Using personality to build empathy in interviews.

90% of employees say that empathetic leadership leads to high job satisfaction. 

But how can you empathise with someone if you don’t know them?

This month at TALY, we’re focusing on the ways you can use personality profiling to build understanding – cutting through the noise, removing the bias, and building real connections.

Today, we wanted to start at the beginning – and share with you 4 ways personality profiling can be used in the interview process to build understanding.

Because the best people decisions start with the best data.

The TALY Personality Profiling brings together…

• scientifically-backed personality profiling

• tailored to the needs of your business, culture and the role

• delivered through customised, locally-built AI tools to ensure accuracy

Get in touch to find out more about how you can use TALY profiling to give you the insights you need to build great teams - from recruitment onwards! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.

Personality and Interviews.

Less Bias.

More empathy and connection.

Personality profiling is a great way to build an honest understanding of each other.

So in interviews, it’s shouldn’t just be a tick-the-box exercise – it’s a great tool for building shared understanding and an ongoing connection that helps to make sure leaders and candidates are making the best decisions.

We talk about this all the time at TALY – the interview process is maybe one of the most bias-filled situations going around. So accurate, insightful profiling can help to cut through this bias to present the full picture.

But it is what happens after the interview that really matters! 

The interview process should be seen as an opportunity for shared understanding and connection – because this understanding can carry through the employee lifecycle, building engagement and encouraging an open, empathetic and real work relationship.

Here are 4 ways you can make this work for you…

Using personality to understand role alignment.

The one-size-fits-all approach to recruitment is dead. We all know now that lots of different personalities can do lots of different roles – individuals just approach it differently.  

The obvious example I often use here is in sales. Traditionally, the archetypal sales person was outgoing, extroverted, driven and resilient. Maybe this is still true for some roles, but introverts have now been proven to make great sales people. It all depends on the person, the role, the company, the culture and the clients – it’s just mad to think there can be a standard for this.

Personality profiling can help to understand alignment, giving leaders the insight they need to deep-dive in the right areas and ask the right questions through the interview process.

Focusing on the priorities

During the interview process, how do you know what areas to focus on?

Each person you come across will bring different backgrounds, experience, skills, personalities and more. So in the one-hour you have to connect and understand this person, how do you know your digging into the right topics?

A consistent and structured approach to interviews is important – but you can tweak and tailor this by using personality profiling – helping you to identify the areas to stress test on topics that really matter.

Ask for evidence and examples around where there is strong alignment,

And explore areas where there isn’t strong alignment to ensure there is self-awareness, and to ensure that the candidate has built habits to manage this positively. 

Understand how your personality skews your perceptions.

When we talk about personality, it is not all one way. Through the interview process, the candidate’s personality can help you to build a high level of insight – but that’s just one side of the story.

Your personality also plays a role – it skews how you behave, how your respond and how you engage.

This means as a leader and an interviewer, your personality is skewing how you see the situation and how you perceive others.

When the candidate suggests they would approach a scenario the same way you would, you’ll naturally give that more credit – but what if you’re both wrong?

A clear understanding of your personality – and how it aligns to the candidate – is an important first step in managing this appropriately.

Showing that you care.

The interview process is (hopefully) the start of an ongoing relationship. Imagine if that starts with you taking the time to really see and understand the candidate, and to shape the process to align with them.

79% of employees say that a little empathy reduces turnover. Like Julie Andrews said, let’s start at the very beginning – you can you show a little empathy right from the start, it will have a big impact.

At the end of the day, open and honest communication around who we are, and seeing others clearly, is the first step to any positive relationship. Take a moment to think about how you can start to bring more of this into your interview process.

If you want to know how to get started – the best way is to just get started!

The TALY approach to personality profiling brings together a unique mix of Five Factor and Emotional Intelligence profiling to help organisations, hiring managers and teams to make better decisions about recruitment and teams.

Get in touch to find out more… we love talking about this stuff! Or Book a Demo today to see how easy it is to start using TALY in your business.