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Personality - the basics

Thomas Personality is a six-factor profile based on the most widely accepted and researched model of human personality held by psychologists today, the Big Five personality theory. The Big Five is an extensively validated framework for measuring human personality. 

Personality identifies the traits most closely associated with success at work, namely Conscientiousness, Adjustment, Curiosity, Risk Approach, Ambiguity Acceptance, and Competitiveness. 

Conscientiousness

It combines self-discipline, an organised approach to work, and the ability to control the impulses that others may give in to. 

Adjustment

Indicates how individuals react emotionally to stress, external events, pressures and relationships. 

Curiosity

How people approach novelty, innovation, change, new information and methods.

Risk Approach

Indicates how someone deals with challenging or threatening situations. 

Ambiguity Acceptance

Reaction to complexity and contradictory information: situations where outcomes, decisions, arguments and evidence are not immediately apparent. 

Competitiveness

Individual’s relative desire to win, need for power and reaction to winning and losing.

Personality vs Behaviour

While the word “personality” has been defined in many ways, personality is mainly referred to as the combination of values, worldviews, set responses, emotions, patterns of thought and characteristics which are relatively stable aspects of an individual.

Personality gives you insight into the underlying traits that drive how a person works and interacts with those around them. While the six traits measured in Thomas Personality are relatively stable, meaning that there are fundamental tendencies and patterns of behaviour that tend to persist, even as individuals age and experience life, a person can develop and adapt the behaviours that they drive and find job roles and work environments that suit them best.

Identifying an individual’s behaviours is crucial in understanding what you will see once the candidate joins your organisation. Adding the personality dimension to any role helps us see “why” this person will behave the way they do.

Personality in practice

When used for recruitment alongside the Thomas Behaviour and Aptitude, Personality can help you match an individual’s personality and behavioural traits as well as aptitudes to those that are important for success in a specific role. This invaluable insight can help you reduce unconscious bias, make better, more informed decisions, and build an engaged and productive workforce. 

Thomas's Personality allows you to look at each personality trait in context to a specific role. Personality profiling provides answers to questions such as: 

  • Is this person focused on achieving goals and on how to reach those goals?

  • Are they calm under pressure, and how often do they experience stress or negative emotions?

  • Does this person enjoy novelty, learning new methods and variety in a job role?

  • How keen are they to solve interpersonal issues proactively?

  • Does this person thrive in uncertain situations and enjoy complexity?

  • Are they motivated by power and influence, always wanting to win?