SuccessFinder Launches New “Behavioral DNA” Assessment Business

Optimum Talent Spin-Off Launches New Brand, New Talent Management Cloud Solution, and Adds HR Tech Veterans to Management Team

MONTREAL, Jan. 26, 2017 -- Today the fast-growth corporate behavioral assessment business of Optimum Talent has been divested and launched as a stand-alone business, called SuccessFinder. To leverage its momentum within the quickly-scaling $5 billion Talent Management software market, SuccessFinder is also launching a new cloud-based version of its tool and has hired HR Tech industry heavyweights to lead its business and marketing efforts and position the business for explosive growth.

The new company is based on a unique “behavioral DNA” assessment process which identifies and compares 85 behavioral traits of individuals to the characteristics of the most successful people across more than 500 unique career roles, as a benchmark.  SuccessFinder’s behavioral assessments are proven across more than 75 leading organizations and universities including: Aldo, Hatch, Maple Leaf Foods, McGill University, McKesson Canada, Morrison Hershfield, New Brunswick Power, Sanimax, Sun Life Financial, SSQ Insurance, and Yamana Gold. 

Pelly Shafto, a SuccessFinder customer and the HR leader at Morrison Hershfield, captures the unique benefit of the solution: “Companies hire for skills and experience but end up firing for behavioral issues. In my experience, assessment tools have been too broad to be useful.  However, SuccessFinder is different. With a single, robust assessment focused on benchmarked behavior, it is the secret sauce that can drive performance and ultimately change company culture.”

New: SuccessFinder Cloud assessment solution

Companies spend over $3B on assessments annually, but unfortunately aren’t able to move the dial on ever-weakening employee engagement. SuccessFinder addresses this by helping people discover their unique behavioral traits and connect them to roles where they can operate at their highest potential.  Like the human genome project mapped human DNA, SuccessFinder maps behavioral DNA.  Coupled with benchmarks from the top performers in more than 500 roles, SuccessFinder will predict job fit with an 85% level of accuracy. 

Based on customer success and rapid adoption of its initial behavioral assessment system, the company has developed a cloud-based offering, also called SuccessFinder, to help meet demand and scale the business. The cloud-based solution, also announced today, is accessible for end users to take the assessment and review their results, online on any device, anywhere.  For business and HR assessors, new centralized access to analyze results by individual, department, division, role or geography will make the rich, scientifically-sound insights much more actionable for both big picture and individual decision-making.

“SuccessFinder is the only career assessment tool to have met the rigorous American Psychological Association C1 standard based on its validity for decision making,” says CEO of SuccessFinder, Ronald Dahms. “After incubation at Optimum Talent, we recognized its extraordinary potential to catalyze HR decision-making in a new way. Therefore, by building out the cloud platform, creating a new brand and extending the management team with industry heavy-hitters, we are fueling the business to optimize its potential.”

Extended Leadership

The potential of the business has attracted not only customers, strategic partners and independent HR practitioners, but also HR Technology industry veterans.  Today the company announced the addition of Susan Van Klink, as General Manager and Senior Vice President and Lisa Hartley as Chief Marketing Officer.

“The opportunity ahead of us is vast,” says SuccessFinder founder, Dr. Larry M. Cash, who also developed the company’s assessment model. “We are thrilled to have attracted executives with the caliber, credibility — and of course the winning behavioral traits — that Susan and Lisa are bringing to our team.”

Susan Van Klink joins SuccessFinder as General Manager and Senior Vice President to scale the business.  A seasoned executive in the Human Resource software market, she will apply expertise culled from a 20-year career in sales, strategy and operations at industry leaders including Taleo, SelectMinds (both acquired by Oracle) and SuccessFactors (acquired by SAP).

Lisa Hartley spearheads the new role as Chief Marketing Officer at SuccessFinder, where she will build the customer and partner acquisition strategy and programming.  Most recently VP of Global Alliances at Veeva Systems, Hartley’s previous industry experience also centered in Human Resources with leadership roles in product marketing, customer marketing and sales at SuccessFactors, Taleo, and Peoplesoft.

For more information on the SuccessFinder product, executive team and thought leadership on the predictive performance power of behavioral assessment: www.successfinder.com

About SuccessFinder
SuccessFinder is a talent assessment and career success prediction company, proven at more than 75 global and mid-sized organizations including: Aldo, Hatch, Maple Leaf Foods, McGill University, McKesson Canada, Morrison Hershfield, New Brunswick Power, Sanimax, Sun Life Financial, SSQ Insurance, and Yamana Gold. Its robust cloud-based SuccessFinder solution is used to predict — with 85% accuracy — the "behavioral DNA"​ connection between people’s behavioral traits and their likelihood to succeed across more than 500 unique roles. Don’t hire for skills and hope for behavior: map the traits that matter with SuccessFinder. www.successfinder.com

Media Contact:
Didi D’Errico
[email protected]
925.336.1457