Workable Partner Profile: Talent recognition with Thomas

We’re Thomas. We want to make work more meaningful, and we want you to feel that too. That’s why we’ve spent the last forty years developing people science that helps you, your teams and your business thrive.

You can use us for lots of things, but most importantly it helps you fulfill your potential in the workplace by giving you a better understanding of yourself and your colleagues.

Leaders benefit as we help develop talent, improve team management, reduce conflict, and create high performing teams.

Companies benefit as you’ll see a more diverse workforce, effective hybrid working, higher employee engagement and an improved commercial performance.

1. Welcome to this month’s Partner Profile. Could you introduce yourself with a brief bio?

I’m Yabing Wu, Strategic Partnership Manager here at Thomas. I recently started to lead our tech and integration partnerships with ATS’ and other HRTech/WorkTech companies complementary to Thomas, amplifying our customer values.

I live in London with my husband and two girls. I joined Thomas five years ago, after a decade of various strategy roles across Consulting, F&B, and EdTech sectors in Greater China and deciding to move to the UK for new adventures.

Outside work, I’m an avid marathon runner (16*finisher).

2. As an integrated partner of Workable, Thomas provides assessments based on robust, validated science which helps hiring teams to understand candidate fit based on soft skills as well as technical skills. Could you elaborate on how Thomas specifically does so?

We recently launched a ground-breaking new talent assessment platform, Thomas Perform, providing immediately actionable insights into your people. It gives a deep understanding of their behaviors, personality traits, and aptitudes through a comprehensive personal profile based on proven psychological science.

Unlike other assessment platforms, Thomas Perform goes beyond recruitment and development and adds value across the entire employee journey at every level of the organization. From recruitment and development, down to the dynamics within teams that makes employees feel engaged, valued and supported in what they need to succeed.

Our platform is modern, intuitive and everything is written in a positive, accessible way. Once you’ve taken our assessments, you’ll get immediate access to a summary of your profile, highlighting your strengths and areas for personal development, all backed by science.

Administrators and hiring managers get access to a straightforward tool that can be easily integrated with many of the most popular ATS platforms like Workable. It offers ready to use reports that can be put to use and start adding value to your business straight away.

With Thomas Perform, you will confidently recruit top talent who align with company culture, deliver value and stay for the long run.

3. What are some general trends you all are noticing in the assessments space?

Traditionally, assessment has been a secret weapon for HR departments. When personality, behavior and aptitude assessments are used correctly and properly understood, they can triple the quality of hire and make a high-volume hiring process much easier.

When used well for leadership and executive roles, assessments can have a huge impact on the hit-rate of leadership development. But, as the market is somewhat scientific and arcane, many companies still do not fully understand why and how to use assessments.

In recent years, increased economic volatility, geopolitical instability, the rapid adoption of AI, and a range of new working models have put unprecedented pressure on employees and organizations worldwide.

Soft skills are the key to success in the current climate. Interpersonal skills have doubled in importance since the pandemic and the demand for soft skills is expected to grow at twice the rate of that for technical skills.

With this in mind, it’s no wonder that organizations are realizing that our psychometric assessments – which generate soft skills insights – are getting more strategic everyday.

With the growing awareness of integrated talent management solutions, the role of assessments is growing. Companies are asking the big questions, for example:

• Do we have people with the right potential to grow into the roles we need next year?
• How do we create a more “solutions oriented” sales force?
• What are the characteristics of our best leaders or customer service agents and how can we hire more of them?

All of these can be answered with people science, and that’s what we do best.

Thomas is proud to provide the market’s most robust psychometric science. Grounded in independently validated psychometric science, Thomas assessments provide insight into a person’s behavior, personality, aptitude and emotional intelligence, informing fair and inclusive people decisions and agile workforce planning.

4. Now is your chance to brag about what’s on the horizon for Thomas. Any exciting product developments our readers should be aware of?

Thomas is at the forefront of Workforce Tech innovation, with the creation of a new category of workforce solutions, Team Interaction Optimisation (TIO). This ground-breaking approach promises to redefine the way we work, addressing the mounting challenges faced by individuals and organizations in today’s rapidly changing work environment.

We want people science to be accessible, beneficial and empowering for everyone. By giving each team member actionable insights about themselves and each other, we’re building a world where we can all become a better colleague, teammate or leader.

This is how we see the future.

We have a few very exciting product releases coming in 2024 that will empower our customers to create high performing teams. Stay tuned!

5. Any closing thoughts you’d like to share?

Forty years ago, Thomas was founded with the sole aim of helping to build a world of higher human achievement by giving people an easier way of gaining a greater understanding of themselves and each other.

At the heart of this goal was the belief that “difference makes the difference” when helping customers form, develop and nurture individuals into teams to achieve a common purpose.

In this exciting decade of Ecosystem, partner-led growth is at the core of our long-term strategy. We are excited to embark on this journey with like-minded partners like Workable, and we invite more partners who share the same values and visions to reach out!