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Personality test for hiring in 2026: comparison of PAPI, 16PF, Hogan, MBTI, DISC and the modern scientific alternative for an objective hiring process.
You are an HR director, TA manager or CEO, and you are considering integrating a personality test into your hiring process. Perhaps to objectivize your decisions, reduce casting mistakes, or align evaluations across multiple recruiters. Good instinct. But before choosing a test, a central question: which personality test to choose in 2026 and how to use it correctly?
At Rising Up, our scientific team in cognitive sciences (CNRS, ENS-PSL, EHESS) has been evaluating the main tools on the market for more than 10 years. This article gives you an honest and actionable overview of:
A well-used personality test allows you to:
Publisher: Cubiks Duration: 25-30 min Structure: 20 professional behavioral dimensions Cost per assessment: €80-200
Use case: hiring of sales executives, support functions, middle management. Vocabulary aligned with the professional world.
Strengths: readable report for an HR director or manager, solid track record in France, large historical base.
Points of vigilance: social desirability bias, lack of contextualization to the specific role.
See our detailed analysis: The PAPI test explained.
Publisher: Pearson (Cattell) Duration: 30-45 min Structure: 16 primary factors + 5 global factors Cost per assessment: €100-250
Use case: individual coaching, team seminar, executive hiring with consultant debrief.
Strengths: analytical richness, long scientific pedigree, widely used in occupational psychology.
Points of vigilance: long duration, high cost, report sometimes too detailed for a quick hiring decision.
See: What does Cattell's 16PF measure.
Publisher: Hogan Assessments Duration: 15-20 min Structure: 7 main scales on the "bright side" Cost per assessment: €150-300
Use case: assessment of executive leaders, high potentials, succession planning.
Strengths: solid scientific validation, focus on managerial performance, international recognition.
Points of vigilance: high cost, requires a certified consultant for interpretation.
See: Is the Hogan test worth its price.
Publisher: The Myers-Briggs Company Duration: 20-30 min Structure: 4 dichotomies leading to 16 profiles Cost per assessment: €50-150
Use case: team building, awareness, individual coaching.
Strengths: very popular, easy to understand, memorable.
Points of vigilance: strongly criticized scientifically. Up to 50% of people get a different profile when retested 5 weeks apart (Pittenger, 2005). Not recommended for hiring decisions.
Publisher: several (Wiley, TTI Success Insights, etc.) Duration: 10-30 min Structure: 4 main behavioral profiles (D, I, S, C) Cost per assessment: €50-200
Use case: team building, management, individual coaching, relational style adaptation.
Strengths: very simple to understand, memorable (the colors), useful to open a dialogue.
Points of vigilance: reduces behavioral complexity to 4 categories, decontextualized, social desirability bias.
Publisher: several (academic, non-proprietary) Duration: 15-30 min Structure: 5 dimensions (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism) Cost per assessment: €30-100
Use case: executive hiring, occupational psychology research, coaching.
Strengths: best scientific validation among classic tests, conscientiousness is the best performance predictor among classic traits.
Points of vigilance: dimensions too general for a specific role, social desirability bias.
See: Big Five, the best personality test.
The choice depends on 4 main criteria.
Given the common limits of all classic tests (desirability bias, lack of contextualization, low predictive validity), a new generation of behavioral assessments has emerged in cognitive sciences.
The idea: rather than asking the candidate to describe themselves, present them with concrete professional scenarios and observe their reactions. What they do, not what they say they would do.
At Rising Up, this approach has been formalized in the CoreSkills scientific framework, co-developed with a consortium of researchers (CNRS, ENS-PSL, EHESS, University of Paris) and published in open access on the Open Science Framework (DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/RVEHU).
The Soft Skill Scan, recognized as breakthrough innovation by the European Innovation Council, combines two complementary dimensions:
The candidate takes the Scan in 20 minutes, from any device, without possible preparation. The scenarios have no obvious right answer: they reveal the candidate's natural arbitrations under pressure.
A behavioral profile on the 18 core skills of the Rising Up scientific reference framework, with for each competency:
It is a decision aid for the manager, not an oracle. The final decision always belongs to the manager after analysis of the Scan and conduct of the interview.
Here are the 4 steps of a robust and objective process.
Before evaluating the candidate, map what you are really looking for. A classic job description lists hard skills. It often omits key soft skills that really drive performance.
The Rising Up CoreSkills AI scans the job description and identifies the expected behavioral competencies, explicit and implicit, aligned with the 18 core skills framework. This allows you to objectively compare each candidate to a precise role profile, not to an intuition.
Use the test after CV pre-filtering, not before. Tests cost (candidate time + cost per assessment). Only send them to profiles already relevant on hard skills.
Ideally, the test occurs between CV pre-filtering and the first interview. The candidate receives a link after CV screening. They take the test in 20 minutes. The recruiter receives the report before the first interview.
The test report does not replace the interview. It guides it. Use strengths and points of vigilance to build a targeted interview grid:
The interview then moves from discovering the candidate from scratch to a targeted conversation on the zones to explore. You save 30 to 45 minutes per interview while improving decision quality.
The manager always decides. The test provides objective data, the interview provides context and validated intuition. The combination of both gives the best decision.
No test should decide alone on a hire. None.
No. No legal obligation in France or in most countries. It is a methodological choice by the company.
Yes, they have the right. In practice, a serious candidate will generally accept if they understand the objective. Communicate on the meaning of the approach (objectivize the assessment, prepare a constructive interview).
Generally not recommended. A candidate who takes several tests risks fatigue and gives less reliable results. Choose one main test and complement possibly with a structured interview and a job-related situation exercise.
The Soft Skill Scan integrates upstream of the interview, without replacing your ATS or your sourcing channels. You keep your current process and enrich it with an objective layer of behavioral measurement.
The Rising Up pilot program costs €3,000 excl. tax for 150 assessments over 8 weeks, i.e. approximately €20 per assessment. Significantly cheaper than classic tests (often €100-300 per candidate).
If you are looking to objectively assess the soft skills of your candidates before the interview, with a modern scientific method, discover the Rising Up hiring pilot program:
🎯 150 behavioral assessments over 8 weeks, on the candidates of your 5 targeted positions
🎯 The CoreSkills AI analysis of your 5 job descriptions (acquired for life, even if you stop mid-course)
🎯 €3,000 excl. tax paid in one go at signature, valid until September 30, 2026 (then €4,500 excl. tax)
🎯 Limited to 5 companies per month
The asymmetry is clear: a single avoided bad hire covers 10 times the cost of the pilot.
Send us a message 📩 at hello@risinguparis.com and we will organize a 15-minute demonstration for you within the week.
From recruitment At development skills, Rising Up provides reliable behavioral data to guide your HR and educational choices.
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