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BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TESTHarness the full potential of your people with personality profiling
2 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
The biggest challenge for anyone working in HR and Learning & Development is aligning your people with your organisation’s goals and ensuring the way they contribute will get you there. If you want to be a company that is creative, ahead of the market and agile, you need people that will bring curiosity and an ability to translate that into solving problems with relevance. People no longer accept instruction without question; they decide what they do – and how they do it – based on how engaged and aligned they are to your organisation’s purpose.
With consumer and community demand growing at
an unprecedented rate, organisations of all sectors
are struggling to develop their people fast enough to
meet the demand. We may be putting people through
development programmes, but we’re not seeing a return
on investment. We’re not closing the skills gap fast
enough. In fact, the gap is continuing to grow.
Organisations across the board are looking for ways to
accelerate a change in the behaviour and effectiveness
of their people. Often, the missing piece is data and
insights to help you make decisions about how you can
change your culture to be not just who you want to be,
but who you need to be to deliver your business goals.
This is where personality profiling comes in. Our
personality comes with us wherever we go. In a work
environment, it influences how we approach our work and
our interactions with other people. It affects how we lead,
influence, communicate, collaborate, and manage stress.
In this eBook, we outline how personality profiling is more
than just a ‘test’ or an exercise for segmenting the ‘types’
of people within your organisation. We take a look at the
Facet5 personality profiling tool, and put forward the
case that personality insights and data will empower your
people to thrive and enable your organisation to deliver
against business goals.
Facet5 is a tried and tested real-world tool. We’ll explore
how our clients have solved real business problems with
it, and how it works to combat some of the key issues
surrounding personality assessments, such as:
• Dealing with complex data
• Not knowing how to make the most of the data
available to you
• Needing to constantly gather new data for new
applications
• Addressing the suspicion around personality tools,
especially where they have been misused in the past
INTRODUCTION
3 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
Developed by Norman Buckley in the 1980’s, Facet5 is one of the most modern and advanced measures of personality available today.
Designed specifically for the workplace, Facet5 was
created in response to client demand for practical
information to inform decision-making at each stage of
an employee’s journey.
Facet5 is trait-focused, which means it looks at ‘how
much’ of a trait a person possesses. Other tools like MBTI
and Belbin are type-focused, which means they force
people into a certain type, for example, ‘introvert’ or
‘extrovert’, ‘thinking’ or ‘feeling’.
Facet5 measures individuals on five factors, or ‘facets’,
based on the Big 5. Each individual has a certain amount
of each of the following factors, and it is this pattern of
scores which gives the overall picture of their personality.
• Will - determined, assertive, independent;
• Energy - enthusiastic, sociable, involved;
• Affection - open, sincere, warm, generous;
• Control - structured, orderly, self-disciplined;
• Emotionality - this interacts with the other four
factors and affects stress tolerance, confidence
and emotional states.
Although Facet5’s main factors are distinct sets of
character traits, they are made up of a number of
sub-facets, so an individual will be able to see how
much of each of the factors and sub-factors are inherent
in their personality.
FACET5 PERSONALITY PROFILING
4 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
As well as an overall profile and a breakdown of their
scores on each factor and sub-factor, the Facet5
report provides other useful insights into an individual’s
personality and what this means for the workplace. These
include a review of competence, a guide to leading that
individual and an overview of their work preferences.
In a shorter version of the report, known as Spotlight,
the factor breakdown is less detailed and instead is
broken down into strengths, risks, frustrations and
challenges for the individuals to focus on. To support
this, the end of the report includes a framework for an
ongoing development plan.
With Facet5, there are 1,000,000 possible combinations
of scores that would give noticeably different profiles.
Facet5 have divided up this vast number of possible
patterns into 17 different ‘families’ of similar profiles. For
example, a person may be a ‘Supporter’, ‘Specialist’ or
‘Controller’. Emotionality is excluded from the family
profile, so you may be a ‘Supporter’ with either high
emotionality or low emotionality.
People like to be able to identify with something and to
easily spot how they are similar and different to others
around them, and the Facet5 families offer this, while
not taking away from the depth of insight the full Facet5
profile provides.
