The Optimize Hire Story

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A decade ago, co-founders Dr. Adam Grant and Dane Barnes were collaborating on a consulting project to help a large company in North Carolina to improve employee sales revenues and customer service ratings. Dr. Grant hypothesized that a pre-employment test could predict employee success better than the hiring model in place at the time, but he was unsatisfied with the shoddy science used by assessments already on the market. Undeterred, Dr. Grant built a new assessment based on 100 years of published, peer-reviewed scientific evidence and began a validation study. The results were so exceptional that Optimize Hire became a standalone company; we knew with Dr. Grant’s new test we could make a meaningful difference for organizations across the nation and throughout the world.

Optimize Hire continues to develop powerful pre-employment testing with the help of experts at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where Dr. Grant conducts research and teaches. Our first clients included hundreds of customers in the retail health-care industry - soon after, we expanded to helping companies in a broad variety of industries including enterprise sales, financial services, contact centers, and retailers. Now, with 10 years of research and development on our heels, we focus on improving the hiring processes of multi-billion dollar companies in all industries who are hiring hundreds or thousands of people per year. Our smooth integration with iCIMS, Greenhouse, Workday and other applicant tracking systems has contributed significantly to that effort.

We know from empirical evidence and head-to-head validation studies that our pre-employment tests are far superior to other assessments on the market. Optimize Hire is not as old as some other pre-employment testing companies on the market, but we’re eating up their market share because our pre-employment tests are markedly more predictive of performance and shorter in length.

Our goal is happier employees and more productive workplaces. Let us help you get there.