Big Five occupational personality test
Continuous trait scores with facet-level detail, in occupational and management versions.
Learn more Australia's Leading Test Publisher
Personality Assessmentand behavioural assessments for hiring
Cognitive ability tests tell you how well a candidate can think. Personality and behavioural assessments tell you how they will actually behave: how reliably they follow through, how they handle pressure, what motivates them and how they treat the people around them. RightPeople publishes a complete family of these measures, built on 25+ years of Australian research and interpreted by registered organisational psychologists.
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1300 792 554 Within Australia +61 2 8896 6096 Direct / international25+years of Australian research behind every assessment
Directregistered psychologist support on every engagement
6personality and behavioural measures that combine into one report
Rapidturnaround on reports, typically the same day
What it covers
Personality and Behavioural Assessment
What the Category Means
Personality and behavioural assessment is the group of pre-employment tests that measure how a person typically behaves, rather than how well they can reason. Researchers sometimes call the category non-cognitive assessment. It includes personality tests, emotional intelligence, work drivers and motivation, Situational Judgement (SJT) and time management, together with a response validity check that confirms the candidate answered candidly.
These measures matter because most hiring failures are behavioural, not intellectual. The candidate had the ability but did not follow through, could not handle the pressure, or did not fit the team. Personality traits such as conscientiousness predict job performance across occupations3, and combining personality with a cognitive ability test gives a stronger prediction than either alone4. Every RightPeople assessment is normed on Australian working populations and reported in plain language against the demands of the role.
At the centre of the family is our occupational personality test, built on the Big Five model. The Big Five is the framework the scientific community has converged on: the same five broad factors emerge again and again across languages, cultures, age groups and industries1,2. It is the model organisational psychologists use when they need to predict workplace behaviour, because it is the one that has been shown to do so.
Type-based and colour-based tools sort people into a handful of boxes. The Big Five measures traits on continuous scales, compares them with Australian working-population norms, and reports facet-level detail on how a candidate will follow through, handle pressure, work with others and respond to change. It is available in an occupational version for non-management roles and a management version for anyone with direct reports.
Openness
Curiosity, imagination and comfort with new ideas. Matters for learning agility, innovation and adapting to change.
Conscientiousness
Reliability, organisation, persistence and attention to detail. The strongest personality predictor of job performance across roles.
Extraversion
Energy, assertiveness and sociability. Shapes how a person influences, sells, presents and draws energy from others.
Agreeableness
Cooperation, trust and consideration for others. Predicts team fit, service orientation and how conflict is handled.
Nervous stress
How a person experiences pressure, worry and setbacks, and how quickly they recover. Central to stress tolerance and customer-facing work.
The wider family
Behavioural Assessments
That Sit Alongside Personality
Personality describes a candidate's typical style. The measures below answer the questions personality alone cannot: how they handle emotion, what drives them, what they would actually do in a difficult situation, and whether they answered honestly. Each can be run on its own or combined with the Big Five test in a single report.
Emotional intelligence
How a person perceives, understands and manages emotion in themselves and others. Emotional intelligence predicts performance in roles with high emotional labour5.
Learn moreWork drivers & motivation
What a candidate wants from work: security, achievement, autonomy, recognition, variety. Tells you whether your role will keep them engaged once the novelty wears off.
Learn moreSituational Judgement (SJT)
Realistic workplace scenarios with a choice of responses. Measures judgement rather than self-description, and predicts job performance in its own right6.
Learn moreTime management
Planning, prioritising and working to deadlines. Especially useful for administrative, coordination and remote roles where self-direction matters.
Learn moreResponse validity check
Included at every package level. Flags socially desirable or inconsistent responding so the psychologist interprets the profile with that in mind.
Learn morePersonality tells you how. Cognitive ability tells you how well.
Behavioural assessment is strongest beside a cognitive ability test. Together they cover the two best-established predictors of job performance. Our standard packages combine both with emotional intelligence, work drivers and motivation and a response validity check at every level, from entry level to executive.
- Cognitive ability and aptitude tests: logical, numerical, abstract and verbal reasoning
- Big Five personality, occupational or management version
- Emotional intelligence, work drivers and motivation, Situational Judgement (SJT)
- Response validity check on every completion
- Build your own package, or run a single test
What you receive
One report, written for the hiring decision
Whichever measures you choose, results arrive in a single report prepared by RightPeople's Sydney-based registered organisational psychologists. It opens with a plain-English psychologist summary, matches the candidate against the capabilities the role demands, and closes with targeted follow-up questions so your interview probes the areas that need probing. A psychologist is available to talk through any candidate's results.
1
Psychologist summary
Strengths, risks and overall fit for the role in a page you can read before the interview.
2
Capability match
Every measure mapped against the behaviours the role requires, with clear indicators of fit.
3
Targeted follow-up
Interview questions written for this candidate, aimed at the areas where the profile raises a question.
"Compared to the cost of a bad hire, using RightPeople's tests is insignificant."AMT Group
FAQ
Personality and behavioural assessment questions
What is a personality assessment for hiring?
A personality assessment for hiring is a standardised questionnaire that measures a candidate's typical patterns of behaviour, such as reliability, sociability, resilience and openness to change, and compares them with a relevant working population. RightPeople's personality assessments are built on the Big Five model, normed on Australian workers and interpreted by registered organisational psychologists against the demands of the specific role.
What is the difference between personality and behavioural assessment?
Personality assessment measures stable traits that describe a person's typical style. Behavioural assessment is the broader category, which also includes emotional intelligence, work drivers and motivation, Situational Judgement (SJT), time management and response validity. RightPeople offers all of these, and most clients combine a personality test with one or two behavioural measures chosen for the role.
Is this the same as non-cognitive assessment?
Yes. Researchers use the term non-cognitive assessment for any measure of how a person behaves rather than how well they reason, which covers personality, emotional intelligence, motivation and judgement. RightPeople prefers the plainer phrase personality and behavioural assessment, but the tests are the same, and all of them are designed to sit alongside a cognitive ability test in a complete pre-employment assessment.
Which behavioural assessments should we use for our role?
Start with the Big Five occupational personality test, which suits every role, and add measures that match the role's demands: emotional intelligence for customer-facing and leadership positions, work drivers and motivation where retention matters, Situational Judgement (SJT) where judgement under pressure is critical, and time management for self-directed roles. A RightPeople psychologist will recommend a combination when you request a quote.
Can candidates fake a personality or behavioural assessment?
Candidates can attempt to present themselves favourably, which is why every RightPeople assessment includes a response validity check. It flags socially desirable or inconsistent responding so the psychologist interprets the profile accordingly. Situational Judgement (SJT) adds a further safeguard because it asks what a candidate would do, not how they describe themselves, and the report's targeted follow-up questions let you probe further at interview.
Do we receive separate reports for each assessment?
No. Whichever measures you combine, results arrive in a single integrated report prepared by RightPeople's Sydney-based registered organisational psychologists. It opens with a psychologist summary, matches the candidate against the capabilities the role requires, and closes with targeted follow-up interview questions. Reports have a rapid turnaround, typically the same day, and a psychologist is available to discuss any candidate.
Hire on evidence, not impressions
Tell us about the role and a registered psychologist will recommend the right combination of personality and behavioural assessments.
Request a Quote
Speak to a registered psychologist
1300 792 554 Within Australia +61 2 8896 6096 Direct / international
