Hiring the right candidate involves more than reviewing resumes, checking qualifications, and conducting interviews. A candidate may have the right experience on paper but still have behavioral characteristics that do not align with the requirements of a particular role.

This is where behavioral assessment tools for hiring can provide additional insight.

Behavioral assessments help hiring teams understand characteristics such as communication style, motivation, decision-making, teamwork, work preferences, and other job-related behavioral tendencies. When used alongside structured interviews, skills assessments, and relevant experience, these tools can give recruiters a broader view of candidates.

With numerous assessment platforms available, choosing the right solution can be challenging. To help, we have compiled 7 behavioral assessment tools for hiring that organizations can consider in 2026.

Quick Overview: 7 Behavioral Assessment Tools

Tool	Best Suited For	Key Focus
TeamTrait	Behavioral hiring assessments	Behavior, motivation, and job fit
Predictive Index	Workplace behavioral profiling	Behavioral drives and workplace preferences
Hogan Assessments	Leadership and personality assessment	Personality and leadership-related traits
Criteria	Comprehensive pre-employment testing	Cognitive ability, personality, and skills
SHL	Enterprise hiring	Psychometric and talent assessments
HireVue	High-volume recruitment	Video interviewing and assessments
Berke	Personality and cognitive assessment	Personality and problem-solving

1. TeamTrait

Best for: Behavioral assessment for hiring

TeamTrait is an employee behavioral assessment tool from SalesFuel designed to help hiring teams gain additional insight into candidates beyond their resumes and interview responses.

A resume can tell recruiters about a candidate’s experience, education, and qualifications. However, it may provide limited information about how a person approaches workplace situations, interacts with others, responds to challenges, or approaches decision-making.

TeamTrait adds a behavioral perspective to the hiring process.

The platform can help organizations evaluate behavioral characteristics, motivations, and potential job fit as part of a broader candidate evaluation process.

Key TeamTrait Features

• Behavioral assessments for candidates
• Candidate behavioral insights
• Motivation-related insights
• Job-fit considerations
• Hiring decision support
• Additional insights beyond resumes
• Applications for different hiring scenarios
• Support for sales and other business roles

Why Use TeamTrait for Hiring?

One of the challenges recruiters face is distinguishing between candidates who appear similarly qualified on paper.

For example, two candidates may have comparable experience and technical qualifications but approach communication, teamwork, decision-making, or workplace challenges differently.

A behavioral assessment can provide another source of information for evaluating these differences.

TeamTrait can therefore be incorporated into a broader hiring process alongside resumes, interviews, skills evaluations, and other relevant selection criteria.

Who Should Consider TeamTrait?

TeamTrait can be relevant for:

• Recruiters
• HR professionals
• Hiring managers
• Sales leaders
• Business leaders
• Organizations looking to incorporate behavioral insights into hiring

Best use case: Organizations that want behavioral insights to complement traditional candidate evaluation.

2. Predictive Index

Best for: Workplace behavioral profiling

Predictive Index is a behavioral assessment platform focused on understanding workplace behavioral drives and preferences.

Its Behavioral Assessment is designed specifically for workplace applications and evaluates behavioral factors such as dominance, extraversion, patience, and formality.

The results can help organizations understand how an individual may naturally approach different workplace situations.

Key Features

• Workplace behavioral assessment
• Behavioral profiles
• Job-targeting capabilities
• Candidate insights
• Team analysis
• Talent optimization

Predictive Index can be useful for organizations that want a dedicated behavioral profiling system that can be applied across hiring and workforce management.

Best use case: Organizations looking for structured workplace behavioral profiles.

3. Hogan Assessments

Best for: Leadership and personality assessment

Hogan Assessments is known for workplace personality assessment and leadership-related applications.

Its assessment suite examines different aspects of personality and behavior that can be relevant to workplace performance, leadership, and interpersonal relationships.

Organizations can use Hogan assessments to gain deeper insight into personality characteristics that may not be evident from a resume or conventional interview.

Key Features

• Personality assessments
• Leadership assessment
• Workplace personality insights
• Candidate evaluation
• Leadership development
• Talent management

Hogan can be particularly relevant for organizations evaluating leadership candidates or incorporating personality data into talent management processes.

Best use case: Leadership hiring, executive assessment, and leadership development.

4. Criteria

Best for: Comprehensive pre-employment assessments

Criteria offers a broader pre-employment assessment platform that combines several types of candidate evaluations.

Rather than focusing exclusively on behavioral characteristics, Criteria provides assessments covering areas such as cognitive ability, personality, emotional intelligence, and job-related skills.

This makes it an option for organizations that want multiple assessment types within one hiring platform.

Key Features

• Cognitive assessments
• Personality assessments
• Emotional intelligence assessments
• Skills assessments
• Structured interviews
• Candidate evaluation
• ATS integrations

Criteria can be useful when behavioral or personality information is only one part of a larger assessment strategy.

Best use case: Organizations seeking a multi-dimensional pre-employment assessment platform.

5. SHL

Best for: Enterprise-scale talent assessment

SHL provides psychometric assessments and talent solutions for organizations across recruitment and workforce management.

