Can I use DiSC for hiring? Why the answer is no, and what to use instead!
You love Everything DiSC. Your team speaks the language, your workshops are a hit, and you've seen real results. So it makes sense that someone on your team has asked, "Can we use DiSC to screen candidates, too?" It's a fair question, and they're not the first to ask it.
Should I use DiSC for candidate screening?
The short answer is no, and there's a good reason for it. DiSC is a behavioral tool designed to help people understand their natural tendencies and learn to adapt their style. And we all know that people can behave one way in a job interview and show up behaving like a totally different person on the job!
Plus, DiSC isn't built to predict whether someone will succeed in a specific role. But that doesn't mean assessments can't play a powerful role in your hiring process. In this post, I'll explain why DiSC isn't the right fit for screening, share a story about what can go wrong when you use the wrong tool (or ignore the right one), introduce you to the assessment I recommend for hiring, and make the case for why DiSC is still your best friend when it comes to onboarding.
A Story About the Right Assessment and the Wrong Hire
John is one of my all-time favorite coaching clients. As the organization's COO, he was wicked smart and expected others to be the same. He was frustrated with a relatively new financial analyst on his team. She was pleasant and well-organized, and she was good at pulling numbers together. But she wasn't taking the extra step to explain what those numbers were telling them. John expected more. Despite his repeated requests, she wasn't turning data into insight or recommendations. John couldn't figure out why.
I knew his organization used candidate screening assessments, so I told him to dig up her pre-hire report and let's see what it said. Sure enough, while her personality profile showed someone with a pleasant disposition and a structured approach to work, her thinking skills scored as average. Perfectly fine for everyday tasks, but not at the level required for the kind of strategic analysis John needed from a person in that role.
Here's where the story gets personal. I glanced up at the name on the report and realized I actually knew this her. I had worked alongside her almost 20 years earlier in branch banking. She was one of the nicest people I'd ever worked with. Wonderful with customers, genuinely lovely. But even back then, I knew she wasn't a critical thinker or strategic problem solver.
I gave John a hard time for not paying attention to the results. The assessment had told him exactly what he needed to know before he made the hire, but he was so taken by her accommodating nature during the interview that he overlooked the thinking skills that were essential for the job. The data was right there, and he didn't use it.
The moral of the story: use the right assessment for the right purpose, and pay attention to what it tells you!
Why DiSC Isn't Built for Hiring
This isn't a knock on DiSC. Everything DiSC is the world's leading tool for understanding and building workplace behaviors, and I use it with organizations every single week. But the very thing that makes DiSC so powerful for development is the same thing that makes it a poor fit for screening candidates.
DiSC measures behavioral tendencies, meaning how you tend to communicate, collaborate, and respond to situations. The whole premise of DiSC is that people can learn to recognize their natural style and then adapt it based on the situation or the person they're working with. That's the growth mindset behind everything that DiSC teaches.
Now think about that in the context of a job interview. Everyone knows that a candidate can show up with one style in the interview and then show up as a completely different person once they're on the job. That doesn't make them dishonest, and it doesn't make DiSC unreliable. It simply means that behaviors are adaptable by design, which is exactly what DiSC is built to teach. But when you're trying to predict whether someone will succeed in a role, you need to go deeper than behavior.
What You Actually Need to Measure When Hiring
Effective candidate screening gets to the core of who someone is, not just how they show up on a given day. That means looking at three things:
Personality traits. Unlike behavioral tendencies, many personality traits are deeply rooted. They develop through a combination of genetics, upbringing, education, and early career experiences. They're more stable over time and more predictive of how someone will consistently show up in a role.
Thinking skills. Critical thinking and cognitive ability are more inherent than they are developable. You can train someone on a new process or system, but the ability to analyze information, solve complex problems, and think strategically is largely something a person either brings to the table or doesn't. That's exactly what John's analyst was missing.
Motivational interests. What genuinely excites this person? How do they want to spend their days? A candidate might have all the skills in the world, but if the work doesn't align with what motivates them, engagement, performance, and retention will eventually suffer.
The Tool I Recommend for Hiring: PXT Select
The assessment I use with organizations for candidate screening is PXT Select, which is also published by Wiley, the same company behind Everything DiSC. It measures all three of the areas I just described: thinking skills, personality traits, and motivational interests.
Here's how it works. You start by identifying the ideal profile, called a Performance Model, for the position you're hiring for. Then, when a candidate completes the assessment, PXT Select generates a report showing how closely that person matches your desired profile. It highlights where they align and where there might be gaps, and it provides recommended interview questions tailored to those gaps, including guidance on what to listen for in the candidate's answers. It basically provides an "interviewing for dummies" template!
