be more productive for employee-development purposes to focus on flexible behaviors than on supposedly fixed personality traits (perhaps you do both)?
I agree that Myers Briggs or any other personality assessment such as the adaptive/innovator scale, etc., should not be used for hiring.
A legitimate usage of such tools would be for the individual’s self-discovery and even coaching (provided the coaching can be separated from hiring and promotional decisions).
It certainly helps an employee to understand how others relate to the world — it can be a broadening and enriching experience that makes that person a better manager and a better employee. It also helps to understand how you yourself relate to the world — I personally have learned a lot from tools such as Myers Briggs. Knowing that I tend to be an INTJ helps me understand how I need to soften some edges and how I need to understand where the extraverts and the feelers are coming from, for instance.
But as always, the concern is that some people (managers) may not perceive the difference between using personality assessment tools for employee-development purposes, and using them to make important compensation, promotional, hiring and firing-related decsions.
It’s a critical distinction.