Goshaba, a candidate assessment solution that accurately, objectively, and

automatically measures all cognitive skills predictive of performance.

• Digital transformation and shift of skills

The digital transformation of companies is placing ever greater demands on our cognitive
capacities: more than ever, we need to capture, process and restitute information in order to
adapt more rapidly to change.
In this context in 2020, our cognitive skills or 'soft skills' now appear to be more predictive of
professional success than our physical and technical know-how (Bughin, Hazan, Lund,
Dahlström, Wiesinger, McKinsey Global Institute, 2018 ; Woolley, Malone, & Chabris, 2015).
Several studies even show that assessing these skills is the only reliable way to detect future
talent (Menkes, Harvard Business Review, 2005, McLaren, 2019). A candidate's knowledge
and experience, for example, are obviously important hiring factors, but these assets do not
replace analytical and reasoning skills (Beard, Harvard Business Review, 2019).
In addition, to remain successful, companies need a variety of different and complementary
soft skills. For example, it is important to have a lot of creative people, but you also need
employees with leadership skills to steer creation in the right direction. And while it's a good
idea to fill the skills gaps you have today, in an ever-changing environment where 85% of the
jobs of 2030 don't yet exist (DELL technologies & Institute For Future, 2017), it's just as
important to recruit for the skills you'll need tomorrow.
So, for the past few years, these "soft skills" have been attracting the attention of recruiters.
A Monster study shows that 97% of companies believe that their evaluation has its place
during a job interview and for 52% of them, they are a determining factor in hiring (Dépret,
Monster, 2019 ; McLaren, 2019).

• Unsuitable standard tools

So why are soft skills, which are discriminatory, still not evaluated during the recruitment
process?
Traditional recruitment tools such as CVs only enable candidates to be matched with the
skills sought by recruiters in 20% of cases (Sullivan, ERE, 2012 ; Howden, workable.com)
and during interviews the candidate's ability to "sell" themselves is measured more than soft
skills, which are difficult to assess even face-to-face. Against this backdrop, several tools
have been developed in recent years to highlight, in a standardized way, personality
elements (MBTI, PAPI, SOSIE, Big Five). However, even if these psychological assessments
improve the candidate's suitability for the proposed position, they do not map cognitive and
behavioral skills and are only a poor predictor of performance (Dussapt, Challenges, 2014 ;
Étude APEC Sourcing Cadres, 2013 ; Étude NEOMA H.R. Insights #03).
The fact is that today we do not know how to evaluate these new key competencies. Of the
97% of recruiters who are aware of their importance, 89% do not know how to measure them
(McLaren, 2019). At the heart of this problem is the fact that it is not always easy to know
how to identify them. They are often poorly defined and are often confused with personality
traits that are fixed, stable over time. Behind generalist terms such as collaboration,
empathy, logic, or critical thinking, there are cognitive and behavioral phenomena that can be
evaluated.
 • How can we reliably measure the cognitive and soft skills of candidates? The
Goshaba solution.
More than 50 years of research have led to a real cognitive revolution - today cognitive
sciences and neurosciences allow us to understand and analyze brain functioning and
human behavior in a more accurate and predictive way (Schmidt & Hunter, 2004).
Combining the cutting edge of cognitive science research with the power of video games,
Goshaba is a candidate assessment solution that automatically, accurately, and objectively
measures all the cognitive skills at the origin of our soft-skills and allows us to completely
redistribute the cards during the recruitment process.
Far beyond traditional CVs and psychological tests, our solution puts the candidate at the
heart of the recruitment process by making it more positive and fairer. Through a game
process, candidates are evaluated on what they do - their behaviors - and not on what they
say they do or are, thus limiting the emergence of desirability bias during the recruitment
phases (Chammat & Moukheiber, Chiasma 5/9, 2017).

• Cognitive skills measured by Goshaba – 3 dimensions and 21 skills

The assessment model proposed by Goshaba provides a basis for cognitive skills that
resonate strongly with the predictive skills of success and the business skills of tomorrow,
from which several facets of human behavior are measured.

