Why you should ask candidates to take the DISC test

DISC tests provide valuable insights into how candidates work, communicate, collaborate, and handle challenges in the workplace. 

Leaving DISC tests out of your pre-employment assessments could mean hiring a candidate who doesn’t align with your company culture or team. Mis-hiring has negative impacts on business, such as lost resources and unsatisfactory employee turnover rates. 

DISC tests offer valuable insights that help you to understand how candidates integrate and interact within a team, resolve conflict, and take on leadership roles. 

In this article, discover what a DISC test is and why it’s an essential part of hiring. Plus, explore how TestGorilla’s DISC test can enhance the recruitment process for candidates and your business.

What is a DISC test?

When used for pre-employment screening, DISC tests examine candidates’ personality types, uncovering their motivations, behaviors, and communication styles in the workplace. This insightful test highlights candidates' main personality traits, offering hiring teams a clearer picture of their fit for a role. 

The DISC framework is based on four behavioral profiles:

• Dominance (D): Individuals with a high dominance score are decisive, assertive, and goal-oriented. 

• Influence (I): A high influence score indicates someone is enthusiastic, persuasive, and social. 

• Steadiness (S): An individual with a steadiness profile is reliable, empathetic, and sincere. 

• Conscientiousness (C): A high conscientiousness score indicates someone is analytical, detail-oriented, and a problem-solver.

A DISC test measures candidates against these profiles by asking them to what extent they agree or disagree with a series of statements. From this, a DISC test gives candidates a score between zero and 100 for each profile and identifies candidates’ main personality traits. 

The results may indicate a single behavioral profile, such as influence (I), or a combination of two, like influence and steadiness (IS). 

7 reasons to use DISC tests in your hiring process

1.Understand candidates’ communication styles

Relying solely on a candidate’s resume and one-hour interview doesn’t provide much information about their communication skills. 

A candidate’s communication skills and styles can be indicative of other attributes, such as positive interpersonal interactions, effective collaboration, and conflict resolution. Discovering these additional soft skills is nearly impossible via traditional methods, which is why personality testing is an essential part of pre-employment screening.

DISC tests deliver deep, tailored insights, which are not only helpful in identifying the right candidate for a role but also for team building and effective employee management.

For example, candidates with a dominant steadiness (S) trait are often patient communicators who are excellent at listening. At the same time, they can be reluctant to share conflicting opinions in a group setting. HR teams can use this information to place candidates in a role or work environment where they would naturally excel. 

2. Identify future leaders

DISC tests can highlight employees’ attributes and identify future leaders within your organization. Administer these tests to spotlight candidates with leadership characteristics and styles that support your organization’s work culture.  

For example, say you’re seeking leaders with good conflict resolution abilities who can communicate empathetically and clearly with other employees. A DISC test can indicate which candidates have high steadiness (S) scores and likely possess the right traits for the role. 

The insights help to determine who may be suitable for future promotions and provide a roadmap for supporting candidates’ professional growth into leadership positions. 

3. Build strategic teams

Teamwork fosters collaboration and innovation while increasing employee productivity. Having a deeper understanding of candidates allows for more strategic team-building efforts. 

DISC test results offer detailed insights into candidates’ team dynamics, including their general workplace behaviors and conflict resolution styles. Armed with this information, you can build teams with diverse strengths and complementary skills. You can also identify where potential conflicts could arise and support team members in resolving them. 

For example, steadiness (S) personality types are patient, work well in teams, and build good interpersonal relationships. They typically complement dominance (D) personalities, who tend to take on team leadership roles and communicate assertively. \

4. Find the best culture add

When hiring for a role, one of the most important considerations is a candidate’s cultural alignment. Do they share the same values as your business and will their workplace behaviors contribute positively? 

While resumes and interviews partly fill in this picture, pre-employment assessments, including personality tests, offer a more comprehensive understanding. DISC tests gauge characteristics that contribute to workplace culture, such as candidates’ communication styles, team dynamics, decision-making, and adaptability. 

By providing detailed insights into candidates’ personalities and workplace behaviors, DISC tests help you identify candidates who possess the necessary soft skills for the job and whose values align with your organization’s.

5. Reduce unconscious bias in the hiring process

Even with the best intentions, unconscious bias can creep into the hiring process. To counter this, it’s crucial to build safeguards into your recruitment efforts to minimize the impact of subjective factors on hiring decisions. 

DISC tests provide objective data, steering clear of unconscious biases or assumptions often tied to traditional resumes and cover letters. DISC tests disregard characteristics like gender, race, and socio-economic background, promoting a fair and equitable recruitment process. 

By eliminating unconscious bias from your hiring practices, you can build a diverse workforce of employees with the skills, qualities, and temperaments suited to their roles. 

6. Tailor interview questions, onboarding, and training

By understanding candidates’ core personality traits, DISC tests empower you to customize interview questions for each candidate on your shortlist. This approach uncovers deeper insights into candidates compared to relying on standard questions, allowing you to deliver an enhanced and engaging candidate experience. 

For example, a candidate’s results may reveal they have a dominant influence (I) personality trait and, as a result, tend to overpromise results. If this concern is relevant to the role you’re filling, you could ask the candidate questions to explore how they manage their time and workplace expectations. 

After making a hiring decision, DISC insights continue to help tailor employee onboarding and training. Understanding employees’ learning and communication styles enables you to design programs that address individual needs. 

This personalized approach resonates deeply with employees, supporting a quicker integration into your organization. 

7. Save time and money

DISC tests add significant value to your hiring process, helping you get the most out of it while saving resources. They offer deep insights into candidates in a short time, accelerating the hiring pipeline so you can fill vacancies quickly and accurately. 

In conjunction with other pre-employment tests, DISC tests help to paint a well-rounded candidate profile, enabling you to find the best fit for the role. This alignment is crucial – when someone is a good fit for the job, they’re usually more satisfied and likely to commit to your organization for a longer time. 

Why choose TestGorilla’s DISC test 

When choosing the best DISC test for your hiring process, it’s essential to consider reliability, candidate experience, and cost. 

TestGorilla’s scientifically validated DISC test guides candidates through 48 statements, asking them to rate their accuracy from one to five (one being very inaccurate and five very accurate). Designed to be quick and easy to use, candidates can complete the DISC test in 10 minutes. 

After test completion, you’ll receive a report with the candidate’s behavioral profile. The report explains, in detail, how the profiles may affect candidates’ workplace behaviors, and offers advice on managing particular personalities. 

Reports are easily shared among your hiring team and managers in a convenient PDF format. TestGorilla’s DISC test is available with any of our paid plans, giving you access to 400-plus tests to create customized assessments for your hiring needs. 

Optimize hiring with TestGorilla’s DISC test

Incorporating a DISC test into your hiring process allows you to identify candidates’ dominant personality traits and understand their corresponding workplace behaviors, communication styles, and teamwork abilities. 

TestGorilla’s scientifically validated DISC test delivers a seamless experience for candidates. For your hiring team, it offers detailed information about your candidates that goes far beyond the information in their resumes. 

To learn more about how TestGorilla can help improve your hiring process, sign up for a live demo or free account today.