Psybil® Client Success Stories

View Latest News Publish Date: 22-Jan-2021

Psybil® Client Success Stories

Psynet have provided us with a selection of examples of companies that have used Psybil® successfully.

  • Call Centre Turnover

Problem: A large Medical Call Centre was experiencing a 107% annual turnover across its whole workforce.

Solution: Psynet identified characteristics that led to longevity using Psybil® assessment platform and began to incorporate the battery as part of the hiring process.

After six months, a follow-up study was conducted to identify attributes of those who abandoned the job.

By integrating the data, it was possible to create a hiring profile that matched the unique demands of medical call centre employees.

  • Fortune 500 Company Wants to Improve Executive Hiring

Problem: They quickly determined that off-the-shelf personality assessments were not sufficient and lacked the customisation necessary for their unique culture and Key Performance Indicators.

Solution: Working with HR business partner and hiring managers an exact understanding of the executive roles and company culture was constructed.

This data was used to create a customized assessment process that included an online assessment of Critical Thinking, Mental Models, Thinking Styles, and Cultural Suitability.

Additional personalization was added to roles salaried above 140k with a supplemental projective interview 

  • Hiring Clones

Problem: A large international mining company had fired their assessment vendor after 5 years when they realized that they were hiring “clones”.

The lack of thought diversity hurt their ability to innovate and solve complex problems.

Solution: Working with the Executive Committee an understanding of the crucial candidate attributes and where the company might benefit from diversity of thinking styles were identified

A scorecard outlining “must have” characteristics, along with charts specifically designed to show how the candidates differed in thinking style from the current team were constructed.

  • Burnout

Problem: A large financial service firm was experiencing significant burnout, specifically among its analysts and their managers.

During an interview the Hiring Director indicated that those who burnt out “can’t stand the stress of losing in one day what their parents made in their entire career.”

Solution: All of the candidates who made the final shortlist for hire were assessed to identify their ability to tolerate stress and their ability to fit into a high-risk culture.

  • Losing Money and Employees

Problem: A mid-sized private equity firm was losing money and employees at an alarming rate.

The reason was identified as being a significant number of narcissistic individuals with bullying tendencies in leadership roles.

Solution: After the Managing Director let the culprits go, a strategic decision was made to assess all future candidates for leadership roles for self-deception and sociopathic traits.

  • Failure of Investments

Problem: Despite the effort of an investment management firm to perform a solid analysis of its acquisition targets, these investments failed at a rate greater than expected.

Solution: An assessment of human capital due diligence on the executives of these investment targets, used to get a clear picture of the entire organization.

Clear recommendation of which leadership individuals, if any, should remain with the company post investment were provided.

In a few cases, the investment managers were discouraged from making an investment on the basis that the target company lacked the talent to manage the influx of capital.

  • Failure in Succession Planning

Problem: A large hospitality firm consistently failed in their succession planning.

As a result, each failure effectively accounted for a loss of two key positions -- the original individual and the successor.

Solution: The company used both Psybil® , online assessments system, and executive interviews to categorize candidates for promotion as either

  1. Ready for promotion
  2. Ready in X number of years with a development plan
  3. Topped out.

Based on these distinctions, the company was able to choose to make a significant investment in their employees’ growth, or rule them out altogether, saving them wasted time and money. 

  • 88% of Investments Lose Money

Problem: A hospitality-focused investment firm was losing money on 88% of their investments.

Solution: The company was relying on an old hierarchical model of organization structure and had invested more than $1.5 million in a level that no longer provided value.

Additionally, the failure of leadership to empower others led to a bottleneck at the executive level where all decisions were being made.

A more effective flattened structure, was implemented which encouraged mechanisms that increased communication and faster decision making capabilities, while also identifying employees that could lead effectively in the new structure.

  • Survival Threatened

Problem: A financial management firm made several poor decisions that put the survival of the organization at risk.

Solution: A new structure that dramatically rearranged the executive level was implemented.

The organisations structure was flattened and an “Advice Culture” was introduced in which decision making was made by one person after they had sought insights from all stakeholders.

Finally, an automated Role Mandate tool was used to create a set of structures, based on psychology and group dynamics, that functioned as external guide rails for better decision making.

  • Failure to Achieve Expected Synergies - More than one problem

Problem: A manufacturing firm with an acquisition growth strategy failed to maximize the expected synergies of the acquired companies.

Solution: The core problem was that the growth outpaced the capabilities of the executive team, who were subsequently replaced.

Problem: A secondary problem was that no effort was made to integrate the new companies into the culture of the existing firm.

Solution: An on-boarding process that included the FourX4 tool was implemented.

Problem: Yet another problem was the centralized decision making process in which most decisions were still made at the top and not by people closest to the issue.

Solution: A process of pushing decision making down was implemented which relied on employees developing individual decision making skills, effectively ensuring value alignment, and a “team first” attitude.

  • Major Change Required

Problem: A large global manufacturing firm needed to make a major pivot following a change in government regulations.The company was aware of the need for this major change, but had failed in several previous change management attempts.

Solution: The Psynet Connections Indicator (PCI) was used to identify 16 influencers from among the 3,000 employees. These influencers were used to motivate change, generate effective problem solving outcomes, and implement immediate solutions by helping spread the change virally.

  • Changing Culture in Retail 

Problem: A large retail firm enlisted one of the “Big Four” consulting firms to create culture change. The firm mandated several insights, but provided no plan to execute these insights.

Solution: Using the Psynet Connections Indicator (PCI) expert and social influencers within the organizationto were identified. Then the insights from the Big Four firm were used to build awareness amongst those influencers of the need for change and how the new desired culture could be attained.

  • Wrong Sales Team

Problem: A Fortune 100 sales firm assessed its model and determined that it has too many “gatherers” and not enough “hunters”.

Solution: The online Sales Style Indicator (SSI) was used in conjunction with the Psybil® assessment, to determine who has the most effective “hunter” style and additional attributes that generally predict sales success. 

  • Key Employees Leaving

Problem: A large mining firm realized that it had very limited bench strength, despite steady growth. They found that the strongest members were leaving for other opportunities at competitor organizations.

Solution: Psybil® was used to identify 16 high-potential employees who were then trained for accelerated roles. These individuals took on significantly more responsibility, with one eventually becoming the CEO.

After 5 years, all but one of the 16 continued to work in leadership roles in the organization.

  • Poor but Indispensable Leaders

Problem: Several financial organisations identified that they had key executives who were poor performers, yet indispensable leaders, based on their capabilities and knowledge.

Solution: A team of PhD level coaches uncovered the core reasons for poor leadership and failure to execute. Leveraging each individual’s capabilities, combined with targeted Psybil® feedback, these leaders were helped to meet, and often exceed, the expectations that the organisations previously had of them.

  • Sales Increasing But Profits Fail to Rise

Problem: A mid-sized fashion firm, with several toxic members of staff, experienced decreased revenue for 10 years straight despite a growth in sales.

Solution: After identifying and removing the toxic members of staff they were replaced with candidates who went through a recruitment and selection process that a Psynet Group assessment process.

The remaining existing employees were coached to improve their leadership skills and in how to operate effectively in a non-toxic environment.

  • Multi Tasking Failure

Problem: A financial services firm, attempting to manage 8 investments simultaneously, suffered a failure of leadership because they relied on an antiquated approach to leadership techniques and ideas.

Solution: A redesign of the company structure was implemented, and then a coaching programme was introduced to help leadership team members to adapt to the learned techniques to the new organization.

The core process included building decision making capabilities in direct reports, aligning values, and focus on team development. As a result, leaders trusted direct reports more and pushed decision making out through the levels of the organization.


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