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MEASURING WORK-RELATED PERSONALITY

There are only a few personality traits directly related to job fit and job performance. The critical traits associated with job performance include:

Problem solving.
A person's attitude toward solving complicated problems. People with high scores tend to prefer jobs that require a mental challenge.

Idea generation / innovation.
Not everyone likes jobs that require freethinking and creativity. Some people just want to produce a steady stream of traditional work.

On the other hand, some organizations expect their people to continually generate new and better ways of producing work.

It would be de-motivating to put a person with high creativity interests in
a position requiring repetitive, unchanging work.

Administration.
Many jobs require methodical administration and follow through to see that tasks are accomplished on time and on schedule.

The traditional middle management position requires maintenance and oversight of systems. Other jobs require a more freewheeling style, such as sales. Sample item: I like to play it safe and go by the book.

Resistance to change.
Some jobs are steady, while others change from day to day. People who thrive on fast pace and change enjoy jobs that challenge them to keep pace. People who prefer stability would burn out with the pressure. This factor indicates a
person's resistance to change on the job.

Self-centeredness.
Being self-centered can be very damaging for both the organization and co-worker relationships. Self-centered people spend much of their time thinking about the impact of decisions on them personally instead of worrying about out producing and out-smarting the competition.

Teamwork.
Some people are more productive working by themselves. Some enjoy working in teams are naturally more productive and satisfied when working closely with other people.

Expressiveness.
Many jobs require outgoing personalities, such as sales. People must have an interest or willingness to stand out in social settings.

Impulsiveness.
Jobs that require fast decisions and quick actions require people who enjoy that
type of environment. Too much impulsiveness, however, can lead to the "ready, fire, aim" syndrome. Some people are driven to knee-jerk reactions that get them
into trouble because they did not think through the consequences of their actions.

Perfectionism.
People with high perfection scores may so fussy they cause unnecessary delays and reductions in output. People with too little perfectionism may be sloppy and unconcerned with quality.

Attitude to Work
Do they like to work. Are they able to pull together for a common focus on the customer. If not, their attitudes sap energy.

Truthfulness
Measuring this helps to assess the value of the rest of the answers.

Tips on Testing
People who are presenting themselves for a job don't answer questions about themselves in the same way as people who are already employed. So don't use tests whose scores are compared with a group of employed people.

Differential validity means you can probably trust unfavorable scores (i.e., "I am a closet psychopath") more than you can trust socially desirable scores (i.e., "I love working long hours for little pay").

A lie scale consists of questions the test developer knows have a normal distribution. If an applicant's score falls in either the top 15% of bottom 15%, the administrator can suspect that scores on the rest of the items were either abnormally high or low, as well.

Suppose you want to predict if a person is male or female. You could ask a single question about carrying a purse, or you could ask a series of questions
about shoe size, height, weight, wardrobe expenses, and mechanical skills.

A single test item would contain more room for error. A cluster of test items would be much more accurate. Be wary of any test that uses less than five items per factor because it is probably going to be inaccurate.

(Source is here)