The Traits You should Seek when Recruiting Employees — and The Ones You should Avoid
How to make use of trait theory from psychology to make a better hiring decision.
When employers need to recruit a candidate, they often include personality assessment in the recruitment process. A recent survey by American Management Association showed that around a third of employers use personality tests for hiring and promotions, and the amount keeps growing very rapidly. This is not surprising, actually, as 71 percent of HR professionals believe that personality tests can be useful in predicting job-related behavior or organizational fit.
There is a good reason why a high number of professionals trust personality tests in helping with their hiring decisions. If used correctly, personality tests do provide a good prediction of successful employees. The keyword lies in “used correctly”. Although personality test is among the weakest predictors of job performance, they make a good predictor if they are combined with other methods (such as cognitive tests or interviews). Personality tests are not silver bullets, either; not a single personality test or personality type would ensure a candidate to be a top performer in the future. Given, there is a mixed result on whether personality trait can predict performance at all or whether a personality test can predict certain traits that might (or might not) boost performance. Even so, employers will always appreciate knowing how their prospective hirings would behave in certain situations.
So, which traits or behaviors are we looking for here?
Traits to Seek
It is natural that different jobs have different demands to meet, thus, require different types of people to carry out. A law enforcer would require different traits from a librarian — and the same goes for other professions. It is the duty of hiring managers to identify the success criteria of each position in the company and decide what kind of individuals are suitable to fulfill those criteria.
Even so, there is evidence that certain traits are more likely to be found in high-performing employees. Robert Bullock from Scontrino and Powell Inc. published a brief guide on what kind of traits predict performance across different job categories — including in sales and customer service jobs. Among the five traits in Five Factor Model — openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism — it is conscientiousness that often consistently predicts performance. If you are not familiar with Five Factor Models, it is one of the (if not the) most cited personality constructs in the business setting. Here are some characteristics of each trait:
- Openness to experience: curious, creative, adventurous, preference to variety, and eagerness to learn something new.
- Conscientiousness: organization, planned and orderly behaviors, self-discipline, and high achievement orientation.
- Extraversion: easygoing, sociable, high energy and positive emotions, and tendency to seek social stimulation.
- Agreeableness: helpful, compassionate, cooperative, trustful, and well-tempered.
- Neuroticism: anxious, emotionally unstable, easily distressed or depressed, and vulnerable.
In an interview with Business Insider, Brent W. Roberts, a psychologist from University of Illinois who studies conscientiousness, explained why highly conscientious employees perform better: they simply “do a series of things better than the rest of us”. For starter, they are better at setting goals and achieving them. They are very capable in directing their behaviors and engaging in self-discipline to reach their objectives (or redirect those objectives if they have to); something that is very advantageous to the employers if they share the same goal as the company’s. They also tend to be planned, orderly, and efficient, which help them in organizing their schedules and keeping their priorities straight.
How can we spot a conscientious people? Roberts recommended seeking for punctuality and preparation. If somebody always shows up (or finishes something) on time, prepares everything beforehand, and seems to always have a plan, then, there is a good chance he possesses a conscientious trait. Furthermore, Roberts’ study that was conducted with Joshua J. Jackson and Dustin Wood shows the following behavioral characteristics of highly conscientious people:
- They are clean and tidy — they tend to comb their hairs and polish their shoes.
- They work hard.
- They follow the rules of society and social decorum.
- They think before acting.
- They are organized and more likely to write down important dates.
Of course, being highly conscientious does not necessarily mean that you will ace every job. An article by American Psychological Association shows that conscientiousness might hinder performance in some jobs. Jobs that require innovation, creativity, and spontaneity such as artistic, social, and investigative ones might suffer from a high degree of conscientiousness. This is because conscientious people tend to be very strict and prefer to follow the norms or rules — or in other words, they do not want to be different — which limits their ability to be spontaneous. In addition, high conscientiousness that is accompanied by low agreeableness might also possess a problem, since it might lead to chronic and annoying behavior at the workplace. Therefore, it is important to not only aim for a high level of conscientiousness but also consider the nature of the job and the trait’s relationship with other traits.
Do we have any other traits that might be able to predict performance or productivity besides conscientiousness? Research from Mitchell G. Rothstein and Richard D. Goffin called “The use of personality measures in personnel selection: What does current research support?” suggests that some traits can predict work-related behaviors, but not standard performance criteria (it is also worth noting that personality tests cannot predict performance that well by themselves, so such finding is not surprising). For example, extraversion was related to inspirational speeches and appeals, openness to experiences to creative performance, and agreeableness to low use of pressure toward others. While some of these behaviors may reflect successful criteria of a position (such as creative performance), some certainly are not (like tendency to use pressure). Finally, when we are talking about team performance, extraversion seems to be the best predictor of team-related behaviors, followed by conscientiousness and emotional stability. Extravert people are more likely to engage in team activities, propose ideas and initiatives, and keep the team spirit alive. Conscientiousness might help in keeping the team’s objectives from derailing, and emotional stability is very important in managing potential conflicts among team members. These traits should be useful for a job that requires teamwork and collaboration — and having a candidate who possesses them in a group might certainly be highly beneficial.
Traits to Avoid
Upon inspecting the Five Factor Models, we can expect that the trait that we would want to avoid is the high level of neuroticism. It’s all makes sense after all; nobody wants a hothead or worrywart in their team, right? Research done by Rothmann and Coezer also predicts this outcome: neurotic employees tend to perform poorer than their more stable peers.