What I appreciate most about PXT Select is how user-friendly the reports are. There's no certification required to use it. I help organizations set up their initial Performance Models and train their hiring teams on how to read and apply the results, but the reports are intuitive enough that teams can get going immediately. I also set up an administrative dashboard for each client, similar to what we do with Everything DiSC, so they can manage their own assessments going forward.
Beyond the initial hiring report, PXT Select includes a full suite of supplemental reports at no additional cost:
Leadership report to understand how someone will lead others based on six dimensions
Coaching report to help a manager work effectively with the new hire from day one
Team report to see how the new hire will fit into the existing team dynamic
Succession planning report for evaluating long-term potential or internal job candidates
Individual report for the new hire, which serves as an excellent onboarding tool
The cost is $295 per candidate, and that includes every report listed above. Volume discounts are available for organizations with as few as 10 candidates. You can learn more about PXT Select and download sample reports here.
Or download our PXT Select Report Guide to see the model and all the reports in detail!
Where DiSC Shines: Onboarding
Just because DiSC isn't the right tool for screening doesn't mean it should sit on the sideline during the hiring and onboarding process. In fact, once you've made the hire, DiSC can be one of the most valuable things you do for that new employee.
When a new hire completes an Everything DiSC profile after their first few weeks, it immediately gives them and their manager a shared language for how they prefer to communicate, what motivates them, and where potential friction points might arise. Pair that with a Comparison Report between the new hire and their manager, and you've got a roadmap for building a productive working relationship from the very start.
We've written a full post on how to build DiSC into your onboarding program. If you're interested, you can read it here.
The Bottom Line: Right Tool, Right Purpose
Think of it this way. DiSC tells you how someone tends to behave in the workplace and helps them grow from there. PXT Select tells you who someone is at a more foundational level and whether they're likely to succeed in a specific role. Both are Wiley products, both are research-backed, and both are incredibly effective when used for what they were designed to do.
Use PXT Select to make confident hiring decisions. Use DiSC to develop, engage, and retain the great people you've hired. Together, they give you a complete picture from candidate to contributor.
Want Help Getting Started?
If you're interested in exploring PXT Select for your hiring process, building DiSC into your onboarding program, or both, I'd love to help. Schedule a conversation with me here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it illegal to use DiSC for hiring?
DiSC isn't specifically illegal to use in hiring, but it's not designed or validated for that purpose. The EEOC requires that employment assessments be properly validated for the positions they're used for. Since DiSC measures behavioral style rather than job-related skills, aptitudes, or cognitive ability, using it as a screening tool could expose your organization to unnecessary risk. PXT Select, on the other hand, was built specifically for hiring and is validated for pre-employment use.
Can I use DiSC to prepare better interview questions?
Not really, because DiSC shouldn't be part of your pre-hire process. However, PXT Select does exactly this. Based on how a candidate's profile compares to your Performance Model, PXT Select generates tailored interview questions that target the areas where there might be gaps. It even tells you what to listen for in the candidate's answers, which makes your interviews significantly more focused, unbiased, and productive.
Do I need to be certified to use PXT Select?
No. There is no certification program for PXT Select. The reports are designed to be intuitive and easy to understand without any special training. That said, I do train hiring teams on how to set up their Performance Models and how to get the most out of the reports. Once they're up and running, most teams feel confident managing the process on their own.
What's the difference between personality traits in PXT Select and behavioral styles in DiSC?
Think of personality traits as deeper and more stable. Many traits are shaped by genetics, upbringing, and early life experiences, and they tend to stay relatively consistent throughout your career. Behavioral styles, on the other hand, are more situational and adaptable. DiSC teaches people that their behavioral style is a starting point, not a fixed destination, and that they can learn to stretch into different styles depending on the situation. Both are valuable, but they serve different purposes. Personality traits are more predictive for hiring. Behavioral styles are more useful for development.
Can I use PXT Select for internal promotions, not just external candidates?
Absolutely. The succession planning report in PXT Select is designed for exactly this. If you're considering promoting someone internally, you can assess them against a variety of Performance Models to see where they align and where they might need development. It's a much more objective way to make those decisions than relying on gut instinct, emotions, or tenure alone.
I already use DiSC across my organization. Is it hard to add PXT Select?
Not at all. Since both are Wiley products, the administrative setup is familiar if you're already managing DiSC. I set up a separate dashboard for PXT Select, train your team, and help you build your first Performance Models. Most organizations are up and running within a couple of weeks. And honestly, the two tools complement each other beautifully. PXT Select gets the right people in the door, and DiSC helps them thrive once they're there.
Want Help Getting Started?
If you're interested in exploring PXT Select for your hiring process, building DiSC into your onboarding program, or both, I'd love to help. Schedule a conversation with me here.
