TAKING A LOOK AT MYTHS SURROUNDING THE MBTI - MYTH 2

The MBTI can help me to hire the right person.

That’s a no!

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) framework should NOT be used as part of the recruitment process and here are a few reasons why:

• For one, it shows personality preferences, not intelligence, capability or skill, so it doesn’t tell you if they would be any good at the job.
• A person might have an idea of what they think an organisation is looking for, and so complete the questionnaire in that way, so skewing the results.
• And most importantly, from an ethical perspective, the MBTI questionnaire should be completed voluntarily, with feedback from a Certified Practitioner and is confidential to the individual. It shouldn’t have to be shared as part of a recruitment process.

However, once you HAVE recruited someone to your team, the MBTI framework is a fabulous tool to develop their self-awareness and highlight their strengths as well as appreciate how others in the team may work.

The MBTI assessment will help me hire the right person.

Hiring employees is one of the most difficult actions you can undertake. You work with little data and usually have to make a relatively quick decision that will have major implications for your company and cost you significant amounts of money on an ongoing basis. Few other things can improve or hurt your operations and bottom line so much.

There are many people who misunderstand and misuse the MBTI. One of the biggest ways they do this is by thinking that the MBTI assessment can tell you whether a person is a good fit for a particular role.

The goal of any pre-employment assessment should be to measure as many job-related characteristics as possible and in short this is not the MBTI.  The design of the MBTI assessment is for development, and is not intended for use in selection of job candidates, nor for making internal decisions regarding job placement, selection for teams or projects, or other similar activities. 

Here are a few reasons why it’s not a good idea:

• Anyone with a basic knowledge of the indicator, or even any understanding of the job objectives, could easily answer the MBTI questions to skew their results toward what they believe you are looking for in a new hire.
• The MBTI shows personality preferences, not intelligence, motivation, skills, knowledge or other factors important in job success.
• Knowing that someone prefers a function or attitude does not tell us how good they are at using it.
• Taking the assessment is supposed to be voluntary and therefore should not be a pre-requisite of employment.  The results of the MBTI belong to the individual and it is for them to share if they so desire – this is unlikely possible if used as part of the recruitment process. 
• There is also the added complication that all persons taking the assessment should receive feedback from a certified practitioner to find best fit type – again, not possible during a hiring process.

 
Furthermore, the idea of predicting success in a job from a set of psychological inclinations is unstable. People of many different types excel at the same job for different reasons. Individuals should not be pigeonholed based on their personality preferences.

The MBTI tool can't tell you who to hire, but what it can do is help you work with your team so that everyone gives his or her best performance - what better opportunity for development?

Many organisations take the opportunity to run the assessments with new recruits and on Graduate intakes to help all appreciate the organisations culture and team make up for instant results.  Understanding how people communicate, interact, and collaborate should help you better run your company along with a more developed and engaged workforce.

Final note of caution: It is unethical and, in some cases, illegal to require job applicants to take the assessment if the results will be used to screen out applicants and the person administrating the assessment, should not counsel a person to, or away from, a particular career, personal relationship or activity based solely upon type information.

​Get in touch if you would like to hear more about the assessment or read more about the MBTI.

​This blog forms part of the Myers-Briggs myth busting series I am doing with Tamsin Regnes.