Deeper Signals provides role-based job profiles that help organizations interpret assessment results against the behavioral (soft-skill) requirements of specific roles. This article explains what job roles are, how they are developed, and how to use them responsibly in hiring decisions.

If you’re looking for a deeper technical explanation, you can download the full research report at the end of this article.

Job roles represent the core soft-skill requirements associated with specific occupations. Each role highlights a small set of behavioral capabilities that matter most for success in that job.

These roles help hiring teams interpret assessment results in a job-relevant and structured way. They are not job descriptions and do not measure technical skills, experience, or qualifications. Instead, they provide a potential-based view grounded in personality and values.

Important: Job roles are designed to support human decision-making, not to replace it.

Deeper Signals job roles are grounded in the O*NET occupational framework, a widely used and publicly available database developed through subject-matter expert (SME) research.

O*NET defines 16 standardized Work Styles (soft skills) and provides expert ratings of their importance across more than 1,000 occupations. These Work Styles align directly with the Deeper Signals Capability Model.

For each job role, we:

This approach ensures that job roles reflect expert-defined requirements, not intuition or ad-hoc assumptions.

AI models were used as secondary analytical tools, not as decision-makers.

Specifically, large language models were asked to rank the importance of the same 16 soft skills using job titles and descriptions. These rankings were then compared with O*NET SME ratings to evaluate alignment.

Important:

All job roles are anchored in SME judgment. AI outputs are used only as a validation signal and are constrained, transparent, and auditable by design.

When a job role is selected, candidate assessment results are translated into standardized soft-skill scores aligned with that role’s requirements.

Job-fit scores indicate how closely an individual’s behavioral profile aligns with the soft skills most critical for the role.

Note: These scores are designed to inform decisions, not automate them. They should always be considered alongside experience, skills, interviews, and organizational context.

Fairness is a core design requirement of the Deeper Signals platform.

Role-based scoring was evaluated using assessment data from 30,000+ working adults, with analyses conducted for each role individually. We examined group differences and adverse impact across gender, age, and ethnicity.

Across all evaluated roles, results showed:

These findings indicate that the role-based approach is designed to support more equitable hiring outcomes when used appropriately.

Job roles define behavioral requirements, not deterministic predictions of individual performance.

Evidence supporting the roles includes expert judgment, psychometric validation, and fairness testing. Ongoing research continues to examine relationships between assessment results and performance outcomes in applied hiring settings.

Job roles are intended to support human judgment, not replace it.

Organizations remain responsible for:

Tip: Use assessment results as one input among many, and regularly review hiring practices for fairness, compliance, and effectiveness.

For a detailed explanation of the methodology, validation approach, and governance principles behind Deeper Signals job roles, download the full report below: