Still relying on CVs in hiring? Here's why to rely on a person's cognitive abilities instead.

Start hiring people based on cognition and hire 6.5x more predictable than if you hire people based on experience.

CVs don't predict performance. Cognitive abilities do.

The term cognitive ability/General Mental Ability (GMA) generally refers to the capacity to mentally process, comprehend, and manipulate information—in short, the ability to learn. For example, solving complex problems, reason analytically or adapting to changing circumstances. Cognitive abilities largely constitute what most people intuitively call intelligence.

Cognitive ability is important to test for two different reasons:

  • Focus on learning/potential. We are in a constantly changing labour market. According to the World Economic Form, in 2025 85M jobs have disappeared that we still had in 2020. In contrast to that, 97M new jobs will arise. This means it will get impossible to screen candidates based on previous experiences, while learning ability will get more and more important.
  • Predictive power. Cognitive ability has a correlation of 0.65-0.74 with job performance. This is 7x higher than education and 4.4x higher than work experience.

Yes, cognitive ability/GMA has proven to be the most significant predictor of work performance, with a correlation of 0.65-0.74 (source). 

In contrast to that, the predictive power of a CV is very low:

  • The correlation between education and job performance is 0.10;
  • The correlation between work experience and job performance is 0.16.

Introducing Equalture's cognitive game-based assessments.

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FERRY – 8-13 MIN

Problem solving & analytical thinking.

This game provides insights into candidates’ analytical intelligence and overall abilty to solve more complex problems.

5

FISH DISCOVERY – 5-10 MIN

Learning ability.

This game provides into candidates’ ability to cope with information and learn new things fast and easy.

3

RACER – 3-4 MIN

Flexibility.

This game provides insights into candidates’ ability to adapt their thoughts, behaviours and strategies to new and unexpected situations in a changing environment.

''Equalture helped me convince my hiring manager to hire the more junior candidate.''

”We had two candidates in the pipeline, one with more experience but lower cognitive scores, and one with less experience but higher cognitive scores. Thanks to Equalture, we ended up hiring the less experienced candidate, with great success. Hiring managers now start realising that CVs are not that helpful.”

Mariona, People Business Partner @ Heura Foods

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