Well, guess what: it turns out that certain form or level of neuroticism might be beneficial (just like certain form or level of conscientiousness might be harmful). At least it is what Arizona University’s researchers Jerel Slaughter and Edgar Kausel found. Slaughter explained that since anxious people tend to think about all of the ways things could go wrong, they end up overprepare anything. This is a form of healthy neuroticism — a kind of neuroticism that encourages productivity. Another research by Turiano and his team shows that neuroticism that is accompanied by a high degree of conscientiousness might be beneficial. A worrisome but careful individual might end up worrying about the right thing, which helps them prevent something bad from really happening. Hooray for conscientiousness for saving the day once again.
So, if it was not neuroticism, what kind of traits that should be avoided when hiring a candidate? Scientists say that there are three traits that characterize a potentially toxic employee — thus, it is better to avoid hiring people who exhibit these traits if you can. These three traits are called The Dark Triad (which is a pretty fancy name for something so unfortunate), and include the following:
- narcissism: feelings of grandiosity, entitlement, dominance, and superiority
- psychopathy: feelings of impulsivity, thrill-seeking, low empathy, and anxiety
- Machiavellianism: cynicism, low affect, an unconventional view of morality and a focus exclusively on personal goals
A publication by Spain and his team called “The dark side of personality at work” further explained these concepts. Let’s start with narcissism first.
Narcissists are individuals who often seem charming or pleasant in the short term but have difficulties maintaining relationships. Although narcissists seem to be a likable person at a glance, they deep down do not actually care or trust other people, and might even disrespect others. Their tendency to engage in self-promotion and talkativeness brings a good first impression to other people (yes, including the interviewers), but these impressions will eventually get worn out after a while and potentially create the perception of hostility or arrogance. Another research shows that narcissists also often claim to be very capable or creative, although further investigation showed that they perform no better than non-narcissists. As leaders or managers, they might have big influence on the team or organizational performance, as they like to take big actions that grab attention (which might end up in great achievement or devastating failure).
It is important to note that, compared to other Dark Triad, the narcissistic trait might be the one that is proven to be more useful. For starter, this trait motivates employees to “be the best” in their chosen area and sometimes bring enthusiasm to themselves or their team, which might liven up the team’s morale. Their charming appearance might also be useful for influencing others in certain situations, such as when they have to seal a deal.
Next, we’ll move to psychopathy. Psychopaths are individuals who often engage in impulsive and thrill-seeking behaviors while displaying a low level of empathy and anxiety. They often take an antagonistic approach towards others and believe in their superiority — or, in other words, they look up to themselves and look down to others. One of their prominent characteristics is their lack of guilt, embarrassment, and conscience toward others. This tendency makes them unable to reflect and learn from their past behaviors, which, eventually, hinders them from correcting their actions. As leaders, psychopaths tend to be less empathetic towards their employees or environments; they engage in less corporate social responsibility and provide less organizational supports for employees. People who score high on psychopathy trait also more inclined to use threats to make other people do what they want to do.
Last, Machiavellianism. Machiavellians are individuals who exhibit manipulative personality, with high-Machs (they who score high on Machiavellianism test) are characterized by a lack of empathy and low affects toward others. They also are very focused on their agenda and are willing to manipulate, lie to, and exploit others in order to achieve those agenda. Some high-Machs even take a certain pleasure when they are successful in deceiving others.
Machiavellianism, compared to the other two traits in Dark Triad, tends to be the most dangerous one. There is extensive body of research that people with high Machiavellianism are engaged in unethical behaviors and decisions to achieve their personal ambition, such as lies, deceptions, or frauds. They tend to be dishonest in a job interview and are more skilled in providing false information to the interviewers. High-Machs leaders are also rated as more abusive by their subordinate compared to the low-Machs, and they favor manipulation to make people do what they want to do. When it comes to the political alliances and cultivating charismatic images, however, Machiavellians are the best.
How can we measure these Dark Triad? Given to the nature of these traits, psychometric assessments might not be enough, but they are still among the best tools to use. Delroy L. Paulhus introduced a Short Dark Triad (SD3), which can also be accessed online through this Open Source Psychometric Project website. Another variant of the test that measures Dark Triad is CTDT3 that is produced by IDR Labs. If you wish to seek for a briefer and more concise version, you might want to see the Dirty Dozen scale by Peter K. Jonason and Gregory Webster, which consists of 12-item measure of Dark Triad.
Which traits give negative impact to performance the most? As we’ve already discussed before, traits might predict work-related behaviors, but not standard performance criteria. Therefore, a narcissist might end up being a good car salesman, but, on the other hands, he might show a poor (or average) performance as a creative writer. Next, a comparison of artists and non-artists show that artists tend to have a little bit of psychopathy tendency. People who get a higher score in psychopathy tend to be a good creative thinker and performer, as they exhibit a certain degree of unconventional thinking.
As you can see, even the Dark Triad might be useful for some jobs. However, if we take conscientiousness as the “success predictor” across various jobs, then, generally speaking, both Machiavellianism and psychopathy might be able to predict poor job performance, as they are found to be negatively related to conscientiousness. This means that people who score high on one of those aspects (or both) tend to exhibit completely opposing behaviors from individuals who get a high score on conscientiousness. A Machiavellian, for example, is more than willing to cheat his way to achieve his goal — something a rule-following conscientious individual would never imagine at all.
Final Note
As a final note, hiring managers who are interested in conducting measurement of these traits as a part of recruitment process should approach it with a grain of salt. Different jobs require different skills and personalities, so it is important to acknowledge the requirement of every position. This article itself can hopefully give a general understanding of various trait categories, and provide an overview of how certain potential candidates might behave in particular situations.