The widespread use of Facet5 around the globe has
lead to a number of research papers revealing the trends
Facet5 has identified. One tool even lets you test your
own profile against the norm profiles of other countries.
This can prove especially useful when working abroad, or
in teams of mixed nationalities.
“With Facet5, there are 1,000,000 possible combinations of scores that would give noticeably different profiles. Facet5 have divided up this vast number of possible patterns into 17 different ‘families’ of similar profiles.”
Will
Determination The inner drive to commit to own ideas
Confrontation A drive to confront issues as they arrive
Independence A tendency to go your own way
Energy
Vitality Obvious enthusiasm and energy
Sociability Interest in being with people
Adaptability Involving others in your thinking
Affection
Altruism Putting other people’s interests first
Support Always trying to be understanding
Trust Tendency to take people at face value
ControlDiscipline Being personally organised and planned
Responsibility Being willing to take personal responsibility
EmotionalityTension A general sense of tension or stress
Apprehension Being cautious and not over-optimistic
5 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
Personality profiling isn’t just a tick-box exercise for segmenting the people in your business. Your business success relies on a fully engaged, productive and satisfied workforce. Understanding the unique differences in the personalities, work preferences and behavioural styles of each individual empowers you to create a culture that allows them to thrive.
However, personality tests are often misused, at best
providing no real value, and at worst, highlighting existing
weaknesses in individuals and teams. This is a frequent
occurrence no matter the reason for investing in a
new tool – whether this be hiring new team members,
identifying individuals for development or promotions.
Some of these common mistakes include:
Putting a label on people
Personality profiling helps people become both self-
aware and aware of how others around them think, feel
and act. While it’s useful to know that Mike likes control
and order and that Jill’s natural reaction to stressful
situations is panic, you need to be careful about labelling
people. For example, it’s nice to be called creative, but
not if it means being labelled ‘irrational’.
This is where trait-based personality profiling tools
like Facet5 hold an advantage over type-based tools.
Type-based tools such as MBTI, which labels a person
as ‘introvert’ or ‘extrovert’, and ‘thinking’ or ‘feeling’,
for example. And TMI slots people into ‘Organisers’,
‘Explorers’, ‘Advisors’ or ‘Controllers’. Yet putting a label on
a person is like placing a confinement around them, and
this can be dangerous.
The challenge is that it’s natural for people to want to
connect with like-minded people. While this can be a
good thing, connecting with others sometimes leads to
the rejection of those with differing minds. It is important
that personality profiling doesn’t create a void or tension
between people with very different natural preferences,
and avoiding labels is the first step to ensuring this.
Trait-based tools such as Facet5, as well as HPI and NEO-
PI, avoid putting people into boxes with labels. These
tools are more granular and provide a truer reflection of
the complexities of a person’s personality. You may have
low control or high adaptability for example, but you
are not one ‘type’ versus another. This helps reduce the
tendency to label people by their personality.
ISSUE ONE: “WE’VE SEEN THIS FAIL BEFORE…”
6 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
Confining people by their personality
An individual’s personality preferences do not always
determine their behaviour, and it’s vital that organisations
and managers recognise this.
For example, a person’s preference may be introverted,
and they might not typically enjoy sharing ideas in a
group. But this doesn’t mean they wouldn’t ever jump at
an opportunity to speak publicly about a topic they are
passionate and knowledgeable about.
Or what about someone whose personality profile
indicates that their natural tendency is to be disorganised
and leave things to the last minute. Does this mean they
can’t adapt their behaviour to become super organised
at work to meet the requirements for the role? Of course
they can, in fact, we see this all the time.
These are common issues, and it is important that when it
comes to managing and developing employees that you
don’t fall into the trap of only viewing them in the context
of their personality profile. People need a chance to be
seen for how they act and behave in the work environment
and not confined to what it says on their profile. People
also need to be given opportunities to step out of their
comfort zone and to flourish in new areas.
“It is important that personality profiling doesn’t create a void or tension between people with very different natural preferences.”
