Making the right hire is critical to your organization’s success. Increase your odds of placing the right people in the right roles by creating a world-class hiring process for yourself and your candidates. This will save your company time and money and lead to top talent. It’s all about following a step-by-step recipe with the goal of aligning your talent strategy with your business strategy.
Where should the PI Behavioral Assessment (BA) go in your hiring process?
Many users choose to implement the BA in a manner that doesn’t disrupt or alter their existing workflow. The beauty of talent optimization is that it’s a flexible discipline.
You can apply the Behavioral Assessment at the point in your hiring process that makes the most sense for everyone involved – whether that’s as the centerpiece, an add-on, or something in between.
Here is what it would look like for your organization to send the BA early vs. later.
Incorporating the Cognitive Assessment
Cognitive data serves as one of the strongest indicators of job performance, when used alongside behavioral data. PI’s Cognitive Assessment measures a person’s ability to learn, adapt, and grasp new information. It is not an IQ test, but it can offer a key piece of new data when evaluating candidates.
The Predictive Index Cognitive Assessment is a 12-minute, 50-question assessment measuring an individual’s general cognitive ability, and is one of the strongest indicators of job performance. It gives visibility into how quickly your candidates will onboard, learn the role and adapt to change. This provides you with confidence that you’re making data-driven decisions rather than relying on emotions or guesswork in your hiring process.
- It was built and validated exclusively for use in the workplace, and it provides insight into a person’s capacity to learn, adapt, and grasp new concepts.
- It does not measure IQ or previously acquired knowledge (e.g., job-specific knowledge), behaviors, or willingness to make an effort to learn new things. Rather, it indicates how fast an individual can be expected to acquire new knowledge.
- When combined with other selection criteria, including the Behavioral Assessment, resumes, and interviews, our Cognitive Assessment provides a powerful understanding of a candidate’s potential for success in a given role.

You can use the Cognitive Target for roles that require:
- Learning new skills
- Adjusting to new scenarios in the workplace
- Processing information at a quicker pace
Don’t use the Cognitive Assessment for:
- Roles that don’t have potential for advancement
- Positions with minimal complexity
- Instances in which a candidate’s disability compromises their access to or completion of the assessment in the allotted time.
We also provide you with fit ratings, which gauge how your candidates’ assessment scores align with the Job Target you’ve established. You can use these to rank and prioritize candidates, to review them further, or to guide interviews, but they are not designed to be used as a sole decision-making measure. Any assessment used should be considered as another data point through which you evaluate your candidate.

Improving the entire process

Job targets are a key resource in Hire. Learn how to build them with confidence.

Promoting fair & responsible use
Understand how to use assessments in an equitable and responsible manner.
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