Pymetrics

Last updated: April 17, 2026

Reviewed by HR AI Tools Kit

What is Pymetrics?

Pymetrics (now part of Harver after its 2022 acquisition) is a soft skills assessment platform that uses neuroscience-based games and AI to measure candidates’ cognitive and emotional traits for hiring and talent management decisions. Founded in 2013 by neuroscientists Frida Polli and Julie Yoo, pymetrics pioneered the use of behavioral science games as an alternative to traditional resumes and interviews for evaluating talent potential.

The platform’s approach is fundamentally different from conventional hiring assessments. Instead of testing knowledge or asking behavioral interview questions, pymetrics asks candidates to play a series of short neuroscience-designed games that measure traits like attention, risk tolerance, decision-making speed, fairness orientation, and emotional processing. These cognitive and behavioral traits are then matched against success profiles built from an organization’s top performers, creating an objective, data-driven evaluation of candidate fit.

For HR teams, pymetrics addresses one of recruiting’s most persistent challenges: predicting which candidates will actually succeed in a role. Traditional methods — resume screening, unstructured interviews, and gut instinct — are poor predictors of job performance and introduce significant bias. Pymetrics provides a more predictive, equitable alternative by measuring the underlying traits that drive performance rather than relying on proxy signals like educational pedigree or previous employer names.

How HR Teams Use Pymetrics

Pre-Hire Assessment: Organizations integrate pymetrics into their early-stage hiring funnel, asking candidates to complete the game-based assessment before or instead of traditional resume screening. The platform scores candidates on their trait alignment with role-specific success profiles, helping recruiters focus their time on candidates with the highest predicted potential for success.

Bias-Reduced Screening: Pymetrics is designed with bias auditing built into its core methodology. The platform tests its algorithms against demographic groups and only deploys models that show equivalent performance across gender, ethnicity, and other protected categories. HR teams use this to reduce the bias inherent in resume screening and unstructured interviews while maintaining legal defensibility.

Internal Mobility and Reskilling: Beyond external hiring, pymetrics assesses existing employees’ cognitive and behavioral traits to identify internal candidates who could succeed in new roles — even roles very different from their current position. This is particularly valuable for organizations navigating workforce transformations where employees need to transition into new functions.

Campus and Early Career Hiring: Pymetrics is especially popular for campus and early career recruiting where candidates have limited work experience. The games evaluate potential rather than experience, allowing organizations to identify high-potential candidates from non-traditional backgrounds who would be overlooked by traditional resume screening.

Success Profile Building: HR teams work with pymetrics to create custom success profiles by having top performers in specific roles complete the assessment. The AI then identifies which cognitive and behavioral traits distinguish high performers, creating a data-driven benchmark for evaluating future candidates.

Candidate Experience Enhancement: The game-based format is significantly more engaging for candidates than traditional assessments or application forms. Candidates typically complete the assessment in 25-30 minutes and report positive experiences, which helps employer brand perception even among candidates who aren’t selected.

Key Features

• Neuroscience Games: Suite of 12 game-based assessments measuring cognitive and emotional traits including attention, memory, risk tolerance, and decision-making
• Custom Success Profiles: AI-generated trait profiles built from top performer data that define what cognitive and behavioral patterns predict success in specific roles
• Bias Auditing: Built-in algorithmic fairness testing ensuring assessment models perform equivalently across demographic groups before deployment
• Candidate Matching: AI scoring that ranks candidates by trait alignment with role-specific success profiles
• Trait Reports: Detailed individual reports showing candidate strengths and development areas across measured cognitive and behavioral dimensions
• Talent Redirection: When candidates don’t match one role, the platform can recommend alternative roles where their trait profile is a stronger fit
• Mobile-First Design: Assessments optimized for completion on smartphones, reducing barriers for candidates who primarily use mobile devices
• ATS Integration: Pre-built connectors for major applicant tracking systems to embed assessments directly into existing hiring workflows
• Compliance Documentation: Adverse impact analyses and validation studies supporting EEOC and OFCCP compliance requirements
• Analytics Dashboard: Aggregate insights on assessment completion rates, candidate quality distributions, and hiring outcome correlations

Pymetrics for HR: Practical Benefits

More Predictive Hiring: By measuring the cognitive and behavioral traits that actually predict job performance rather than relying on resume proxies, pymetrics helps organizations make hiring decisions that are more likely to result in successful, long-tenure employees. This reduces the costly cycle of bad hires and early attrition.

Expanded Talent Access: Because pymetrics evaluates potential rather than pedigree, it opens hiring pipelines to candidates from non-traditional backgrounds — different universities, career changers, and underrepresented groups — who have the traits needed to succeed but lack the conventional credentials that traditional screening favors.

Reduced Screening Time: Automated trait-based scoring dramatically reduces the time recruiters spend on initial candidate evaluation. Instead of manually reviewing hundreds of resumes, recruiters receive a ranked list of candidates based on objective, job-relevant criteria.

Legally Defensible Process: Pymetrics’ built-in bias auditing and adverse impact testing provide organizations with documentation supporting the fairness and validity of their hiring process — a critical consideration as AI hiring tools face increasing regulatory scrutiny.

Pymetrics Pricing

Since its acquisition by Harver, pymetrics is available as part of the broader Harver talent assessment platform. Pricing is typically enterprise-based, calculated on annual candidate assessment volume and the number of roles with custom success profiles. Organizations interested in pymetrics should contact Harver for current pricing and packaging details, as the integration of pymetrics into the Harver suite may have changed standalone pricing structures.

How Pymetrics Compares

Pymetrics vs. HireVue Assessments: HireVue uses video interview analysis and game-based assessments for talent evaluation. Pymetrics’ neuroscience foundation is more academically rigorous, while HireVue offers broader assessment modalities including video analysis. Pymetrics is preferred for organizations prioritizing scientific rigor and bias reduction; HireVue for those wanting integrated video interviewing and assessment.

Pymetrics vs. Criteria Corp: Criteria Corp offers traditional cognitive ability and personality assessments in a more conventional format. Pymetrics provides a more engaging candidate experience through games and stronger built-in bias auditing. Criteria Corp may be preferred for organizations comfortable with traditional assessment formats; pymetrics for those wanting innovative, bias-audited approaches.

Pymetrics vs. SHL: SHL is an established assessment provider with a comprehensive portfolio of cognitive, personality, and skills assessments. Pymetrics differentiates with its game-based format, neuroscience foundation, and more modern candidate experience. SHL offers broader assessment coverage; pymetrics provides a more innovative and engaging evaluation methodology.

Best For

Pymetrics is best suited for organizations with high-volume hiring needs — particularly campus recruiting, early career programs, and roles where traditional credentials are poor predictors of success. It is especially valuable for companies committed to reducing hiring bias with scientifically validated methods, organizations navigating workforce transformations that require internal reskilling and mobility, and employers in competitive talent markets who want to identify diamond-in-the-rough candidates that conventional screening misses. Financial services, technology, consulting, and consumer goods companies have been among the strongest adopters.