7 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
Selecting and integrating new talent
An individual’s characteristics, attitudes and patterns of
behaviour are some of the key ingredients that determine
how well they perform.
Recruitment should start with identifying what the ideal
candidate will look like. Do you need someone who can
make quick decisions? Or do they need strong attention
to detail? Personality profiling helps us determine
whether an individual’s natural preferences align with the
demands of the role.
Of course, personality isn’t the only driver of behaviour
and job performance. However, an understanding of
personality traits serves as a basis for getting to know
a candidate better. It helps steer discussions at the
interview stage, allowing you to get a deeper insight
into their strengths, risk factors and character, and to
investigate their adaptive behaviours.
For instance, just because a person is naturally ‘quick
start’ doesn’t mean they haven’t learned to take a more
considered and analytical approach to their work. This is
something you can dig into at the interview stage.
It’s not just about getting the right person through the
door either. Understanding how a new employee prefers
to learn, work and interact gives you a steer on how
best to integrate them into the business and gives them
the best chance to flourish. It helps you pair them with
a line manager who will be more likely to help them
achieve success or place them into teams where they
will be more likely to excel. If you can integrate new
hires quickly, you set them up to be more engaged and
productive from the outset.
Example 1: It’s not uncommon for people to
disagree on the kind of personality that is going
to work with the role you’re recruiting for. Let’s say
you’re recruiting for a Marketing Manager; one
person may think you need someone outspoken
and strong-willed, another might think you need
someone who is more of a listener.
Often the biggest issue around selecting the right
people is unconscious bias. This is why we often see
organisations recruit people just like them. But what
if the best person for the job is someone with a very
different personality and behavioural style?
Personality profiling tools like Facet5 help us
suppress this unconscious bias and avoid clashes of
opinions by providing data and evidence to support
recruitment decisions. It opens up the conversation
and helps people to reach alignment on the kind of
person that will fit best with the role.
SOLVING REAL BUSINESS PROBLEMS WITH FACET5
“Personality profiling helps us determine whether an individual’s natural preferences align with the demands of the role.”
8 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
Example 2: Organisations are increasingly looking
to bring in people who can disrupt and shake
things up to push the company forward in a
competitive environment. To succeed, you need to
have a culture in place that allows them to disrupt
comfortably. Otherwise, people will get frustrated
and won’t be able to do what they’ve been brought
in to. A disruptor simply can’t disrupt if there isn’t a
culture in place to support them.
Facet5 enables you to assess the existing culture
of your business and identify where shifts need
to occur to allow these disruptors, for example, to
make an impact. You may have a large number of
high will personalities, who are unwilling to bend
and adapt to new ideas. Knowing this provides you
with a powerful advantage.
Developing effective leaders
All successful organisations need great leaders, but
according to research by Deloitte, 86% of business
leaders say that leadership is their biggest organisational
challenge.
Developing great leaders has always been a crucial issue
for organisations, but in today’s business environment the
issue is even more acute. Technology advancements, the
political climate, and changes in the social demographics
of the workforce are piling even more pressure on
organisations to find leaders that can navigate a business
through this complex web of change.
With the right guidance and encouragement, anyone can
become a great leader. The most successful companies
recognise this and focus on developing leaders at all
levels of the organisation and different career points.
First-time leaders, as well as Executive level leaders,
are offered appropriate coaching and development
programmes that will help them to be the best they can
be. This is where understanding their natural preferences,
strengths and development challenges can be valuable.
Personality profiling provides a platform for individuals
to explore their core personality, work preferences and
strengths. It helps them identify how others may perceive
them, how they will work with others, and where they will
need to adapt to suit the team they lead.
As leaders become more senior, they get less and less
feedback. Facet5 shines a light where it may be needed
to show them how their behaviour may be having a
detrimental effect on team performance. This exercise of
self-reflection provokes them into making changes and
adaptations to make them a better leader.
Case Study
t-three were contacted by National Car Parks (NCP),
who were keen to develop their leaders, especially
those who had been promoted from within.
NCP used Facet5 as a key component of their
Management Development programme, an
intervention that 87% of attendees said left them
feeling more confident about managing their own
development, as well as their team’s.
