Everything you need to know — from what the assessment actually measures to how your people will experience it.
What exactly is a Talent Assessment?+
A Talent Assessment is a structured, data-driven evaluation of an individual's capabilities, personality, working style and professional potential. Unlike intuitive hiring decisions or annual reviews, it uses validated scientific methods — including DISC and Profiling Values — to give leaders an objective picture of who a person is, how they work best, and where they will create the most value. The outcome is a set of individual and group reports that directly support hiring, development and organizational decisions.
Who can be assessed — and for what decisions?+
The assessment works for any role, function and level. It is used for hiring decisions (selecting the right candidate with objective data), development planning (identifying individual gaps and building on strengths), team design (understanding how people work best together), and strategic placement (putting the right people in the right roles). Whether you are assessing a C-suite candidate, a team of project managers, an HR function or a cohort of high-potentials, the methodology adapts to your context — not the other way around.
What does the process look like from start to finish?+
The process runs in three phases. First, together with CPM you define success profiles for the roles you want to assess — what does great actually look like in your context? Second, participants complete the assessment through an online Talent Portal at a time that fits their schedule. Third, you receive individual and group reports, and each participant gets a 30-minute feedback session with a CPM expert. Total elapsed time is typically two to four weeks.
How long does it take for each person?+
Each participant typically completes the assessment in two to three hours, spread across several online sessions they can schedule flexibly. There are no in-person requirements, no disruption to day-to-day work, and the platform is intuitive enough that no prior preparation is needed.
What do we actually receive at the end?+
You receive: an Individual Capability Report for each participant, a Team Capability Report covering the full group, and access to the Talent X-Ray App — an interactive tool for analyzing, comparing and acting on the data. Each participant also receives a 30-minute individual feedback session with a CPM expert. Sample reports are available for download on this page.
How is this different from a standard personality test?+
Most personality tests give you a profile of how a person sees themselves. The CPM Talent Assessment goes further: it combines self-assessment with external evaluation, compares results against validated success profiles for specific roles, adds hard skill testing and a business case scenario, and benchmarks against industry data. The result is not just a personality profile — it is a multi-dimensional capability picture with direct practical implications for hiring, development and team design.
Will my employees react negatively to being assessed?+
In CPM’s experience, the majority of participants value the process — particularly because each person receives their own individual feedback session and a personal copy of their report. The assessment is designed to give, not just take: participants come away with a clearer picture of their own strengths, working style and development areas. On the data side, everything is handled in full compliance with GDPR. Individual results are shared only with the assessed person and — based on prior written agreement — with designated leaders. CPM does not retain or use data beyond the agreed scope. Being transparent with your team upfront about what will be assessed, how the data will be used, and who will see it makes a significant difference to how the process is received.
How reliable are the results?+
The soft skill component is built on two of the most rigorously validated psychometric instruments available: Profiling Values, which carries a Spearman’s rho reliability of ρ=.92 — placing it in the top tier for psychological assessments — and DISC, a behavioral framework with decades of research and global validation behind it. The two instruments are complementary: Profiling Values maps deeper motivational and personality drivers, while DISC captures observable behavioral patterns and communication style. The hard skill test and business case element are calibrated specifically to your role requirements and context, adding practical validity on top of the psychometric foundation. Together, the four dimensions don’t just describe a person — they help predict fit, development potential and team dynamics with a degree of reliability that no single-method tool can match.
Is the data GDPR compliant?+
Yes, fully. All data is processed in accordance with GDPR regulations. Individual results are shared only with the assessed person and — depending on the agreed setup — with designated leaders. Group reports aggregate data in a way that protects individual privacy. CPM Group operates under Austrian law and EU data protection standards.
How many people need to be assessed for it to make sense?+
There is no minimum. A single critical hire or key placement is reason enough — the individual report alone delivers a complete, actionable picture of that person’s capabilities, fit and development potential. Many organizations start with one high-stakes decision and expand from there. Group reports and team comparisons become especially powerful from around eight to ten participants, enabling benchmarking, gap analysis across a function and informed decisions about team structure. For larger rollouts across divisions or organizations, a phased approach — starting with one team and building on the results — is usually the most practical path.