The impact of Brainfirst

Who are you and what is your role at the organization?

I am Niels, and I am the Sales Director of BrainsFirst.

What service or product do you offer?

BrainsFirst creates a connection between your basic brain aptitude and your talent/potential, translated into suitable roles. Matching brains with jobs. BrainsFirst does this, among other things, through brain-based games, where you can see at a glance which candidates have talent for open roles. BrainsFirst helps various companies, including Deloitte, the Ministry of Justice and Security, IMC & KNVB, to make the right objective talent decisions, predict behavior in the workplace, and expand talent pools.

BrainsFirst establishes a link with your biological brain, unlike regular cognitive assessment tests, based on validated scientific evidence. And with concrete results from practice.

With our online assessment games platform, we are able to match brain to job much more accurately than was previously possible in HR. This saves you a lot of time and money. 100% remote, data-driven, science-based & bias-free.

Who is it suitable for and who is it not suitable for?

Talent identification is not only suitable for the inflow of candidates but also for the mobility and outflow of employees. The tool is used for talent recognition in elite sports and job, team, & career matching in organizations worldwide. This means that the data from the NeurOlympics can be used not only for Recruitment but also for HR, Learning & Development, and also for Coaches and Outplacement processes. Who BrainsFirst is not suitable for? It is important that people are open to looking at talent and innovation differently in order to make objective talent decisions.   

How do you differentiate yourselves from competitors?

The main distinction lies in the scientific foundation. BrainsFirst conducted over 6 years of neuroscientific research before the NeurOlympics went live. BrainsFirst has very high reliability and validity in measuring executive functions with a very high predictive power for productivity in many different roles. In addition, BrainsFirst has a translation to the ESCO job landscape and skill frameworks, and a translation to concrete behavior can be made.

BrainsFirst assesses the capacity of the brain, not by asking questions, but by measuring biological brain functions. Language proficiency is not required to play our games, and there is no influence through training or experience. It is also not sensitive to socially desirable answers, and data takes into account factors such as age and gender.

This has several advantages:

• More predictive: Our approach is better than a traditional CV or other assessments. BrainsFirst reveals where someone's true talent lies and which job best suits them.
• Faster: Thanks to our data science capabilities, BrainsFirst provides in-depth insights into talent quickly.
• More inclusive: Our tool is free from bias and completely objective, allowing you to increase diversity within your organization and ensure that every talent finds their right place.

What is your view on a sustainable and healthy labor market?

Our vision of a sustainable and healthy labor market revolves around the sustainable matching of talent, and this requires insight into (future) skills, the building blocks of human performance. But how do you discover those? At BrainsFirst, we believe it is crucial to give everyone a fair chance in the labor market, and that is why recruiting and selecting based on potential is the future. After all, every brain is unique.

After years of scientific research, BrainsFirst knows that if there is a perfect match between a person's brain and the nature, level, and context of their job, they will perform better and experience less stress. This has positive consequences for everyone, from the individual and the organization to society as a whole.

BrainsFirst is convinced that cognitive qualities are of greater importance in (pre-)selection than someone's prior education and work experience. Our approach to talent is different from traditional methods. At BrainsFirst, we believe that everyone excels at something, but no one is good at everything. It's about recognizing where someone's specific talents lie and in what circumstances they come into their own. BrainsFirst strives to give everyone a fair chance. Our NeurOlympics are inherently free from bias, which means that prior knowledge, language proficiency, age, gender, or origin play no role in our assessment games. In this way, BrainsFirst contributes to a sustainable and healthy labor market.

In what way is sustainability reflected in your internal business operations?

At BrainsFirst, we also use NeurOlympics to make data-driven and bias-free talent decisions.

How can customers use your products to make a positive impact?

By making the right match between a person and a position, and by applying objective selection criteria, customers can realize various benefits. This includes increasing diversity and improving inclusion, reducing stress and limiting the number of burnouts, as well as diminishing bias in the selection process. By looking at talent differently, customers can also let go of certain selection criteria, resulting in a larger talent pool and attracting atypical talent.

Importantly, the data is reusable over a longer period, allowing our tool to serve as a unified solution throughout the entire Talent Management Cycle. This enables the same dataset to be used for inflow, mobility (e.g., internal mobility), and outflow (such as outplacement). This ensures a seamless and efficient approach to talent management within the organization, where workplace performance can be predicted in a data-driven manner.

Can you give an example with concrete impact?

For years, it was thought in trading that school performance, grades, and/or IQ tests had predictive value for on-the-job performance. Practice proved otherwise. Thanks to multi-year research with BrainsFirst, IMC Trading discovered that they are looking for specific types of minds. BrainsFirst has succeeded in making IMC's recruitment efforts more efficient and effective. This resulted in a more inclusive, diverse talent inflow. Quality and composition were a focus point in combination with efficiency regarding time and costs. Both goals were achieved, resulting in 25% fewer mis-hires.

Do you have plans on the roadmap that contribute to a sustainable labor market?

At BrainsFirst, we are in the final stages of obtaining certification. This means that BrainsFirst trains and certifies people to work with the NeurOlympics, a brain passport, and matching scores. With a BrainsFirst certification, people can take the lead themselves. This allows them to help not only themselves but also other organizations to find better and more diverse talent. BrainsFirst offers the tools to make a difference, from finding the right candidate to retaining talent, career guidance, succession planning, and much more.

This enables people to investigate precisely what their organization or clients need. With our gamified assessment tool and the matching process, they can conduct interviews themselves, with all relevant information in mind, to generate real impact.

In addition, BrainsFirst has developed a prototype that allows people to create target profiles themselves based on a job description, which is translated into pre-set data from Esco. Organizations can make adjustments to this data via the tool, allowing them to generate unique target profiles based on the specific context. This accessible solution makes it possible for everyone to independently create target profiles and match, without further guidance. This allows for even greater impact on creating a sustainable labor market.

Finally, what else would you like to share that hasn't been discussed?

A lesser-known but not unimportant form of diversity is cognitive diversity. These are differences in the way people reason, interpret, and solve problems. Especially in situations where a team needs to think innovatively, it is important to look at cognitive diversity and reduce bias in the recruitment process. I would therefore like to conclude by giving 4 tips to reduce bias in the recruitment process.

• Avoid screening by CV. Try to find an alternative to the initial screening by CV. For example, by using a good screening assessment.
• Select based on skill. Instead of work experience or education. Look at what people need to do; translate that into relevant skills and behaviors.
• Be aware of unconscious bias. Make sure everyone involved in the selection process is aware of this. For example, give a short workshop on unconscious bias.
• Look critically at the tools you use. What are the claims of the suppliers and how can they prove them? Is the tool scientifically developed and substantiated, or is it more of a flashy modern tool where more attention has been paid to the experience and less to the research.

'The scientific approach provides a very solid foundation for BrainsFirst's serious games. Neuroscientists deciphered the ultimate brain profile of a football player and then started working on other professions for which an ultimate mix of skills is needed. Skills assessments are incredibly useful at multiple points in the employee journey, to achieve the best match, but also for talent management or leadership development. Companies that start working with this are the frontrunners in the market!'