“Because we’d promoted from within, we felt it was
only right that we upskilled people and gave them
the support to become successful in their roles.
The personal feedback is really accurate.” Helen
Johnson, L&D Manager at NCP.
9 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
Managing talent within the business
Research shows that companies with engaged
employees outperform their peers by up to 202%.
So how do we create levels of employee engagement?
The reality is there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution.
Organisations have to be more sophisticated about how
they motivate and engage people who are inherently
different.
Personality profiling allows us to see how they are all
different, so we can devise engagement strategies
and talent development plans that are personalised to
individuals.
By shining a light on an individual’s natural preferences,
strengths and potential weaknesses, we open up the
conversation to goals for personal and professional
development. From a manager’s perspective too, it
enables them to execute target setting, feedback and
appraisals with a smoother approach in a communication
style that works best for the employee.
Facet5 helps organisations and managers to identify
the environments and situations individuals will thrive
in. Equally, it allows us to put people in situations that
will help them to grow. For example, if someone is low
energy, they may not want to deliver a presentation to a
room full of people, but actually, it’s a good learning area
for them.
Likewise, if you only get people to do things they do
well or easily, you’re not giving them any learning either.
Facet5 helps you identify opportunities to stretch people,
so you end up with a more rounded team of people who
are more capable across the board.
Case Study
Joules wanted to use Facet5 to highlight the natural
strengths and preferences of their leaders.
The use of Facet5 within Joules has not only
resulted in improved levels of self-awareness,
but also in individuals feeling empowered to be
themselves, and to appreciate the strengths and
risks that they and their colleagues bring to their
working environment.
“Actually, Facet5 was really different – it’s easy to
connect with, it’s more relatable, and even in all
the years I’ve trained it was a lightbulb moment for
me! People talk about it even in the corridors…it is
something that is really embedded in the business.”
James Cockbill, L&D Manager at Joules.
10 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
If and when you decide to implement a personality profiling tool in your organisation, be prepared for an influx of questions - ‘Will it reveal potentially embarrassing information about me?’, ‘Will I be judged on my personality?’.
It’s likely there will also be scepticism - ‘My answers will
depend on what mood I’m in, so does it really mean
anything?’. There may even be people who have had a
bad experience of workplace personality testing in the
past. Maybe they’ve found it too invasive, or they didn’t
like how the organisation used the assessments.
All this means that you need to be careful about how you
communicate the how and why of personality profiling in
your organisation. As is echoed throughout this eBook,
we can’t assume that everyone will respond in the same
way. Different people will experience different levels
of anxiety about having a spotlight placed on their
personality. This means some people will need more
detail around the rationale and more reassurance about
what it means, and you need to be prepared for this.
Facet5 helps to promote an open, sharing culture within
your organisation. With its clear format and simple
language, employees are instantly able to comprehend
their own results and compare them with their
colleagues’. The ‘family’ identifiers – of which there are 17
- are another quick and easy way for teams to share how
their personalities align and differ.
ISSUE TWO: COMPLEX DATA IS NOT SHARED EFFECTIVELY
“Facet5 helps to promote an open, sharing culture within your organisation.”
11 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
Constant disagreements can cause teams to fragment, and these cracks appear as chasms across the rest of the organisation. Facet5 provides insights to help people prepare for when disagreements occur and for how to get through them.
It helps us recognise that we all have different ways of
reacting to stress and pressure. While some people
are open and vocal about frustrations, others will
retreat inwards and become quiet. Awareness of these
differences means people can predict and understand
the behaviour of others. It opens up the conversation to
allow people to get to a deeper relationship, quickly.
Building effective, high-performing teams is not just
a case of having people with the right skills and the
technical ability to fulfil the necessary functions. You
need to take into account the personalities, values and
preferences of each team member. These are often
referred to as the “soft skills”, but they feel far from soft
when they are causing conflict, slowing down decision
making and making the team a highly uncomfortable and
unsafe place to be.
You simply can’t put a group of people together and
guarantee you’ll get them working in the way you’d like,
however aligned their background or skills are.
