5 best personality testing software for HR teams and talent development
Personality assessment software helps HR teams predict job fit, reduce turnover, and build stronger teams. Here's a breakdown of the 5 best tools available right now, plus how to choose the right one for your hiring process.
AI summary
- Five personality assessment tools compared side by side, covering pricing, integrations, assessment types, and best-fit use cases from high-volume hiring to leadership development.
- A breakdown of the major personality frameworks (DISC, Big Five, MBTI, Enneagram, Predictive Index, Hogan) and when each one is the right choice for your hiring process.
- An honest look at what the corrected 2022 validity research says a standalone personality score can and can't predict, plus step-by-step guidance on implementing assessments and staying EEOC-compliant.
A former colleague of mine once hired a senior account manager based almost entirely on vibes. The candidate was charming, polished, gave textbook answers in the interview, and had a resume that read like it was written by a career coach. Three months later, the new hire had alienated half the client roster, ghosted on two quarterly reviews, and described themselves in a team meeting as “not really a details person.”
The resume was flawless. The interview was flawless. The fit was a disaster.
This is the gap that personality assessment software is designed to close by giving hiring teams a structured, data-backed signal on behavioral traits, work styles, and temperament before the offer goes out. And when used well, these tools don’t just help you hire better. They help your existing teams communicate, collaborate, and develop.
Here’s a guide to the best personality assessment tools on the market, what separates them, and how to build assessments into your hiring and development process without overcomplicating things. (If you’re comparing assessment software more broadly, including skills tests and video screening, our wider roundup of recruitment assessment tools covers that ground too.)
What is personality assessment software?
Personality assessment software refers to digital tools that measure behavioral traits, work styles, cognitive tendencies, and temperament to help predict how a person will perform in a specific role or team environment. Unlike skills testing, which evaluates whether a candidate can do something, personality assessments evaluate how they’re likely to approach their work: how they communicate under pressure, how they handle ambiguity, whether they thrive in collaborative settings or independent ones.
These tools are used across both sides of the employee lifecycle. In hiring, they add a structured signal to the screening process. In talent development, they help employees and managers understand working styles, identify blind spots, and build stronger team dynamics.
Why HR teams use personality tests in hiring
Resumes tell you what someone has done. Interviews tell you what they want you to hear. Personality assessments add a third signal. It’s one that’s standardized, repeatable, and harder to game.
Predict job performance before the offer
Research in organizational psychology consistently shows that certain personality traits correlate with success in specific roles. Conscientiousness, for example, is one of the strongest predictors of job performance across nearly every role type. Personality assessments let you match candidates to the traits that actually predict success in the job, not just the traits that make someone good at interviewing.
Reduce turnover and improve retention
When someone is a poor fit for a role or a team’s culture, they tend to disengage quickly, and leave. Personality assessments help identify alignment between a candidate’s natural work style and the environment they’re stepping into. Given that replacing an employee can cost anywhere from 50% to 200% of their annual salary, the math is straightforward.
Build stronger teams through self-awareness
When teams share and discuss their assessment results, it creates a common language for how people prefer to work, communicate, and handle conflict.
Create objective and consistent hiring criteria
Unstructured interviews are notoriously unreliable. Standardized personality assessments give every candidate the same experience and produce comparable, quantifiable results.
Types of personality tests used in hiring
Several validated frameworks power the assessments you’ll find in the tools below.
| If you need to know… | Reach for… |
|---|---|
| General work style and communication for most roles | DISC |
| The strongest research-backed predictor available | Big Five (OCEAN) |
| Leadership derailers under pressure | Hogan (HDS) |
| Team dynamics and self-awareness, not hiring decisions | Enneagram |
| Role-specific behavioral fit with clear job mapping | Predictive Index |
DISC assessment
DISC measures four behavioral dimensions: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. DISC is commonly used for sales teams and leadership development.
Big Five personality model
Also known as OCEAN, the Big Five measures openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. It’s considered the most scientifically validated personality framework in organizational psychology. More on how the scoring actually works is below.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The MBTI categorizes people into 16 personality types based on four dichotomies. Its use in hiring is debated: test-retest reliability is lower than the Big Five.
Enneagram
The Enneagram identifies nine personality types based on core motivations, fears, and desires. More commonly used in team development and coaching than hiring.
Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment
PI measures four behavioral drives: dominance, extraversion, patience, and formality. Built specifically for hiring and talent management. Here’s a full breakdown of how PI works.
Hogan Assessments
Hogan is three separate inventories: HPI (bright side), HDS (derailers under pressure), and MVPI (values and motivation). Shows up most in leadership hiring and succession planning. The full explanation of all three inventories.
Two other frameworks worth knowing by name: SHL’s OPQ32 measures 32 workplace-relevant traits for global employers, and CliftonStrengths from Gallup identifies top strength themes as a development tool rather than a hiring gate.
Are personality tests pseudoscience? What the research actually says
A lot of experienced recruiters roll their eyes at personality tests, and some of that skepticism is fair. The honest answer is that a standalone trait score is a weaker predictor of job performance than most vendors let on.
A 2022 re-analysis of the classic personnel-selection research (Sackett, Zhang, Berry, and Lievens, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology) corrected decades of inflated validity estimates. Conscientiousness, the single strongest Big Five trait for predicting job performance, corrected down to .19, roughly 3.6% of the variance in how someone actually performs. Structured interviews, by comparison, corrected to .42. The full breakdown of every method’s corrected number is here.
None of this means personality data is worthless. It means a trait score is one input, not a verdict. Where it earns its place is upstream of the decision: a low score on a relevant trait is a good prompt for a sharper follow-up question, not a reason to reject someone before you’ve talked to them. That’s also why frameworks built specifically for hiring, like situational judgment tests, tend to hold up better than off-the-shelf personality scores.
Personality assessment software comparison table
| Tool | Assessment Types | Best For | Integrations | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Truffle | Personality, Situational Judgment, Environment Fit + video interviews + resume screening | Complete screening workflow with multiple signals | Ashby, Breezy, Indeed, Zapier, API | Free trial. From $49/mo |
| Criteria Corp | Cognitive aptitude + personality (Big Five, EPP) | Cognitive and personality data in one platform | Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, 30+ ATS | Per-assessment. Contact for quote |
| The Predictive Index | Behavioral + cognitive | Workforce planning + team dynamics | Greenhouse, Lever, Workday | Annual subscription. Contact for quote |
| TestGorilla | Big Five, Enneagram, DISC, 16 Types + skills + cognitive | Custom assessment batteries | Greenhouse, Lever, SmartRecruiters, Zapier | Free plan. Paid from $75/mo |
| SHL | Personality + behavioral + cognitive (global benchmarks) | Enterprise global hiring | SAP, Workday, Oracle, Taleo | Enterprise. Contact for quote |
Top personality assessment software for HR teams
Truffle
- What it does: A candidate screening platform that combines talent assessments with one-way video interviews and AI-powered resume review. Three assessment types: Personality (how someone naturally works), Situational Judgment (how they handle real work scenarios), and Environment Fit (whether the role’s reality matches what they want).
- Best for: Teams that want a complete screening workflow that connects personality, communication, and credentials in one place.
- Pricing: Free trial available. Paid plans start at $49/month on a credit model.
- Integrations: Ashby, Breezy, Indeed, Zapier, and API access.
- Worth knowing: All three assessments together take a candidate about 13 minutes, well under the hour some legacy tools ask for. There’s no universal right answer, so a candidate can’t look up the “correct” answer.
Criteria Corp
- What it does: Combines cognitive aptitude tests with personality assessments (including Emotify and the Employee Personality Profile).
- Best for: Teams that want cognitive and personality data in one platform.
- Pricing: Per-assessment pricing; contact for a quote.
- Integrations: Greenhouse, Lever, iCIMS, and 30+ ATS platforms.
The Predictive Index
- What it does: Behavioral and cognitive assessments designed for workforce planning, mapping results to job profiles and team dynamics.
- Best for: Mid-market and enterprise teams building talent strategies around behavioral data.
- Pricing: Annual subscription; contact for a quote.
- Integrations: Greenhouse, Lever, Workday.
TestGorilla
- What it does: A library of 400+ pre-employment tests, including personality assessments (Big Five, Enneagram, DISC, 16 Types), cognitive ability, and role-specific skills tests.
- Best for: Teams that want to build custom assessment batteries combining personality, skills, and cognitive tests.
- Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at $75/month.
- Integrations: Greenhouse, Lever, SmartRecruiters, Zapier.
