Business News Daily provides resources, advice and product reviews to drive business growth. Our mission is to equip business owners with the knowledge and confidence to make informed decisions. As part of that, we recommend products and services for their success.
We collaborate with business-to-business vendors, connecting them with potential buyers. In some cases, we earn commissions when sales are made through our referrals. These financial relationships support our content but do not dictate our recommendations. Our editorial team independently evaluates products based on thousands of hours of research. We are committed to providing trustworthy advice for businesses. Learn more about our full process and see who our partners are here.
Some people may be better suited to remote work, but understanding your preferences can help you succeed anywhere.
Working outside the office can present challenges, including poor Wi-Fi, family distractions and miscommunication. But your environment isn’t the only factor driving work-from-home success. Your personality may put you at an inherent advantage – or disadvantage – for remote work.
We’ll look at personality tests and what they reveal about how well your strengths and weaknesses will align with a remote-work arrangement.
When businesses institute a telecommuting policy, many of the successes and challenges remote workers experience come down to personality. Preferences, tendencies and needs can all impact your remote work success and enjoyment.
Personality tests can help you better understand your strengths and weaknesses and how they may impact your work-from-home experience. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a well-known assessment tool that assigns people one trait from each of four type pairings:
These traits inform how someone perceives the world and makes decisions. Michael Segovia, a lead certification trainer for people-development company and exclusive MBTI publisher CPP, shared some key strengths and weaknesses of each type pairing and how these attributes may affect someone’s approaches to remote work.
Did you know? Benefits of remote work include eliminating the commute, more time to develop healthier habits and not being exposed to office germs.
This MBTI-type pairing usually refers to how people make decisions, but Segovia said a person’s preference for thinking or feeling also affects how they interpret remote communications.
Both types can experience problems with remote work. For example, in their daily text-based communications, a manager or colleague might be too chatty and excitable for thinkers or too blunt for feelers. The emotions and subtext someone would look for in face-to-face interactions are absent for both types.
The MBTI isn’t the only helpful personality-assessment tool to help evaluate your remote-work suitability. The DiSC personal assessment and 16 Personalities test can also shine a light on your work style as it relates to telecommuting.
The DiSC personal assessment was created to help individuals understand their leadership style and how others may react to it. It includes approximately 80 behavior-based statements people answer using a five-point scale. It takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete and is particularly effective at team-building, communication and productivity in a work environment.
Each letter in the DiSC acronym represents a different personality type:
You will naturally score higher in some areas than others. However, the results leave room for more nuanced differences. For example, your type may be SC or CS if your scores are similar in those two areas.
A DiSC assessment’s value in a remote work environment is helping identify your tendencies, needs and preferences regarding teamwork and communication. The more you understand yourself, the more effective you can be while working from home.
Here are two examples of how you can use DiSC assessment information to inform your remote-work approach:
The 16 Personalities test results are based on the NERIS® model, which combines one of four personality types with various personality traits. It includes roughly 100 statements using an agree-or-disagree scale. The test takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete. While most personality tests show your score or percentage in one specific type, this test goes a step further to show how personality traits relate to different characteristics. Additionally, the results specifically address career paths and workplace habits.
The test’s four core personality types – defined as roles – help you learn more about your goals, interests, and preferences:
The test also outlines four strategies to help you learn more about your preferred way of doing things and achieving goals:
By combining the results of these and other categories, you receive results about one of 16 personality types. Here’s what the test can show you about your probable remote-work strengths and challenges.
Employers and employees must agree on a remote-work policy that makes sense for everyone, regardless of personality type. Jones noted that regular video conferences, occasional in-office days (if possible) and excellent project management software can enforce a strong sense of accountability in remote staff.
“Companies should have a video conference with the person who is working from home every other day,” Jones advised. “This will also help those who tend toward distractibility to be accountable.”
Publicist Jana McDonough, a full-time remote staff member at Maracaibo Media Group, says frequent communication can help anyone who works outside the office remain confident and connected.
“When working from home, you have to be able to reach out if you have any questions or concerns,” McDonough said. “In other words, you have to be completely transparent. Just because you can’t physically see what each other is working on doesn’t mean both sides can’t check in with each other.”
Ultimately, Segovia said any employee’s success – remote or not – depends on how motivated they are to meet and exceed the job requirements.
“Any personality type can do any job, as long as the motivation to do that job is there,” Segovia said. “You learn to use the opposite preferences [from those that you prefer] … as you mature and grow.”
The demand for remote work is strong, even amid back-to-office and hybrid arrangement trends. If you prefer to work remotely, take the time to learn how your personality impacts your work style and preferences. An increased sense of self-awareness can open doors to new opportunities, increased productivity and better relationships with colleagues.
Nicole Fallon contributed to the reporting and writing in this article. Some source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.