Using Personality Assessments in Recruitment: BPS and CIPD Best Practice Guidance

Using Personality Assessments in Recruitment: BPS and CIPD Best Practice Guidance

Personality assessments have become increasingly common within recruitment and selection processes. Organisations use them to gain deeper insight into leadership style, communication preferences, workplace behaviour, and potential fit within a role or organisational culture.

Used appropriately, personality assessments can strengthen hiring decisions and improve the quality of talent conversations. Used poorly, they can introduce bias, create poor candidate experiences, and lead to overconfidence in assessment results.

This is why guidance from professional bodies such as the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) is so important.

Both organisations are clear on one central principle: personality assessments should support recruitment decisions — not replace professional judgement.

Personality Assessments Are Only One Part of Selection

One of the most important messages within both BPS and CIPD guidance is that personality assessments should never be used in isolation.

No psychometric tool can definitively determine whether someone will succeed in a role. Personality assessments provide indicators of behavioural preferences and likely tendencies, not absolute predictions about future performance.

Effective recruitment processes combine multiple sources of evidence, including:

  • structured interviews,
  • career history and experience,
  • technical capability,
  • work sample exercises,
  • cognitive or ability testing where appropriate,
  • and personality assessment data.

This creates a more balanced and evidence-based selection process.

CIPD guidance specifically warns against relying solely on psychometric results when making hiring decisions. Instead, assessments should complement other methods and contribute to a broader understanding of the candidate.

Start With the Role Requirements

A common mistake in recruitment is selecting a personality assessment before fully defining the requirements of the role.

Best practice works in the opposite direction.

Before introducing any assessment, organisations should first identify:

  • the behaviours linked to success,
  • the leadership or interpersonal demands of the role,
  • the level of autonomy required,
  • the pace and complexity of the environment,
  • and the organisational culture the individual will operate within.

This process is often referred to as job analysis or role profiling.

Without this foundation, assessments risk becoming generic exercises that produce interesting information but limited recruitment value.

For example, a highly cautious and detail-oriented personality profile may be extremely beneficial in one role and far less effective in another. Context matters.

Personality assessments should therefore be selected because they help answer specific recruitment questions relevant to the role — not simply because they are widely used or commercially popular.

Use Scientifically Validated Assessments

Not all personality assessments meet professional standards for recruitment use.

BPS guidance strongly emphasises the importance of using assessments that demonstrate reliability, validity, and relevance to workplace performance.

In practical terms:

  • Reliability refers to the consistency of assessment results.
  • Validity refers to whether the assessment accurately measures what it claims to measure and whether it predicts relevant workplace outcomes.

This distinction is important because many freely available or highly simplified personality tools lack sufficient evidence for use in high-stakes recruitment decisions.

Organisations should therefore ensure any assessment provider can demonstrate:

  • clear technical documentation,
  • occupational validation research,
  • appropriate comparison groups or norms,
  • fairness testing,
  • and evidence of ongoing review and quality assurance.

Using poorly validated assessments can undermine both fairness and decision quality.

Ethical and Fair Use Matters

Candidate experience is an important part of assessment best practice.

The BPS and CIPD both emphasise the importance of transparency, fairness, and informed consent within psychometric testing processes.

Candidates should understand:

  • why the assessment is being used,
  • what the assessment measures,
  • how the results will contribute to decision-making,
  • how their data will be stored and used,
  • and whether feedback will be provided.

Good communication reduces anxiety and helps candidates engage with the process more positively.

Organisations should also ensure assessments are accessible and inclusive. This may include making reasonable adjustments where appropriate and considering the potential impact of assessment methods on neurodiverse candidates or individuals with disabilities.

Fair recruitment processes are not only ethically important — they also strengthen employer reputation and candidate trust.

Avoid “Typecasting” Candidates

One of the biggest risks in personality assessment is oversimplifying results.

People are complex, and personality profiles should never be treated as fixed labels.

For example, an assessment might suggest a candidate is naturally cautious, highly competitive, reserved, or relationship-focused. None of these characteristics are inherently positive or negative. Their value depends entirely on the role, the environment, and how the individual applies those tendencies in practice.

Professional interpretation is therefore essential.

Psychometric data should be viewed as a starting point for deeper discussion rather than a definitive judgement about suitability.

This is particularly important in interviews. Assessment results can help interviewers explore behavioural patterns, leadership approaches, or potential development areas in more depth. However, they should not be used to confirm pre-existing assumptions or eliminate candidates unfairly.

Personality Assessments Should Improve Objectivity — Not Reduce Diversity

Another important consideration is diversity and inclusion.

Used appropriately, structured assessment processes can help reduce bias and increase consistency in recruitment decisions. However, problems arise when organisations begin using personality assessments to recruit people who simply “fit” existing norms or leadership styles.

This can unintentionally reduce diversity of thought, communication style, and background.

Strong recruitment processes focus on role-relevant behaviours and capability rather than searching for a single “ideal” personality profile.

Different personality styles can all contribute to high performance in different ways.

The goal of assessment should therefore be to understand likely workplace behaviour, cultural fit, and identify areas for support, challenge, or development — not to create uniformity.

The Value of Professional Interpretation

One consistent theme across BPS guidance is the importance of qualified test use.

Personality assessments are most effective when interpreted by trained professionals who understand:

  • psychometric principles,
  • behavioural interpretation,
  • assessment limitations,
  • and the broader organisational context.

Without appropriate expertise, there is a risk of overinterpreting scores, misunderstanding reports, or making unsupported assumptions about candidates.

Professional interpretation also helps organisations integrate assessment data more effectively into interviews, leadership assessment, succession planning, and broader talent strategies.

Best Practice Creates Better Hiring Decisions

Personality assessments can provide valuable insight into how individuals are likely to behave, communicate, lead, and respond under pressure at work.

However, effective use requires more than simply asking candidates to complete a questionnaire.

BPS and CIPD guidance consistently highlights the importance of:

  • role relevance,
  • scientific validity,
  • ethical administration,
  • professional interpretation,
  • fairness and accessibility,
  • and balanced decision-making.

When these principles are followed, personality assessments can become a valuable part of an evidence-based recruitment process that supports stronger hiring decisions, improved candidate experience, and better long-term organisational outcomes.

Interested in using personality assessments for better hiring decisions?

If your organisation is considering using personality assessments within recruitment or leadership selection processes, Developing Potential can help you implement assessment approaches aligned with BPS and CIPD best practice.

We support organisations with psychometric assessment selection, interpretation, leadership assessment, and evidence-based talent decision-making.

Get in touch to discuss how personality assessments can support your recruitment and leadership strategy.