What makes this all the more pertinent is that teams
today are very different to the traditional teams of
the past, where everyone sat together and worked
together closely. Now, we are used to virtual teams
and interchangeable teams with people from different
departments and backgrounds coming together to
deliver on a task or project. Add in the fact we now find
up to five generations in the workplace, we need ways
of ensuring everyone from Gen Z, to Millennials, to Baby
Boomers and the Silent Generation can understand each
other and work together effectively.
Ultimately, teams need to work on being a team, and
personality profiling provides you with insights to
accelerate this bonding process.
Personality profiling helps individuals understand why they
choose to approach their work in the way they do, why
others may differ, and what this potentially means for the
overall team performance. It provides a universal language
that helps people better understand each other.
If each member of the team understands why they
choose to approach their work the way they do, how
others are similar or different, and what this means for the
overall team performance, a more cohesive and effective
unit can develop.
This mutual understanding strengthens relationships.
Conflict can be mitigated because people will be better
prepared for someone else’s approach to a task or how
they might react to a certain comment. For example, if a
person appears to be overly controlling, but colleagues
know this to be a personality trait playing out as opposed
to unreasonable behaviour, then tension may be avoided.
When it comes to appointing tasks, if we know each team
member’s natural preferences then we can delegate
based on what makes people ‘tick’. The team will then
have a better view of their collective strengths and
potential blind spots so they can make adaptations when
necessary to deliver what is required.
ISSUE THREE: I UNDERSTAND THAT IT’S HELPFUL TO THE INDIVIDUAL, BUT WHAT ABOUT AT A TEAM LEVEL?
“Personality profiling helps individuals understand why they choose to approach their work in the way they do, why others may differ, and what this potentially means for the overall team performance.”
12 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
One of the great benefits of Facet5 is that a number of different reports can be created off the back of a single questionnaire. TeamScape, Spotlight, and SuperSkills – which examines our natural conversation style, and how we can improve it – can all be created once an individual has completed a Facet5 questionnaire, meaning no repetitive form filling for your employees.
Once enough individuals within an organisation have
been profiled, it becomes possible to pool their data
and consider the behavioural patterns that may emerge.
Imagine you could gain insight into how likely an
organisation is to address conflict? Or to work together?
Or support and trust each other?
If we take a closer look at each of the Facet5 factors, they
can tell us more about group processes.
Will indicates decision-making; at
one extreme individuals will be very
direct, determined and decisive about their own ideas. The
opposite extreme will mean people defer to each other to
gather opinions and gain consensus.
Energy may represent the sociability
of the work process itself. A skew
in the direction of high Energy (especially Sociability on
the subfactors) will mean that a group genuinely likes to
spend time with each other working together, but what
could this mean for those who are less outgoing?
Affection not only suggests how
immediately trusting people may
be of each other (higher scores) but also how open they
are to others’ input and ideas. A group that scores lower
overall on Affection may struggle to support each other
when necessary and miss opportunities to hear good
ideas and input by focussing only on what is pragmatic.
What about Control? We know that
high Control means discipline, rigour
and responsibility. In large groups, this could mean that
rules and processes are followed to the letter which is
useful in some contexts but less so in others. How will
those with a more flexible open-ended approach find
working in an environment like this?
The overall levels of Emotionality in
the group will give us an indication
of how much vibrancy and alertness there might be. It
will also indicate how much tension and apprehension
the group experiences as a whole and what impact this
is likely to have. Groups of low Emotionality may be too
aloof and unmoved to recognise this in others. Both have
consequences!
ISSUE FOUR: THE TOOL WORKS REALLY WELL, BUT WHAT ABOUT WHEN I NEED SOMETHING ELSE?
Will
Energy
Affection
Control
Emotionality
2%
1 12 23 34 45 56 67 78 89 910 10
2%4%
9%
16%
27%
17%
12%
25%
19%
12%
14%
2% 2%0% 0%
22%
12%
7%
0%
13 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
Here are some examples of how this might play out in a real workplace scenario:
1) Comparing Facet Subfactor Scores
Consider the levels of Determination and Confrontation in the following group (n=78):
Determination Confrontation
What we see here is a group of people, organisation or departments who demonstrate a strong skew towards the
high end of the Determination scale. This might suggest an environment where everybody sticks to their guns and is
quick to give instruction; also it could mean that the environment does not lend itself well to listening to each other.
