Personality assessments can help you hire effectively, manage employees better and deal with difficult people. To help you screen personality tests and testing companies, this nine-point checklist from the book Cracking the Personality Code can help you review assessment tools and support.

1. Number of rating scales. The assessment company providing the test needs to address the number and type of ratings scales they are using. A rating scale is any instrument designed to assist in the measurement of subjective evaluations of, or reactions to, a person, object, event, statement, or other item of interest. The more rating scales, the clearer the picture.

According to the Encyclopedia of Psychology, several varieties of rating scales have been developed. One common form of rating scale presents the rater with a spectrum of potential responses that includes antithetical elements at each end of a range of intermediate possibilities, on which the rater is expected to indicate the position that most accurately represents the rater's response to the subject in question. Another form of rating scale presents the rater with a list of characteristics or attributes from which the rater is expected to select those which the rater believes apply to the subject in question. Rating scale instruments are used in psychological research primarily to assess qualities for which no objective answer ("Rating Scale." Encyclopedia of Psychology. 2nd ed. Ed. Bonnie R. Strickland. Gale Group, Inc., 2001. eNotes.com. 2006)

2. Amount of time it takes to take the test. How long should it take to complete a test? That depends on how in depth you need to look at personality. Here are your typical three options for testing:

* Basic team assessments using four primary scales with 30-60 questions can take 10-20 minutes to complete * Simple prescreening of candidates/team assessments using up to eight scales with 60-120 questions can take 20-30 minutes to complete * In-depth personality tests for screening candidates and assessing the team using 12-16 scales and more than 164 questions can take 35 to 90 minutes to complete

3. Qualifications of the individual who is interpreting the test. In addition, we also believe the best tests require someone with comprehensive psychological training or degrees for proper interpretation of the data. Weekend training programs can be problematic since testing and human behavior is a very complex subject. When making hiring or internal decisions, organizations need as much information and understanding as possible as the consequences can be very costly.

4. Link profile to resume and job description. It is not enough to just review the data analysis is of a potential new hire's personality. Before you hire this person, you will want to ascertain how the person's past relates to the possible future your position offers. Whoever is assessing the data of the candidate with the hiring manager needs to have the resume and the job description in order to do a thorough job of reviewing the data.

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