One of the core responsibilities of leaders and HR professionals is making sound decisions about people.
Who should we hire? How do we enable effective collaboration? Who has the potential to grow into leadership – and  in which direction?

Many of these decisions are still based on experience, intuition, and good intentions. Yet today’s work environment has become too complex to rely on gut feeling alone. This is where Workplace Big Five comes in – a science-based personality assessment framework that brings clarity, shared language, and structure to people-related decisions.

In early 2026, Kvadrant Koolitus will introduce Workplace Big Five to the Estonian market, focusing on its practical application in recruitment, role fit assessment, career planning, and coaching.

What Is the Workplace Big Five?

Workplace Big Five is based on the Big Five personality model, internationally regarded as one of the most reliable and extensively researched personality frameworks. It is often referred to as the mother of personality assessments, as many other tools build their scientific validity on this model.

The Big Five describes personality through five broad behavioral domains, or supertraits. Workplace Big Five adapts this model specifically for the context of work and professional life.

The WorkPlace Big Five Supertraits are:

  • Need for stability (N)
  • Extraversion (E)
  • Originality (O)
  • Accommodation (A)
  • Consolidation (C)

In addition, WorkPlace Big Five looks at personality through 23 subtraits, enabling a highly nuanced understanding of an individual’s natural behavioral tendencies at work.

It is important to emphasize that:

  • Workplace Big Five does not measure ability, intelligence, or human worth
  • it does not label people as good or bad
  • it helps us understand how people naturally behave, make decisions, and collaborate

Which Business Challenges Can Workplace Big Five Help Solve?

1. Hiring the Wrong Person (and Its Hidden Cost)

CVs and interviews reflect past experience, but they often fail to predict how a person will actually behave in real work situations. This is where many costly hiring mistakes occur.

Workplace Big Five helps to:

  • assess a candidate’s behavioral fit with a specific role
  • compare candidates on an objective and neutral basis
  • reduce decisions driven by bias or emotional impressions

The result is more informed recruitment and a lower risk that the “perfect CV” turns into a poor role fit.

2. Collaboration Challenges Within and Across Teams

Work today no longer happens within a single team. Collaboration increasingly spans departments, roles, and organizational boundaries. Often, the issue is not competence – but a lack of understanding of why people behave so differently.

Workplace Big Five:

  • deepens understanding of one’s own and others’ natural preferences
  • reframes differences as a resource rather than a problem
  • reduces interpersonal tension and builds trust

When people realize that a colleague is not being difficult on purpose, but is guided by different natural tendencies, collaboration becomes significantly easier.

3. Career Planning Without Self-Awarenessa

Without clear self-understanding, careers often develop by chance or external expectations. Workplace Big Five supports employees and leaders in:

  • identifying roles and working styles that naturally suit the individual
  • making more conscious decisions about development and role transitions
  • discussing career paths in concrete, meaningful terms rather than abstractions

Career planning becomes a collaborative process instead of guesswork.

4. Coaching That Needs a Strong Foundation

Workplace Big Five is exceptionally well suited as a starting point for coaching. Individual profile feedback:

  • helps people understand that results describe natural tendencies
  • reduces fear of being “measured” or labeled
  • creates openness and readiness for development

As defensive barriers drop, coaching becomes deeper, more honest, and more impactful – for leaders, specialists, and teams alike.

What Sets Workplace Big Five Apart?

For leaders and organizations, three qualities matter most: credibility, practicality, and humanity.

Workplace Big Five:

  • is grounded in decades of scientific research
  • focuses clearly on workplace behavior
  • provides a shared language for meaningful dialogue
  • supports both individual and organizational development

It is not a test for testing’s sake – it is a tool for leadership and growth.

Conclusion: Why Now?

The world of work is changing faster than ever. Roles, expectations, and ways of collaborating are in constant flux. One capability, however, remains essential: self-awareness.

Workplace Big Five helps organizations to:

  • make better recruitment and development decisions
  • strengthen collaboration and trust
  • support intentional career development
  • make coaching and development initiatives more impactful

Kvadrant Koolitus brings Workplace Big Five to the Estonian market with a leader-centered, practical perspective – so that understanding personality truly supports both people and performance.