Personality and Motivation Assessment

WPS Work Personality Survey

Work Personality Survey (WPS)


  • Increase awareness and understanding of personality and work style.
  • Analyze personality traits and implications for job performance.
  • Provide practical tips for performance improvement.
  • Improve work style, skills and performance.

General description

The WPS personality assessment test provides information about a person's personality traits, and how they are likely to affect their work. The instrument is based on the Big Five Factor Model of personality and is similar to the model of the Big Five advanced by Costa and McCrae (1985). The WPS is designed for work and occupational applications - recruitment, training, team building, coaching, and counseling.

Measurement and scoring

The instrument measures the Big Five traits, 20 primary personality traits, and impression management using a 160-item questionnaire. The WPS uses the Standard Ten (Sten) scoring approach. The WPS report provides an in-depth profile of the test taker's personality and probable work style, and offers performance improvement tips and suggestions. The instrument's 20 scales measure the following aspects of personality.

Friendly Gets to know people quickly, cheers people up, enjoys contact.
Outgoing Likes to be surrounded by people, talks a lot, enjoys social occasions.
Assertive Communicates views and ideas, seeks to influence people.
Energetic Keeps busy, reacts quickly, is always on the go, fills spare time.
Trusting Believes that people have good intentions, trusts people to be honest.
Straightforward Behaves straightforwardly, does not manipulate or use people.
Considerate Shows concern, listens well, makes people feel welcome.
Modest Keeps quiet about successes and achievements, avoids talking about self.
Imaginative Has strong imagination, sets aside time for thinking, enjoys daydreaming.
Innovative Generates original solutions to problems, has lots of ideas for change.
Rule-breaking Prepared to bend the rules and take risks to achieve change.
Adaptable Tries new ways of working, adapts quickly to change, prefers variety.
Competent Completes tasks, excels at work, gets things done efficiently.
Organized Likes to be organized, keeps things tidy, does things according to a plan.
Achieving Works hard, sets high standards, does more than is expected.
Proactive Gets down to work quickly, initiates activities, prepares in advance.
Relaxed Has fewer worries than most people, finds it easy to unwind.
Contented Comfortable with self, happy with life, positive about future.
Self-assured Confident in unfamiliar surroundings and with new people.
Resilient Calm under pressure, copes with problems, overcomes setbacks quickly.


Reliability and validity

The internal consistency reliabilities of the scales range from 0.7 to 0.9 with a median of 0.8. Correlations between the scales and marker variables are in the range of 0.7 to 0.9 with a median correlation of 0.8. Criterion-related validity studies show statistically significant correlations between job performance and test scores on all the scales. The magnitude and range of correlations are consistent with those reported in the literature for the impact of personality on job performance.


The instrument's norms are based on a large international comparison group of 25,000 respondents with equal numbers of men and women. The mean age of the sample was 30.2 with a standard deviation of 10.5. About 40 percent of respondents were aged 16-25, about 30% were aged 26-35, and about 10% were aged 46-55. Most respondents came from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Differences in scores related to gender, age, ethnicity, and nationality are very small.

Expected Completion Time

15 ~ 20 minutes


$19.95 USD

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Individual Employees and Learners


Companies and HR Professionals