Confrontation, on the other hand, is negatively skewed which might mean an aversion to react and respond to issues,
almost to the point of avoidance. This has implications for organisational effectiveness and for how people will find the
environment as a place to work.
2) Dealing with Conflict
We can also consider how the same group
would approach conflict.
The levels of cooperation and
assertiveness can be mapped to Facet5
profiles so we can see the predominance
of some styles over others. Interestingly,
here we can see the bias not towards
Avoidance, but towards Accommodating.
With a group high on Determination but
low on Confrontation, this may be the
only way conflicts are resolved, but will
everyobody really get what they want?
Cooperativeness
Competing
11%
Avoiding
3%
Compromising
62%
Collaborating
11%
Accommodating
13%Uncooperative Cooperative
Un
asse
rtiv
e
Ass
ert
ive
Ass
ert
ive
ne
ss
14 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
3) Family Distribution
Because Facet5 profiles can be classified into ‘Families’,
each with their own characteristics, we can see by
looking at the distribution how the population is made
up. As well as Generalists you can see here that there
are Developers and Entrepreneurs too. Entrepreneurs
are low on Affection and strong on Will; Developers are
the opposite, and as such we can quickly identify where
tensions – or advantages – could arise.
These are just three ways in which group data on Facet5
can provide greater insight into an organisation’s culture,
working environment and overall ‘style’. Data such
as this can be used to pinpoint areas of organisation
excellence and improvement.
Creating a powerful organisational culture that
enables your company to succeed relies on having
effective leaders, teams that work together cohesively,
strong interpersonal relationships, and high levels of
engagement.
Personality profiling helps us build on each of these
levers by raising the self-awareness of each individual in
the organisation.
We can create more effective leaders if they are able to
play to the strengths of their personality and mitigate
against the things that trip them up. We can build more
cohesive teams, forge closer relationships, and avoid
destructive conflict if people understand their own
personality and behavioural preferences as well as
those of others around them. All this means happier and
more satisfied employees.
Finally, at an organisational level, the insights from
personality profiling help you see the things in your
culture that help and hinder you. You can identify the
missing gaps where you may need to hire someone to
fill them or where you may need your current people to
flex to bridge the gaps.
You may have a team full of high affection individuals,
which means you’re great at making people feel
valued and creating a caring environment. However,
the downside means you might avoid giving each
other unpalatable or negative feedback, or struggle
to manage some of your more difficult people –
both things you need to do to make your business
successful.
Data and insights into your people allow for these gaps
to be revealed and sets you on the path to boosting
your business.
Advocate2%
Architect3%
Coach12%
Developer13%
Entrepreneur10%Explorer
3%
Controller6%
Facilitator1%
Generalist19%
Specialist1%
Supporter4%
Traditionalist5%
Presenter1%
Producer8%
Promoter8%
15 t-three BEYOND THE PERSONALITY TEST
Personality profiling provides organisations with insights that helps them to understand their people in a whole variety of ways and in different situations; from how they prefer to learn, work, interact and lead, to what motivates them, and how they respond to change.
It is not about putting people in confined boxes based
on their personality. Personality profiling is simply about
understanding and leveraging people’s personality to help
them thrive from the moment they enter your organisation.
By shining a light on the personalities of the people in
your organisation, you provoke and empower them to
become more effective, more engaged, and happier in
their work. Looking at the profiles of everyone in your
organisation as a whole reveals where your collective
personalities can help and hinder you.
Facet5 is specifically designed for the workplace,
and based on sound theory recognised by the
British Psychological Society. Its clear and easily
understandable results provide the insights and data
required to help you understand your people in a whole
variety of different ways, and in different situations. This
can have significant benefits for the overall performance
of individuals, teams and your organisation as a whole.
CONCLUSION
“Facet5 is specifically designed for the workplace, and based on sound theory recognised by the British Psychological Society.”
