Behavioural intelligence for the moments that matter
Objective Behavioural Intelligence
Behavioural intelligence
If you only watch what people do, you’re guessing at why. Measure their drives, and you can predict the needs and behaviours behind them. That’s the shift from opinion to objective behavioural intelligence, the engine underneath The Predictive Index.
From drives to data to prediction.
Measure the drives
A six-minute, free-choice assessment captures what genuinely energizes a person at work. No right answers, no time pressure, no guesswork.
Turn it into data
Every result becomes objective people data you can compare against a role, a team, or a strategy, in the same language across your whole organization.
Let AI do the reading
AI surfaces the patterns, drafts the talking points, and personalizes coaching, so managers spend their time on judgment, not interpretation.
The science
Four drives determine workplace behaviour.
The PI Behavioural Assessment™, as delivered by Founding Partner Predictive Success reliably evaluates various aspects of an individual’s personality. These results can shed light on everything about a person’s behavior in the workplace, from customer service orientation to learning capabilities to leadership styles.
Each adjective is associated with one of the four key factors that determine workplace behavior : dominance, extraversion, patience, and formality.
70+
Years of science
6 min
To complete
70+
Languages
The Reference Profiles
Seventeen Reference Profiles. One clear language for how people work.
After people complete the assessment, we assign them a Reference Profile —a snapshot of the way they think and work.
Analytical profiles
More dominant than extraverted, faster-paced, and focused on the task more than on the people around it.
AnalyzerIntense and disciplined, with high standards and a reserved style.
ControllerSelf-disciplined and fast-moving; direct, and comfortable inside established rules.
SpecialistPrecise and careful; questions things while respecting authority.
StrategistTakes the long view and weighs how a decision serves the whole organization.
VenturerSelf-starting and goal-driven, and willing to take risks to get there.
Persistent profiles
Task-focused and deliberate; at their best with control over their own work.
IndividualistHighly independent and persistent, and focused on results.
ScholarAccurate, reserved and imaginative.
Social profiles
Extraversion is the strongest drive; at work, relationships come first.
AltruistWarm and cooperative, with an efficient, precise work ethic.
CaptainA problem solver who welcomes change and innovation while keeping hold of the big picture.
CollaboratorA friendly, understanding and patient team player.
MaverickAn inventive, outside-the-box thinker who is not put off by failure.
PersuaderSocially poised and willing to take risks; builds and motivates teams.
PromoterA persuasive extravert with an informal style.
Stabilizing profiles
Steady and detail-minded; they work well with structure and process.
AdapterA bridge-builder who adjusts easily to the situation.
ArtisanAccommodating and analytical; produces precise, accurate work.
GuardianUnselfish and approachable; prefers detailed, skill-based work.
OperatorPatient, conscientious and relaxed; a cooperative team player.
4.4 / 5
The average rating 3,535 people gave to how accurately their own PI results described them, in a 2019 PI study.
The most common profiles, in a PI sample of 10 million
- 1. Collaborator10.0%
- 2. Promoter9.8%
- 3. Operator9.4%
- 4. Altruist8.4%
- 5. Guardian8.2%
Reference Profile groupings and figures as published by The Predictive Index.
Which one are you? Take the Behavioural AssessmentWhy PI cares about the science
People decisions are the most consequential decisions a business makes.
PI’s view: many talent tools treat science as a credential; PI treats it as a responsibility. When the decision is who gets hired, developed or promoted, the stakes are too high for borrowed theory, so PI builds its own science, tests it continuously and publishes the evidence.
Validated continuously
PI’s industrial and organizational scientists keep testing the research, so it reflects how work happens today, not decades ago.
Validated in real jobs
PI’s studies use data from real workplaces, so the science predicts performance in actual jobs, not theoretical ones.
Published and audited
PI publishes its research and has it independently audited, so you can read the evidence yourself.
81%
“High performers are identified 81% of the time with job samples and assessments, compared with 66% of the time when only structured interviews are used.”
How PI’s science holds up
Built to a standard most HR tools don’t meet
PI’s in-house industrial and organizational psychologists run ongoing validity research, so the science behind a hiring decision today reflects today’s workforce.
- 70+
- years of science
- 37.5M+
- assessments administered
- 383+
- validity studies
- 120+
- job roles validated
- APA
Grounded in best-practice guidelines
PI builds and deploys every assessment in line with the American Psychological Association’s guidelines for workplace testing, and trains its certified partners, Predictive Success among them, to apply them correctly and ethically.
- 383+
Ongoing validation studies
PI reports more than 383 validity studies, and the research continues after launch: the studies are tested and updated against the same standards as when they were published.
- EEOC
Independent psychometric certification
PI states that every assessment is independently audited and certified, and that it meets the EEOC’s uniform guidelines for lawful employee selection.
Figures and standards as published by The Predictive Index.
Valid, reliable and fair
What sits behind every PI score
- 400+
- job performance studies in the past 30 years
- 25,000+
- employees in 120 roles, measured against nearly 5,000 performance measures
- 94%
- of those studies found significant links between PI measures and job performance
Psychometrically sound
Psychometrics is the science of measuring traits and abilities. PI’s psychometricians build the Behavioral, Cognitive and Strategy assessments to its standards, and keep refining and retesting them for everyday use at work.
Valid and reliable
Validation starts in development, with content validation, field testing and construct validation, and continues through criterion studies for clients. Reliability studies report how accurate scores are and how stable they stay over time.
Fair
PI treats fairness as its own discipline: it documents score bias in differential item functioning (DIF) studies, and advises clients on using the assessments fairly.
PI develops its assessments to the standards of the American Psychological Association (APA), the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) and the International Test Commission (ITC), and offers the criterion validation studies that the US EEOC’s Uniform Guidelines call for.
Figures and standards as published by The Predictive Index.
The shift
What does it take to thrive in the age of AI?
AI and automation are absorbing the task. What's left to people is the harder half — judgment, coaching, persuasion, and adapting while the work keeps changing. Those are behavioural demands, and they can be measured.
- Scientifically validated workforce analytics
- Objective Job Targets for roles being redesigned
- Proven management tools for front line leaders
- Expert consulting backed by over 70 years of science
The Behavioural Intelligence Framework for the Moments that Matter
One platform weaves behavioural insights across the entire employee lifecycle — with Behavioural Intelligence sitting at the center of every major leadership moment.
What PI’s science makes possible
Science-backed outcomes for HR leaders
Fewer mis-hires
An objective signal before the offer, from validated job benchmarks, rather than a gut check after.
Stronger managers
Managers drive engagement. Behavioural data gives them the context to lead each person.
Lower voluntary turnover
Engagement insight tied to team dynamics helps you spot at-risk managers and teams before people start looking.
Faster time to productivity
When managers understand each person’s drives from day one, onboarding is targeted and people perform sooner.
The science behind confident hiring
Industry research cited by PI puts the cost of a mis-hire at 30 to 200% of annual salary, and PI reports that using its behavioural science makes you 12 times less likely to make a low-value hire. PI Hire rests on two validated measures, behavioural drives and cognitive ability, linked to job performance across more than 120 roles.
The Duality Advantage
Since 2006, a proven two-part model: Predictive Success delivers the training, consulting, and advisory; Predictive Index, LLC provides and maintains the software. Our facilitators are certified and consistently ranked in the top 10 worldwide.
Behavioural intelligence, on the record
53%
lower turnover
Seaport Intermodal
86%
employee engagement
Nautical Lands Group
Mis-hires
virtually eliminated
Doxim
Questions about the science
What HR and legal teams ask about PI
Is the PI Behavioral Assessment legal to use in hiring?
PI states that the Behavioral Assessment complies with the US EEOC’s guidelines and is validated against the four-fifths adverse impact standard, the threshold US regulators use to detect discrimination, and that independent audits by EFPA-certified industrial and organizational psychologists have found no adverse impact. Its free-choice, untimed format with positively worded adjectives is designed to resist gaming.
How is PI different from personality tests like MBTI or DiSC?
Type tools such as MBTI and DiSC describe personality type and help with self-awareness and team communication. PI says its Behavioral Assessment is built for hiring decisions: it is validated against job performance and audited for fairness by independent experts.
How long has PI been around, and how many people take the assessment?
PI reports more than 70 years of behavioural science research and more than 2.5 million assessments a year, for over 8,000 clients in 142 countries. Results are scored against a global norm sample of 9.7 million responses.
Can PI assessments be used across industries and job types?
Yes. PI’s validity research covers more than 25,000 employees in 120 job roles, across many industries and regions, and the Job Assessment lets you build behavioural and cognitive targets for your own roles.
Is the PI Behavioral Assessment biased?
PI treats fairness as a core part of its science. Its team runs differential item functioning (DIF) studies to find and correct score bias between demographic groups, and advises clients on fair use. The free-choice format also limits the coaching and bias effects that interview questions are prone to.
How does PI keep its assessments accurate over time?
PI treats validation as ongoing. Reliability studies report how accurate scores are (internal consistency) and how stable they stay (test-retest reliability), and the science team watches how the assessments perform as workplaces and workforces change.
Does PI help with more than hiring?
Yes. PI says that when managers use behavioural insight in coaching, feedback and goal-setting, employees advance faster and stay longer. Predictive Success uses PI across hiring, development, team design and engagement.
Answers summarized from The Predictive Index’s published science FAQ.