Why DISC personality matters when ensuring employee retention
Adam Stamm
Managing Partner: Online DISC Profile
In any workplace, there will be a variety of personalities and preferred ways of working – no employee will be the same. There will be those who prefer to work alone, some who need training to be visual, and those who like to start work later, for example.
It is these differences that determine what makes employees happy in their jobs and whether they align with a specific workplace environment or prefer certain benefits over others.
Business managers need to understand the individuality of their employees to help retain them and ensure a good working environment, and using DISC assessments is one way to do this.
In this article, we look at the different DISC personality types and how the knowledge of each individual type could be considered by workplace leaders to improve retention.
Overview of DISC types
There are four main DISC personality types, as first theorized in the 1920s by William Moulton Marston in his book The Emotions of Normal People.
Over the past seven decades, numerous organizations and researchers have sought to understand personality, which has led us to the DISC we use today.
These are some key traits of the four main personality types:
| Personality Type | Key Traits |
|---|---|
|
D (dominance) |
D-types will generally act quickly, focus on challenges and problems, and seek authority. They fear a lack of control and are unafraid of taking risks. They have a dominant personality and can be direct and strong-willed. |
|
I (influence) |
Influence personality types will focus on people and actively seek social relationships. They fear disapproval and are optimistic, trusting, enthusiastic, and generally the more social person in a group. |
|
S (steadiness) |
S-types will act cautiously and seek consistency in what they do. They focus on people, specifically teams and exhibit patience and calmness. They fear any loss of security and like to be peaceful and even-tempered. |
|
C (conscientious) |
These types also tend to act cautiously, focus on tasks with accuracy and with attention to detail. They fear the loss of this quality and generally avoid risks. They are private and reserved, generally. |
Using DISC to retain your employees
In 2024, 38.5% of US employees voluntarily quit their jobs, and while this is down from 43.3% in 2023, nearly a third (32.4%) of those people last year cited a toxic work environment as the reason for quitting.
With a large number of employees leaving due to their work environments, business managers must dig into the reasons why and start to understand their employees to avoid high turnover rates.
Using DISC is one way to support employee retention.
Adam, co-owner of Online DISC Profile, explains: “When managers understand the unique behavioral needs of their employees, they can create and engage in a standard of work that matches those needs. A simple way to see how this plays out is through creating a space where employees feel psychologically safe.”
A DISC assessment or workshop can help employers understand what makes their employees stressed, what is an ideal work environment and what could ultimately improve their well-being.
Here is how a team leader could retain employees based on the four styles:
D-types (dominance)
If an employee identifies as a D-type personality, then they are likely to seek control over situations and other people.
They can become irritated easily if people or situations don’t follow their ways of working, goals or general preferences, and they can be direct with their opinions.
Adam adds: “People with this personality type fear being taken advantage of, so to assuage this, team leaders can allow them to publicly express their concerns or skepticism.”
Business managers can also follow these tips:
- Give individuals with this style challenging tasks and the independence to identify solutions. Encourage them to take ownership of the solution, but set the expectation that other team members may need to give input (if necessary).
- Allow individuals with this style the time to work alone. Pull them into meetings when necessary and with a clear agenda.
- Prioritize giving them tasks that require immediate attention or resolution.
- Bring this individual in to provide their opinion on what may work or not work. Allow them to really challenge ideas – this is a key strength of this style.
I-types (influence)
I-types are social people; they are generally very talkative and are more likely to attend a social gathering than others.
They are often seen as high-spirited and positive people but can worry about disapproval.
Adam says: “I-types also fear social disapproval. Team leaders must bring up critical feedback about their performance to a private space, allowing these individuals to ask questions and develop an improvement plan.”
Further retention tips for these types of employees:
- Ensure regular 1:1s with people of this style so they know how they are doing and get constructive feedback, so they avoid worrying about disapproval.
- Be made aware of social gatherings and occasions with work to appeal to their social side.
- This type of person would perhaps be best working in teams due to their social spirit, so this could be done to ensure retention.
- Due to their social nature, workplaces should be mindful of this and set clear boundaries if socializing too much during work distracts them from their work or colleagues.
“When managers understand the unique behavioral needs of their employees, they can create and engage in a standard of work that matches those needs.”
S-types (steadiness)
Patience is a big personality trait for S-types, and you’ll frequently see them being the “moderator” or “counsellor” in a group.
They are calm and peaceful people, and it is because of this that they also fear stability and security. Adam notes: “S-types will benefit from more communication on any changes in the business and why they are happening, with managers needing to emphasize how they are maintaining the stability of the team (even if it is changing).”
Additional considerations are advised for retaining this type of employee:
- Ensure access to a calm workplace environment.
