Reasons Not to Use Four Quadrant Social Style Assessments for Pre-Employment

Four Quadrant Social Style Assessments (aka DISC type assessments) should never be used for pre-employment (hiring) purposes for the following reasons – they:

1. Are not validated (meant) for pre-employment purposes,
2. Are not (reliable) predictive of a person’s future behavior,
3. Are fake-able, and
4. Present an incomplete picture of a candidate.

More specifically:

DISC type assessments are not validated (meant) for pre-employment purposes. Validity refers to what characteristic(s) an assessment measures and how well the assessment measures that/those characteristic(s).  The DISC was originally created as a personal development tool and it’s often effectively used to help individuals understand their own plus others’ personality style (e.g., in team building); but, it was never intended to be a selection tool.  Wiley, the publisher of our assessments, has a DISC-type assessment (“Everything DiSC®”) and Wiley (like other reputable DISC publishers) clearly states in their user guide that their DISC assessment is not to be used as a pre-employment assessment.  Unfortunately, publishers of many other well-known DISC type assessments make the claim their products can be used for pre-employment purposes.

DISC type assessments are not (reliable) predictive of a person’s future behavior. DISC type assessments are “self-reporting” (also known as ipsative). They contain a series of questions which typically ask a person to pick an adjective most like themselves and an adjective least like themselves; hence the designation “self-reporting”. Further, this type of question precludes the person’s responses from being “normed”; i.e., DISC type assessment can’t compare the individual to the “normed” working population. The critical point here is that someone may well be describing themselves as they “see” themselves (or how they want others to see them) when they take the assessment.  Just because someone deliberately picks adjectives which would describe themselves as a high “C” (Conscientious) personality, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll follow rules and procedures while on the job.

As to the issue of reliability, while many of the DISC publishers claim to have “high reliability”, their claim is generally based on “Test-Retest” reliability (i.e., subjects taking the assessment a second time and being consistent in their responses).  The Handbook of Psychological Testing clearly states that “both test-retest and internal consistency are required for high reliability”. Also, “coefficient alpha is the best index of internal consistency” and DISC publishers don’t report that reliability co-efficient factor.  Core competency assessments (like the PXT Select) report both co-efficient factors and can back up their claims of being reliable and very predictive of future behavior.

DISC assessments are fake-able. DISC type instruments don’t contain distortion questions and, as a consequence, people can (and often will) answer the way they think a candidate for a specific job should answer the questions.  Without a distortion scale, it’s impossible to know if the job candidate is “ginning” the assessment.

DISC assessments present an incomplete picture of a candidate. Perhaps most importantly, DISC type assessments provide only a limited amount of information about a job candidate – the candidate’s self-described personality style.  For a pre-employment assessment to be truly useful, it should provide answers to the three most fundamental questions employers have about the core competencies of any job candidate (external or internal):

1. Can they do the job? – General Mental Abilities,
2. Will they do the job? – Occupational Interests, and
3. How well will they play with the other kids in the sandbox at work? – Behavioral Traits.

Based on the research done by John E. Hunter, Michigan State University and Frank L. Schmidt, University of Iowa (“The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings” as reported in the Psychological Bulletin, 1998), we know General Mental Abilities to be the best predictor of success on the job. Since DISC type assessments don’t have a Cognitive component (let alone an Occupation Interest component), one of the best predictors of success on the job is missing.

In summary, DISC type assessments only provide limited information about a job candidate and that is the person’s self-perceived personality style (which is not always a good predictor of future behavior). A core competency assessment like the PXT Select provides reliable information across all three key areas – General Mental Abilities, Behavioral Traits, and Occupational Interests.  Bottom line, while the PXT Select takes longer to complete and costs more, it provides more complete, reliable, and actionable information so employers can make better selection, development, coaching, and retention decisions.