By David Wolfe
Most recruiters and hiring managers are familiar with personality assessments. They indicate how a person communicates, what type of personality they have, and how well—or poorly—they might fit within the team.
I particularly like the DiSC assessment. We have a resource that lets us give it to them for free. The test asks people to fill out a long questionnaire that tells a lot about their personality and behavior type. The personality assessment is really for communication purposes and how the direct supervisor or how people on the team are going to communicate with this new hire. For instance, if you want a really personable, outgoing Nurse Practitioner to help build up your urgent care practice, and you want that high-energy, entrepreneurial spirit, the DiSC test can identify that. You don’t want the DiSC to show that the candidate is an introvert who is highly analytical and prefers to work alone for that position. It may be a disqualifier.
Or if you’re hiring somebody who’s going to work alone a lot and they’re not going to interact with other staff members or see very many patients, you don’t want to hire someone who is highly extroverted and who loves being around people. That might be a mismatch. It might be a non-starter. You might not want to go much further.
At the very least, it might trigger a conversation with the candidate. You get them on the phone and ask them questions about it. You need to be very blunt and frank with them: “Hey, here’s some potential problems I see in this position. Your personality assessment indicates that you really like this, this, and this. But this position doesn’t fit that. How do you feel you’re going to respond in that position?” You can give them an opportunity to talk to you; maybe their explanation supersedes the DiSC profile and the potential mismatch. Or maybe they say, “You know what, I don’t think I would be right for a position like that.”