- Ensure that everyone is kept up to date with business news, including any monetary news, so that employees understand the state of business and don’t have any fears of a loss of security in their job.
- Create templates for certain tasks so that when briefed, they follow a consistent pattern, which means any employee knows what is expected of them.
- Give S-style employees the chance to work in teams where necessary and appropriate.
C-types (conscientious)
People with C-type personalities will typically want to take extra time to thoroughly understand the work they are given to avoid doing anything inaccurately, which is something they may fear.
Along with these traits, C-types are generally described as quite private and reserved.
Adam says: ”Team leaders can support this style by setting clear expectations and working with the employee to determine the appropriate amount of time that is needed to reach high-quality finished work.”
To retain employees who identify as C-type, we would recommend the following tips:
- Ensure that any brief for a task they get is accurate, full of the relevant details, and up to date so they can adequately get on with it.
- Understand that as they focus more on the details and processes of things, they might need more time on tasks.
- Allow them to join in, but without pressure, as they are generally more reserved and private people.
- When getting into conversations with them about their personal life outside of work, consider that they might not want to share too much and so shouldn’t feel pressured into this.
- Have systems in place with quality control checked by other team members and ensure that one of the workplace values is collaboration so that just one person doesn’t fear loss of quality and holds all the burden.
What do employees want to see from their workplace?
Many elements make up a great workplace culture. Good benefits, a non-toxic environment, and an understanding management team are just some of the things that make employees feel valued and respected at work.
For job seekers, benefits are a key consideration. According to Ahrefs data, an average of 1,200 people globally search for ‘jobs with benefits’ each month, while ‘remote jobs with benefits’ sees around 1,000 monthly searches.
Google Trends data shows that there are 101k global monthly searches for “jobs with benefits”, which has also seen an upward trajectory over the last four years.
And AlsoAsked data shows that some of the popular questions people are asking include:
- What careers offer the best benefits?
- What industry has the best benefits?
- Do most jobs come with benefits?
- Do remote jobs offer benefits?
A recent Forbes Advisor Survey found that over half (51%) of US employees value work-life balance the most, with trust (20%) and camaraderie (11%) coming next in importance.
These were found to be the top benefits that employees wanted from their employers:
- Employer-covered healthcare
- Life insurance
- Pension and retirement plans
- Mandatory paid time-off
- Mental health assistance
When asked what would cause them to quit their jobs, while it comes as no surprise that nearly a third (32%) said higher pay, a sizeable 26% would leave for better benefits, 22% would try for better advancement opportunities elsewhere, and a fifth (20%) would leave for more flexible work-from-home options.
If we consider the specific needs of remote workers and in-office workers, the preferred benefits differ slightly, according to Forbes’ survey results:
| In-office workers | Remote workers |
|---|---|
|
|
DISC types and workplace benefits
In their book Scarcity, Mullainthan and Shafir show that too little money affects cognitive abilities and decision making. When someone feels poor, they also make poor decisions. Business leaders must ensure they provide benefits that meet the basic needs of their employees, but also that they cannot expect one benefit to do all of the heavy lifting.
Utilizing DISC can help leaders to better understand a person’s preferences when it comes to the workplace, in turn, this can provide important considerations when setting employee benefits.
Adam highlights: “Personality is complex, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the perfect work environment. In our experience, when DISC is installed as a common language, it can help you understand yourself and those around you by providing a nonjudgmental system for talking about stressors, fears, and motivations—topics that can be tricky to broach in certain work environments.”
If you consider the DISC types, these are some of the benefits that might be preferred by employees who identify with these personalities:
| DISC Type | Potential benefit preference |
|---|---|
|
D (dominance) |
Due to getting through challenges and problems quickly, they might prioritize professional development as a workplace benefit. |
|
I (influence) |
As they are social people, they could benefit from having a good work-life balance. |
|
S (steadiness) |
Due to preferring a calm environment at work, mental health support may be more appealing to S-types. |
|
C (conscientious) |
C-types are naturally cautious and avoid risks, so they could naturally prioritize various insurance benefits at their job. |
The above examples are not a matter of fact, but examples of how a core understanding of DISC could benefit workplace leaders with their employee needs and workplace benefit considerations.
Make employee longevity the future
To ensure a good work environment and happy employees, it is important for businesses to learn what their employees need, how they prefer to work and what they can do to alleviate any stress.
Having this knowledge and understanding of employees, and by implementing specifically considered benefits, could set you on a path to improved employee retention.
DISC assessments and training can be done at any workplace, and we offer a free DISC assessment for managers wanting to find out more about their employee’s personality type and a range of other assessments for leadership teams.