WE'VE ALL DONE THEM BEFORE -- at parties as parlour games, at home flipping through women's magazines and on-line through a forwarded e-mail. A quick quiz that tells you if you're extroverted or introverted, creative or not, passive or aggressive: it's a personality test. But now, you may have to take one to get hired. Because on top of resumes, interviews and reference checks, more and more companies want your personality profile.

In the United States, Europe and Australia, personality testing is already widespread. The Virginia-based Society for Human Resource Management reports that 20% of its members use psychometric tools while over 25% of Australia's biggest companies do so. According to the Association of Test Publishers, these companies spend over $400 million on psychometric testing in the U.S. alone.

In Asia, personality profiling is just beginning to be used, mostly by multinationals importing the practice from their home offices. HSBC, for instance, requires all job applicants to take a 55-minute test on-line before sending in their resumes and references, while Sheraton Hotels & Resorts is using psychometric tests to staff its new hotels in China with friendly customer-service employees. In Australia, Macquarie Bank, BHP and Ansett and Qantas airlines are just a few of the many top companies that have used these personality checks for years.

The first of these tests was developed by the U.S. Army during World War I to screen out recruits who might be susceptible to shell-shock. Since then most tests have been developed by psychologists for corporations seeking more effective ways to hire the right people. Today, there are over 2,500 tests in the market.

Companies are increasingly taking to these tests because they are a fast and efficient way to screen candidates. The Internet and sophisticated software allow employers to process the results almost instantly and match them against what they are looking for. Most post these personality tests on-line and require all applicants to take them. Internet job sites like Futurestep and JobsDB do so as well.

"With resumes and the personality tests, you can reduce screening time and cut down on work for your human-resources staff," says Rachel Autherson, a consulting manager at human-resources specialists Drake International. The company also markets a software system that allows managers to use personality profiling in hiring, team-building and performance assessment.

But how significant is personality in job performance? Research by Top Jobs, a British-based on-line job site, found that the top three reasons employees quit or underperform are bad relationships with their bosses, poor fit with their jobs or the culture of the company. All these reasons have their roots in personality rather than skill, knowledge or qualification, says Autherson.

And the traditional screening methods of resumes and interviews barely scratch the surface of a job-seeker's personality. When consultants Chandler & Macleod asked Australian managers if they would hire the same people if they knew then what they know now, they said 'yes' for only 68% of those hired. "The 32% they wouldn't rehire were hired using bio-data and interviews and reference checks, and if that's the recruitment system in place it's making mistakes one in three times," says Kevin Chandler, managing director of the Sydney-based company. He says that for companies that use personality profiling, the satisfactory rate soars to 93%.

That may sound high, but not to Pioneer Construction Materials. The Brisbane-based company had problems finding and retaining promising management trainees before it started using Drake's personality profiling software. In the past two years, it has increased its retention rate and used the system extensively to build teams and keep its employees happy. "Its been fabulous for matching people with jobs, getting round pegs into round holes," says Richard Ernst, operations manager at the company.