DISC Assessment Statistics: 25+ Data Points on Behavioral Testing and Hiring

How widely are behavioral assessments used, what does a hiring mistake actually cost, and what does the research say about predictive validity? This page compiles the key statistics on DISC and pre-employment assessment — each with its source — updated for 2026. Feel free to cite any statistic with a link to this page.

Adoption: Who Uses Behavioral Assessments

56%

of employers now use pre-employment assessments in their hiring process.

SHRM, 2025

72%

of medium and large organizations globally use at least one form of pre-employment assessment during recruitment.

Industry survey data, 2025

80%

of Fortune 500 companies use personality assessments in hiring or development.

Leaders.com analysis

1M+

people complete a DISC assessment every year, with tens of millions of completions accumulated worldwide.

Publisher data (Wiley)

Personality and behavioral evaluations account for roughly 32% of all assessment usage in hiring, second only to skills-based tests (~46%). — industry usage data, 2025
79% of organizations using assessments now weigh assessment scores as heavily as resumes. — assessment industry reporting, 2025
78% of organizations using pre-employment assessments report improved quality of hire. — assessment industry reporting, 2025
Soft skills tests were the most popular test type in 2025, with employers particularly measuring personality traits, motivation and critical thinking. — TestGorilla, State of Skills-Based Hiring 2025

The Cost of a Bad Hire

30%

of first-year earnings: the cost of a bad hire according to the U.S. Department of Labor — $22,500 on a $75,000 role.

U.S. Department of Labor

50–200%

of annual salary: the full replacement cost of an employee, rising to ~200% for managers and leaders.

Gallup

$1T

per year: what voluntary turnover costs U.S. businesses.

Gallup

$4,700

average direct cost-per-hire — before counting onboarding, training and lost productivity.

SHRM

SHRM’s full accounting of a bad hire ranges from 50–75% of annual salary for entry-level roles to 100–150% for mid-level and up to 200%+ for executive positions. — SHRM
U.S. voluntary turnover averaged 13% in 2025, ranging from 8% in insurance to ~27% in retail. — Mercer, 2025 US Turnover Survey (2,617 organizations)
89% of bad hires lack critical soft skills, regardless of their technical proficiency. — hiring industry research
78% of employers have hired a technically strong candidate who underperformed due to soft skills or culture fit — exactly the layer a behavioral assessment measures before the offer. — employer surveys, 2025

Predictive Validity: What the Research Says

The reference meta-analysis in personnel selection (Schmidt & Hunter, 85 years of research findings) quantified how well each selection method predicts job performance:

Structured interviews: r = .51 predictive validity, versus r = .38 for unstructured interviews. Structure beats improvisation by a wide margin.
General mental ability: r = .51, the single strongest standalone predictor for candidates without job experience.
Combining methods raises validity to r = .63–.65 — no single instrument decides a hire; the gains come from combining structured tools.
Employers who focus on measurable signals when hiring are 60% more likely to make a successful hire than those relying on resumes and instinct. — skills-based hiring research, 2025

Where does DISC fit? A DISC assessment does not measure ability — it measures observable behavior: how a person communicates, decides and reacts under pressure. Its role in a professional process is complementary: used alongside a structured interview, it tells you how the candidate will do the job, flags behavioral job-fit risks and generates targeted interview questions. That combination logic — not any single test — is what the validity research supports. See our assessment methodology and the Job Fit matrix.

Soft Skills and Behavior in Hiring

60% of employers say soft skills are more important now than five years ago. — employer surveys, 2025
Over 70% of employers say evaluating the whole candidate — skills plus personality and cultural fit — leads to better hiring results. — employer surveys, 2025
91% of learning & development professionals agree soft skills are becoming more critical to hiring and development. — L&D industry surveys
Conflict mitigation topped LinkedIn’s most in-demand soft skills for 2025 — a dimension directly readable in a DISC profile through the S and D style intensities. — LinkedIn, 2025

Market Size: Behavioral Assessment Is Growing

$6–10B

estimated global personality assessment market in 2025, depending on scope definition.

Straits Research; The Insight Partners

~10–12%

compound annual growth rate projected for the personality assessment market through the early 2030s.

Multiple market reports

$25.4B

global talent assessment market in 2024, projected to more than double by 2033.

Market Mind Partners

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Citing These Statistics

You are welcome to cite any statistic on this page in articles, newsletters or presentations, with attribution and a link to this page. Primary sources are named on each data point; figures are compiled from public reporting by the U.S. Department of Labor, SHRM, Gallup, Mercer, LinkedIn, TestGorilla and published market research, plus the Schmidt & Hunter meta-analysis of selection methods. Where sources disagree (e.g., market size), we show the range rather than a single number. Last reviewed: August 2026.