SHL
- What it does: Enterprise-grade personality, behavioral, and cognitive assessments with global benchmarking data.
- Best for: Large enterprises hiring globally.
- Pricing: Enterprise pricing; contact for a custom quote.
- Integrations: SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, Oracle, Taleo.
How to choose the right personality assessment tool
Scientific validity and reliability
Look for tools backed by peer-reviewed research, with published test-retest reliability and criterion validity data. Ask about adverse impact data for EEOC compliance.
Ease of use for candidates and hiring teams
Look for assessments that are mobile-friendly, take 15 minutes or less, and communicate clearly what to expect. Reports should be easy to interpret without a psychology degree.
ATS and workflow integrations
Check that results flow directly into candidate profiles, not a separate dashboard your team has to remember to check.
Pricing and scalability
Per-assessment pricing makes sense for low-volume hiring but can become expensive at scale. Look for volume discounts or flat-rate plans if you’re hiring dozens or hundreds per quarter.
Compliance and bias prevention
EEOC guidelines require selection tools be job-related and consistent with business necessity. Ask vendors for adverse impact data. This applies well before you have an HR team: here’s what applies at small-business size.
How to implement personality assessment software in your hiring process
- Define the role and success criteria. Identify which traits actually matter for the specific role before choosing an assessment.
- Select the assessment type. Match the framework to the competencies you’re measuring.
- Integrate with your ATS or screening workflow. Connect the tool so results flow into candidate profiles automatically.
- Communicate expectations to candidates. Tell them how long it takes and how results will be used.
- Review results alongside other evidence. Personality scores should never be the sole basis for a hiring decision.
- Train hiring managers on interpretation. Make sure they understand what scores mean, and don’t mean.
How to use personality assessments for talent development
Personality assessments aren’t just for hiring. Assessments surface patterns that are hard to see from the inside, inform coaching and development plans tailored to how someone actually processes feedback, and improve team dynamics by giving everyone a shared vocabulary for differences.
Build a complete candidate screening process with Truffle
Personality tests reveal something valuable: how a candidate is wired, what motivates them, how they’re likely to show up day-to-day. But temperament is only one piece of the picture, and as the corrected research above shows, it’s a smaller piece than the industry has historically claimed.
That’s why the most effective screening processes layer multiple signals. A Personality assessment tells you about temperament. A Situational Judgment test shows how someone actually handles a messy, real work scenario. An Environment Fit check surfaces whether the pace and structure of the role match what the candidate actually wants. One-way video interviews show you how someone thinks and communicates in real time. Resume review confirms credentials.
Truffle is built for exactly this kind of multi-signal screening. You can combine talent assessments (Personality, Situational Judgment, and Environment Fit) with one-way video interviews and AI-powered resume review in a single workflow, then share structured scorecards with your hiring team.
See how the talent assessment software works, try Truffle free, or schedule a demo.
FAQs about personality assessment software
What are the top five personality assessments used in hiring?
The most common personality tests in hiring are DISC, the Big Five (OCEAN), the Predictive Index Behavioral Assessment, Hogan Assessments, and the Caliper Profile.
Can you take the Myers-Briggs personality test for free?
Free versions are available on sites like 16Personalities and Truity, though the official MBTI requires a certified administrator and a fee.
What is the most widely used personality assessment in the workplace?
The Big Five is considered the most scientifically validated and widely used framework. DISC is more commonly used in sales and leadership contexts.
Are personality tests legal to use in hiring?
They’re legal as long as they’re validated, job-related, and do not disproportionately screen out protected groups under EEOC guidelines.
Can candidates fake or game personality assessments?
Candidates can sometimes skew responses toward what they think employers want to hear. Well-designed tools address this with built-in validity scales.
How accurate are AI-powered personality assessments?
Accuracy depends entirely on the underlying model’s validation. Look for tools that disclose their methodology and publish validation studies.
How long should a personality assessment take?
Fifteen minutes or less is a reasonable ceiling. Truffle’s Personality assessment runs about 4 minutes alone, and about 13 minutes for all three assessment types together.
What’s the difference between a personality test and a situational judgment test?
A personality test asks candidates to self-report general traits and scores them against a norm group. A situational judgment test gives candidates a specific work scenario and scores their answer against how the employer says the right approach looks for that role.