• Perceptive and attentional skills: group together all the cognitive skills that allow to
efficiently capture and process information.

o Concentration (attentional control): the ability to engage in processing new

information, enables the management of attentional resources necessary to
effectively carry out voluntary actions, as opposed to automatic behaviors, in
relation to sustained attention.
o Reactivity: ability to implement rapid and automatic processing to optimize
performance in recurring situations.
o Abstraction: Ability to filter irrelevant information, isolate and mentally
represent information, in relation to selective attention.
o Inhibition (self-control): ability to control inappropriate reactions, to resist
habits or automatic reactions, to stop the production of a current reaction and
to eliminate irrelevant stimuli, related to self-control.
o Analytical processing: ability to break down information into sub-elements,
identify components, related to visual memory, attention to detail and
observational skills.
o Generalization: ability to recognize patterns, to search for and perceive similar
recurring sequences and apply them to a new problem, related to the ability to
detect the "big picture".
o Perseverance (tenacity): this skill represents the intrinsic motivation in a
complex activity requiring a long-term investment, without being discouraged
by the difficulties encountered.
• Socio-emotional skills: they include all the cognitive skills that allow to understand,
communicate and interact with others in an adapted way.
o Reading of emotions: ability to identify and categorize emotions, linked to
sensitivity to emotions.
o Listening: the ability to listen actively and with empathy, i.e. the ability to
actively listen to and understand others, and to respond appropriately.
o Empathy: the ability to identify with others in the way they feel, understand
and integrate the emotions of others in order to adapt one's behaviour.
o Perspective: the ability to interpret things from the point of view of others,
putting oneself in one's place to understand one's point of view. This ability is
related to interpersonal skills.
o Cooperation: Cooperation within a group, sharing a task to achieve a common
goal, linked to team spirit.
o Communication (verbal and non-verbal): ability to analyze and synthesize
information, to make oneself understood, to get a message across.
o Caring: ability to pay attention to others in a disinterested and understanding
manner, to care for others, to be tolerant.

• Executive skills: the set of cognitive skills that form the basis of our reasoning and
decision-making abilities.
o Adaptability and flexibility: the ability to move quickly and efficiently from one
task to another, to adapt to change, and ultimately to perform a multitude of
complex activities and manage projects.
o Planning: the ability to organize a series of actions in optimal sequences to
achieve an objective, to carry out a strategic action plan, but also to anticipate
and learn from one's experiences. Linked to organizational skills.
o Memory (analysis and synthesis): the ability to store information and use it
effectively in the short term to carry out various tasks. This competency is
strongly linked to the ability to learn; it is also a component of the ability to
analyze and synthesize.
o Logic (analysis & synthesis): ability to reason in a coherent sequence on
purely formal aspects, to have common sense, to be able to reason easily and
rigorously. This ability is a component of the ability to analyze and synthesize.
o Deductive mind (analysis & synthesis): capacity for reasoning and abstraction
to achieve a better understanding of a subject.
o Risk-taking: the ability to manage risk, to implement risky strategies and
behaviors when it is useful to achieve objectives that could not otherwise be
achieved. In particular, the ability to take risks in a reasoned and thoughtful
manner.
o Creativity: the ability to imagine or construct and implement a new concept, or
to discover an original solution to a problem.
References
• Jacques Bughin, Eric Hazan, Susan Lund, Peter Dahlström, Anna Wiesinger, Amresh
Subramaniam (2018). Skill shift Automation and the future of the workforce, McKinsey
Global Institute.
• Anita Woolley, Thomas W. Malone, Christopher F. Chabris (2015). Why Some Teams Are
Smarter Than Others, The New York Times, Opinion, Gray Matter.
• Justin Menkes (2005). Hiring for smarts, Harvard Business Review Psychology.
• Nathalie Dépret (2019). 5 points à retenir de l'étude Monster sur l'importance des soft skills,
Monster.
• John Sullivan (2012). What's wrong with using resumes for hiring pretty much everything,
ERE, Recruiting intelligence.
• Daniel Howden. Qualified job candidates per hire: recruiting metrics that matter, ressources
Workable.com.
• Alisson Beard (2019). Experience doesn't predict a new hire's success, Harvard Business
Review Hiring
• DELL Technologies & Intitute For Future (2017). The next era of human|machine Partnerships
- EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES’ IMPACT ON SOCIETY & WORK IN 2030
• Chloé Dussapt (2014). Recrutement : et si les tests de personnalité ne servaient à rien,
Challenges.
• Samantha McLaren (2019). Candidates' Soft Skills are Notoriously Hard to Assess, But
Following These 6 Steps Will Help, LinkedIn Talent Blog.
• Etude APEC n°2013-47 - Sourcing Cadres (2013) Comment les entreprises recrutent leurs
cadres
• H.R. Insights #03, Testons les tests!, Chaire Nouvelles carrières, NEOMA business School
• Schmidt & Hunter (2004). General Ability in the World of Work: Occupational Attainment and
Job Performance, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 84(1), 162-173. pdf here
• Maryam Chammat & Albert Moukheiber (2017), Le Biais de désirabilité, Chiasma 5/9.