Behavioral Profile Tests or Behavioral Tests: What Are They and How to Use Them
Behavioral profile tests are tools used by companies to identify personality traits and behaviors of individuals. Each employee or candidate that interacts with an organization has different experiences and histories. Since people are unique, using such tools can be highly beneficial both for the organization and for the employee/candidate.
The goal is for these tests to highlight traits that will directly and indirectly influence a person’s work. This way, it’s possible to understand how that individual fits into the environment, what can contribute to their productivity, and what might hinder their performance.
As Yellow.rec is a recruitment company, it is common for us to apply some behavioral tests within the processes we conduct. Not only in recruitment processes, but we also use this strategy internally to keep our team aligned.
There are several tests; let’s talk a little about the main ones and which ones we use here at YW.
What Methodologies Are Used in Behavioral Tests?
DISC
Based on the theory of psychologist William Marston, this is one of the most well-known methodologies in recruitment. In 1928, Marston published the book “The Emotions of Normal People,” where the concepts used in DISC can be found. These include:
-
Dominance
Dominance refers to control and assertiveness and indicates how a person reacts when faced with difficulties or obstacles. Those who score high in this trait are usually competitive and goal-oriented. -
Influence
Influence relates to sociability and communication, and it indicates how an individual behaves in their social and professional environment. People with strong traits in this area are communicative, persuasive, work well in teams, and are great at managing people. -
Steadiness
This concept is related to patience and resilience. Those with high steadiness scores are often resilient and adaptable to change, open to listening to different opinions. -
Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness relates to organization and structure, meaning the propensity to follow and respect rules. People who score high in this area are typically analytical and perfectionistic.
Over time, Marston’s profiles were further developed within psychology, and DISC evolved. Nowadays, it’s common to find the following names: Executor, Communicator, Planner, and Analyst. This test is one of the most widely used in companies and recruitment processes because it helps identify personality traits and allows HR or recruiters to perform a more human analysis of the individual, leading to more accurate professional assessments.
For example: If you’re interviewing a candidate with a strong communicator profile, but the role demands a planner profile, this is a clear indication that the person may not be the ideal candidate. Using this test, you know that placing a communicator in a role that demands more planning might be uncomfortable for both the person and the company.
LABEL
LABEL stands for List of Bipolar Adjectives in Likert Scale, and this test was developed at a Swiss university to strategically measure personality profiles.
LABEL is a complex and in-depth test that can evaluate up to 102 personality scales and, with control indexes, can identify manipulation. One important point of this tool is that it takes personality into account, not learned behavior.
What does this mean?
Personality is what comes naturally to the individual, their essence, the things they do effortlessly. Learned behavior, on the other hand, refers to actions that are not natural but are learned through effort. LABEL identifies what’s part of the person’s personality and uses that as the basis to identify their potential. This allows placing professionals in positions where their development will happen quickly, resulting in high satisfaction and growth.
To map the profile, the tool uses a questionnaire with 260 adjectives. Through functions, it calculates the 102 personality traits of a human. The items are bipolar and unipolar, arranged in a Likert scale from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree.” This tool is great for improving career management within teams and making more informed decisions in recruitment processes.
Big 5
This tool is based on the Workplace Big Five Profile, which is a straightforward personality assessment. It can identify five personality traits of a person, known as OCEAN:
-
Openness
This trait is linked to the level of openness an individual has to new experiences and learning. They can be more conservative, exploratory, or moderate. -
Conscientiousness
Measures the degree of effort made to achieve goals and objectives. A person can be flexible, balanced, or focused. -
Extraversion
Relates to how tolerant someone is of external stimuli. A person can be extroverted, introverted, or ambiverted. -
Agreeableness
This trait indicates how much a person identifies with others. They can be negotiators (seeking to meet their own and others’ needs), challengers (competitive), or accommodators (more submissive to others). -
Neuroticism (Need for Stability)
Measures how a person responds to stressful situations. A person can be resilient, reactive, or receptive.
The result of this test reveals a person’s general behavioral disposition, making it possible to predict their future behaviors. Additionally, understanding a candidate’s dominant traits helps recruiters figure out which roles are the best fit for them.
STAR
STAR is not exactly a test but a methodology that should be used in interviews. The idea is for the recruiter to create a conversation with the interviewee based on the following structure:
-
Situation
The recruiter encourages the candidate to describe a situation they experienced, highlighting the task they had to perform. It’s important to extract details to get a broad view of the person as a professional. -
Task
This step is linked to the previous one. As the interviewee describes the situation and task, it’s essential to ensure they explain it in detail. This part of the conversation shows the person’s role in the task and their plans for handling problems. -
Action
Here, the interviewee should focus on the concrete actions they took in the situation. This can be challenging because people often struggle to describe their actions clearly. Ask questions like “What did you do to solve this problem?” or “What would you have liked to do differently?” -
Result
Understand the results of the work described. Ask the interviewee to explain what changed after their actions, what impact they made, and what lessons they learned.
Why Use Behavioral Tests?
The primary benefit of using these tools in hiring and people management is understanding where each professional fits best and how they can be developed quickly and effectively.
Moreover, these tests allow recruitment processes to happen more efficiently and accurately. Understanding a candidate’s profile gives the recruiter much more knowledge about them as a professional, which leads to better, more targeted contact and saves time by identifying who’s not a good fit, whether due to the nature of the work or the company’s culture.
Tests Recommended by YW
Profiler (Sólides)
Sólides is a big partner of Yellow, and they have a behavioral test called Profiler. It’s a great tool to identify the skills and competencies of employees and candidates, based on the DISC methodology.
It’s done online and uses various questions to identify whether a person is more of an Executor, Planner, Communicator, or Analyst. According to Sólides, the points that should be analyzed in Profiler include:
-
Energy
Indicates the professional’s willingness to perform their job and their ability to handle stress and change. -
Environmental Demands
Measures the strength of external influences on the person’s life, helping to determine the level of external pressure they face. -
Utilization Index
Shows whether the professional is in an environment that makes good use of their skills. A high index means the professional is being well utilized. -
Moral
Reveals the individual’s self-approval. If their moral is high, it means they believe they are on the right path. -
Positivity
Measures self-esteem, showing how the person views their own performance.
Profiler reveals many other aspects of employees and candidates. If you’d like to learn more about the test, click here.
MAPA
MAPA is a company specialized in understanding people through data science and is also a big partner of YW. The test developed by them considers the personal, professional, and historical aspects of those being evaluated to provide a result. It’s important to note that MAPA is a psychological test and can only be applied by psychologists. Here at Yellow, we have professionals in our teams, which allows us to use it.
Through a self-report questionnaire, this tool helps to understand personality and behavioral trends. MAPA is divided into different application modalities, including:
-
Manager A
For leadership roles with exposure to risk. -
Manager B
For leadership roles without exposure to risk. -
Administrative
For administrative, financial, customer-facing, and commercial positions. -
Technical
For operational or technical roles with exposure to risk.
Continue following our blog and social media for more content like this!
References
Solides DISC Methodology
Marston and DISC
Robert Half – Behavioral Profiles
Big Five Methodology
