If you’re a small business owner, chances are you’ve explored all kinds of ways to understand people during the hiring process.

Maybe you’ve looked at:

Myers-Briggs (MBTI)
The Enneagram
Human Design
Zodiac signs
Or communication and work-style frameworks

And honestly? That curiosity makes sense.

When you’re hiring your first employee or growing a small team, you want insight. You want clarity. You want to avoid costly mistakes.

The question isn’t whether these tools are interesting. It’s how to use them responsibly and effectively.

Why “Job Fit” Comes First in Hiring

In a small business, every hire matters.

There’s no HR buffer.
No layers of management.
No room for ongoing misalignment.

Decades of research, including the classic Harvard Business Review study “Job Matching for Better Sales Performance“, show that people perform best and stay longer when their natural strengths align with the actual demands of the role.

That alignment is called job fit. And job fit needs to be evaluated before someone is hired.

Personality Tests: Best Used After Someone Joins the Team

Personality tests explore who someone is, not necessarily how they’ll perform in a specific role.

Common examples include:

Myers-Briggs (MBTI): communication and decision-making preferences
Enneagram: motivations and stress patterns
Big Five Personality Traits: broad behavioral tendencies
Human Design & Zodiac signs: energy patterns and interaction styles

These tools can be incredibly useful; just not as hiring filters.

Where personality tools shine is after someone is hired, when the goal is:

Onboarding and integration
Improving communication
Understanding work styles
Supporting leadership development
Reducing friction and misunderstandings

Used this way, personality tools help people understand how to work better together.

Why Personality Tests Alone Can Create Hiring Risk

Using personality tools before hiring can unintentionally lead to:

Bias toward people who “feel familiar”
Confusing likability with capability
Overemphasizing style over substance
Screening out strong performers who think or communicate differently

A candidate being an ENFP, Type 8, or Sagittarius rising doesn’t tell you:

How they handle pressure
How they prioritize tasks
How they respond to feedback
Whether the role will energize or drain them

That’s not a flaw in personality tools, it’s simply not what they’re designed to measure.

What Competency Assessments Are Designed to Do

Competency assessments focus on how someone works in real situations, and are tied directly to the role-specific demands.

They measure:

Problem-solving approach
Learning style
Motivation
Behavioral tendencies under pressure
Alignment with specific role demands

In simple terms:

Competencies are the repeatable behaviors that predict performance.

Examples include:

Building and maintaining relationships
Resilience
Initiative
Organization and planning
Decision-making style

These are job-specific, not abstract.

Why Competency Tests Belong in the Hiring Stage

Research consistently shows that competency assessments are stronger predictors of job success than personality tools alone.

That’s because they:

Are tied directly to the role
Measure observable, work-related behavior
Reduce guesswork and bias
Align hiring decisions with business outcomes

Personality tools help people understand each other.
Competency assessments help businesses understand job fit.

Both are valuable, just at different stages.

The Job Description Still Comes First

Before any assessment is useful, one thing must be true:

The role itself has to be clear.

If your job description includes vague phrases like:

“Self-starter”
“Fast-paced environment”
“Wears many hats”
“Jack of all trades”
“Rockstar”

No test, personality or competency, can fix that.

Clear job descriptions define:

What success looks like
How performance is measured
What skills are essential
What growth looks like

How to Use Both Types of Assessments Together (The Smart Way)

For small businesses, the most effective approach looks like this:

Before hiring:
→ Use competency assessments to evaluate job fit and performance potential

After hiring:
→ Use personality tools to support onboarding, communication, and growth

This creates:

Better hiring decisions
Stronger team dynamics
Higher retention
Less burnout

Why Reveal by Hiring Indicators Fits This Approach

Reveal is a customizable, multi-measure competency assessment built specifically for hiring and role alignment.

It:

Starts with your actual job description
Measures the competencies required for success in that role
Uses 50+ years of workplace performance data
Offers 1,000+ role profiles or custom-built roles

It gives you clarity before you hire, so personality tools can be used where they add the most value after.

Hiring With Confidence Starts With Job Fit

When small business owners:

Define roles clearly
Hire based on competencies
Use personality tools for development (not screening)

They build teams that:

Perform better
Stay longer
Communicate more effectively
Feel supported, not boxed in

Hiring doesn’t have to feel like a gamble.

Skip the Personality Test Rabbit Hole. Start Here Instead.

MBTI and the Enneagram are fun — but they don’t tell you who to hire. The free guide How to Hire the Right Person — The First Time shows you what actually predicts whether a candidate will perform in the role: clear expectations, real evidence, and the right questions.

Inside: