Dive Brief:

• According to an article at Gallup.com, employers are increasingly turning to personality tests, or -- as Gallup likes to call them, "talent-based assessments" -- to find the best fit.
• Brandon Rigoni, associate Director for Talent-Based Hiring and Development at Gallup and author of the article, says that while personality testing is nothing new, the latest push has been fueled largely by the emergence of big data and predictive analytics.
• Many employers believe data science can do a better job of finding their next great salesperson, accountant or manager than a traditional face-to-face interview. Rigoni basically agrees, but adds that analytics in and of itself is not the cure-all for workplace woes. 

Dive Insight:

Rigoni cites three common traps employers fall into when they embrace a data-driven hiring strategy: Getting caught up in the data moment; focusing only on assessment, and ignoring the potential pitfalls.

The best indicator of pre-hiring success in the world won't mean much if employers don't have the right managers in place. If that's the case, he writes, newly hired, highly talented employees are unlikely to live up to their full potential and, Gallup's experience suggests, may be even more likely to leave than less talented employees who have fewer options.

Rogoni notes that employers need to consider the implications of how today's data-driven strategies affect employee behavior. He cites the example of some employers collecting real-time data about employees, asking their coworkers to submit immediate and constant feedback. He says this type of environment may inadvertently lead employees to engage in undesirable or inauthentic behavior. In other words: Use big data, but use it judiciously.