A new trait on the market: Honesty–Humility as a unique predictor of job performance ratings

Honesty–Humility emerges as a sixth dimension of personality beyond traits similar to the Big Five and could be a unique correlate of job performance. In this study, Honesty–Humility’s ability to predict supervisor ratings of employees’ job performance was examined among workers who provide care for challenging clients. Employees completed 240 items from the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) measuring Honesty–Humility, Extraversion, Emotionality, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience. Supervisors rated employee performance on 35 job skills. Honesty–Humility correlated positively with supervisor ratings of overall job performance and was a unique predictor of performance ratings over and above the five other main factors in the model (Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience). Honesty–Humility appears to be an important personality trait in predicting job performance in care-giving roles. Implications for selecting and hiring personnel are discussed.