An Introduction
First published in 1996, the CPQ Legacy has been refined and polished into the CPQ Nova through a process of rigorous test development, user feedback, and completions of millions of individual personality assessments. The CPQ Nova has been upgraded to provide an even better collection of flexible traits that represent all aspects of the modern workplace. Each scale has been refreshed and reviewed to ensure that they’re up to date with the latest contemporary understanding and experience of workplace personality. As such, we’ve ensured that our questionnaires are performing at the highest standard, with validity and reliability metrics better than ever.
Personality in the Modern Workplace
Our old CPQ Legacy Library (as great as it is) was not fully representing all aspects of workplace personality in the modern day and age. Some scales were slightly limited in the traits that they were measuring, which meant that some lovely human behaviours were not being captured.
The World Economic Forum released a report in 2025, highlighting some of the most sought after and essential skills at work:
“Analytical thinking remains the most sought-after core skill among employers, with seven out of 10 companies considering it as essential in 2025. This is followed by resilience, flexibility and agility, along with leadership and social influence.
AI and big data top the list of fastest-growing skills, followed closely by networks and cybersecurity as well as technology literacy. Complementing these technology-related skills, creative thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility, along with curiosity and lifelong learning, are also expected to continue to rise in importance over the 2025-2030 period.”
The CPQ Nova Library is well placed to assess all of these skills. Simply take a sneak preview at some of the scales below:
- Technology-confidence
- Innovation
- Contemplative (low end Resilience)
- Adaptable
- Leading
- Persuading
- Rational
Development of the CPQ Nova
Our psychometricians set out with a clear goal: to create a new version of the CPQ that captures the traits most relevant to the modern workplace, with enhanced reliability and validity. We began with an in-depth quantitative review of the CPQ Legacy, identifying which scales were performing well, which were popular with clients, and where improvements could be made. Next, we explored emerging workplace traits that were not yet assessed, combining extensive literature reviews with insights gained from working with clients across the UK and internationally.
This process produced a comprehensive list of new scales, but the work didn’t stop there. Through multiple studies and detailed analyses, each scale was refined, tested, and shaped to maximise both reliability and validity. Some scales were revised, some added, some removed, and others retained as they were, ensuring that only the most robust and relevant measures remained. The result is a fully polished, modernised CPQ, ready for immediate use and designed to deliver the highest-quality insights for today’s workplace.
The CPQ Nova Library
The Clevry Personality Questionnaire is unlike anything else on the market. We don’t subscribe to a one-size-fits-all approach to personality. The CPQ offers unparalleled flexibility by allowing you to pick and choose the elements you want to measure.
The CPQ Nova Library consists of 48 scales, split across five key areas of soft-skills and personality at work. These areas are:
- People soft skills: An individual’s preferred style, approach, and impact when interacting with others.
- Cognitive soft skills: An individual’s typical approach when dealing with tasks, challenges, problems, responsibilities, and decisions.
- Emotion soft skills: An individual’s emotions, temperament, and inner experience.
- Motivation values: An individual’s values and motivations within an occupational context.
- Culture-fit values: An individual’s motivation to perform particular tasks in particular ways, as well as the type of organisational culture they are likely to thrive in.
- Self-presentation: An individual’s response style to the questionnaire.
The CPQ structure of personality is designed to explore personality at increasing levels of depth, and to understand how different areas of personality overlap with each other. Combining the different elements provides us with a holistic picture of someone’s personality.
At the surface level, the CPQ assesses traits relating to behaviours (i.e., People and Cognitive soft skills). These are traits of personality that we are likely to see in others after a very short time of knowing them.
At a deeper level of personality, emotional predispositions and styles that exist beneath the surface are measured (i.e., Emotion soft skills). It may take a couple of weeks to begin to see these sorts of traits in others.
Finally, at the deepest level of personality, the CPQ gauges values for individuals’ motivations and their culture fit. Such traits of personality may not be evident in other people until we have known them for a much longer time.
| People Soft skills | Cognitive soft skills | Emotion Soft skills | Motivation values | Culture-Fit values | Self presentation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adaptable | Conceptual-thinking | Calm | Ambition | Change | Impression management |
| Approachable | Considered | Cheerful | Competition | Energetic | |
| Assertive | Detail-focused | Emotional analysis | Dependable | Humour | |
| Expressive | Steady | Empathy | Ethical | Innovation | |
| Forthright | Planful | Optimistic | Leading | Intellectually curious | |
| Friendship | Proactive | Resilience | People focus | Regulation | |
| Gregarious | Rational | Self-efficacy | Perfectionism | Values focus | |
| Persuading | Risky | Self-sufficiency | Personal fulfilment | ||
| Poised | Routine | Sensitive | Relaxed | ||
| Rebellious | Technology confidence | Stress-fuelled | Variety |
The CPQ Nova in a nutshell
- Gain powerful insights into the strengths, styles, and motivations of employees, presented through our engaging suite of reports.
- Backed by 30 years of rigorous validation and trusted by leading employers worldwide.
- Choose from comprehensive off-the-shelf questionnaires, industry-specific role assessments, or create your own bespoke personality tool.
- Features occupationally-focused items, available in multiple languages.
- Self-report format with an intuitive 5-point rating scale.
- Trait-based approach delivers detailed, actionable information for recruitment and development.
- Fully responsive across desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones
- Option for automatic feedback for every participant.
Want to learn how the CPQ Nova can support your hiring and assessment needs?
