Stop Hiring Robots: How Personality and IQ Tests Are Killing Innovation and Diversity

🐘 Dear Recruiters and Hiring Managers,

Let’s talk about the elephant tap-dancing in your interview room.

You’re using personality and IQ tests because you think you’re building the perfect team, but you’re not creating dream teams, you’re assembling matching sets.

You’re not hiring the best person for the job; you’re hiring the best test-taker for a system built to reward conformity.

And newsflash! When everyone thinks, acts, and responds the same way, you don’t get innovation, you get a factory line of mediocrity.

The Interview Plot Twist

I’ve had a few interviews in recent weeks with major companies. The first and second rounds were fantastic; great chemistry, mutual respect, genuine connection.

Then comes the personality quiz and IQ speed test, forcing me to “rank your empathy on a scale of one to 10.”

Suddenly I’m reliving my SAT nightmares and wondering if I failed because I didn’t pick “strongly agree” fast enough. Even worse, I don’t know the results because these companies don’t share what’s provided. They simply take it and do what with it? Make a bonfire? Decorate their offices with the answers? What?

Then...crickets.

What happened? Did I pick the wrong answer to your secret personality riddle? Am I too outspoken, too analytical, too creative, not robotic enough?

Or maybe I just didn’t fit your “ideal team algorithm.”

The Problem Isn’t the Test, it’s the Lack of Logic

These tests are a farce wrapped in pseudoscience. Most aren’t validated, half of applicants fudge the answers, and the rest of us get penalized for being actual humans.

You’re not measuring capability; you’re measuring who can color inside your pre-approved lines.

Even organizational psychologists have called this out, and let’s not forget the EEOC fines big-name brands like Best Buy, CVS and Target have paid for using personality tests that discriminated against candidates.

The Data is Clear (and has been for years)

Research keeps showing the same thing: Diverse teams that are diverse in thought, background and problem-solving styles - win all day long.

They’re more creative, more innovative and yes, more profitable.

Conformity might feel comfortable, but it kills progress.

The best teams aren’t cloned from a DiSC assessment; they’re built from people who challenge each other, fill each other’s blind spots and see solutions others can’t.

A Challenge to Every Hiring Leader

Attention recruiters, execs, and anyone else holding the hiring reins - have a real conversation. Look at real work. Ask real questions. Assess personality in real life. Don’t hand the decision to some personality or IQ test. These don’t reveal talent, they bury it. It’s not strategy or insight; it’s mediocrity dressed up as data.

And the next time you eliminate someone who doesn’t fit your “ideal personality or IQ profile,” you might be ghosting the person who could have built your next big revenue stream.

The future belongs to companies that embrace difference, not the ones still trying to score it on a Likert scale.

So, which side are you on?