Its assessment offerings can cover cognitive ability, personality, situational judgment, and job-specific capabilities.

For large organizations recruiting across multiple departments, locations, and job categories, a scalable assessment platform can help standardize elements of the evaluation process.

Key Features

• Cognitive ability assessments
• Personality assessments
• Situational judgment tests
• Job-specific assessments
• Talent analytics
• Recruitment assessments
• Enterprise-scale assessment capabilities

SHL is particularly relevant for organizations that need assessment capabilities across large and diverse hiring programs.

Best use case: Enterprise organizations and high-volume recruitment environments.

6. HireVue

Best for: High-volume hiring and video interviewing

HireVue takes a somewhat broader approach to candidate evaluation, combining video interviewing, hiring workflows, and assessment capabilities.

The platform is particularly associated with organizations that need to evaluate large numbers of applicants efficiently.

Video interviews can help hiring teams standardize early-stage candidate interactions, while assessment capabilities can provide additional candidate information.

Key Features

• Video interviewing
• Structured interviews
• Candidate screening
• Hiring workflows
• Assessment capabilities
• High-volume recruitment support

HireVue can be considered when video interviewing and scalable candidate screening are important components of the hiring process.

Best use case: Organizations conducting high-volume recruitment and structured video interviews.

7. Berke

Best for: Personality and cognitive assessment

Berke is a pre-employment assessment platform that combines personality and cognitive evaluation.

The platform is designed to help employers understand candidate characteristics and problem-solving capabilities and use those insights during the hiring process.

Key Features

• Personality assessment
• Cognitive assessment
• Candidate evaluation
• Job-related insights
• Assessment reporting
• Candidate comparison

Berke can be useful for organizations that want to incorporate both personality and cognitive information into their candidate evaluation process.

Best use case: Organizations looking for personality and cognitive assessments as part of hiring.

How Behavioral Assessment Tools Help With Hiring

Behavioral assessment tools can add another layer of information to the recruitment process.

Consider the different types of information available during hiring:

Resume

A resume can provide information about:

• Previous experience
• Education
• Certifications
• Skills
• Job history
• Accomplishments

Structured Interview

An interview can help hiring teams explore:

• Past experiences
• Communication
• Problem-solving examples
• Situational responses
• Candidate motivations

Behavioral Assessment

A behavioral assessment can provide additional information about:

• Behavioral tendencies
• Workplace preferences
• Motivational characteristics
• Communication tendencies
• Decision-making approaches
• Potential role fit

These sources can complement one another rather than being treated as substitutes.

H2: What Should You Look for in a Behavioral Assessment Tool?

Before choosing a behavioral assessment platform, consider the following factors.

1. Assessment Purpose

First, determine what you want the assessment to measure.

Some platforms focus primarily on behavioral characteristics, while others combine behavioral assessments with cognitive ability, personality, skills, or other testing.

2. Role Relevance

The assessment should be relevant to the roles for which you are hiring.

A behavioral characteristic that may be useful in one position may not have the same relevance in another.

3. Candidate Experience

Consider how easy the assessment is for candidates to complete.

Length, instructions, accessibility, and overall usability can all influence the candidate experience.

4. Reporting

Assessment results need to be understandable to recruiters and hiring managers.

Look for clear reporting that helps users interpret the information without requiring unnecessary complexity.

5. Integration

If your organization already uses an applicant tracking system or other recruitment software, consider whether the assessment platform can fit into the existing hiring workflow.

6. Hiring Workflow

Think about where the assessment will be used.

For example, will candidates complete it:

• Before an interview?
• After an initial screening?
• Before a final interview?
• As part of a broader pre-employment assessment?

Defining the workflow beforehand can help you select a platform that fits your recruitment process.

H2: Behavioral Assessment vs. Traditional Hiring

Traditional recruitment often depends heavily on resumes and interviews.

Behavioral assessments provide an additional source of candidate information.

For example:

Resume:
 What experience does the candidate have?

Interview:
 How does the candidate describe their experience and approach to workplace situations?

Behavioral assessment:
 What behavioral characteristics and tendencies may be relevant to the candidate’s potential role fit?

Using multiple sources of information can help hiring teams create a more comprehensive candidate evaluation process.

However, behavioral assessments should generally be considered one component of hiring rather than the sole basis for a hiring decision.

Which Behavioral Assessment Tool Should You Choose?

Different platforms are designed around different assessment needs.

TeamTrait focuses on behavioral insights for hiring and can help organizations add behavioral and motivational information to their candidate evaluation process.

Predictive Index focuses on workplace behavioral profiling.

Hogan Assessments focuses heavily on personality and leadership-related assessment.

Criteria combines cognitive, personality, skills, and other pre-employment assessments.

SHL provides a broad range of psychometric and talent assessments for organizations, including enterprise-scale hiring environments.

HireVue combines video interviewing with assessment and recruitment workflow capabilities.

Berke combines personality and cognitive assessment.

The right choice depends on the types of information your organization wants to collect, the roles being assessed, your recruitment workflow, and how you plan to use assessment results.