Cherie Curtis’ professional journey at Revelian reads like a classic tale from a bygone era where an individual started in the mail room, working their way through the ranks to one day run the company. Joining Onetest (as Revelian was known then) back in 2003 as an intern while she was completing her Masters in Organisational Psychology, Cherie is now the CEO, driving the organisation into new territories. It is an impressive rise in any era.
Revelian is best described as a people analytics company; providing data-driven insight into human behaviour at work to enable intelligent understandings. By conducting this form of testing, Cherie says that any organisation can gain a tangible view of their business and make effective decisions.
“When we have analytics driving our decisions, we make better decisions,” she explains. “It allows you to understand the attributes your business currently has or the attributes you need to drive forward – including the people that are within it. It increases the quality of hires that we make in the recruitment process, but it also reduces the time and cost of a hiring process, because we know clearly what we’re looking for before we engage the process.
“When we use those tangible data points, or those analytics to drive our decisions, and we know what a good fit would look like, it culminates in better business outcomes.”
This is reflected in the desire to balance psychology and technology to produce a quality offering.
“In everything that we do, the data that we have has to be what we call psychometrically valid,” Cherie explains. “We have to ensure that it is predicting an attribute about a person. For example, if we are going to measure someone’s ability, we have to be able to demonstrate that it predicts performance, so that when we are providing data to our clients about decision-making, they can have confidence that this person with a higher level of cognitive ability, will perform better in the role.”
Revelian was a pioneer in the online assessment space as Australia’s first provider of online psychometric assessments – a significant factor in Cherie wanting to join the organisation. Since then, Cherie and Revelian have grown together, working hard to hold that market leading position.
“I think in some ways the journey of Revelian as a company and me as a person is almost reflective of each other,” says Cherie. “If I think back to 15 years ago, we were both new, both very green in the marketplace, with ambition and enthusiasm and, to our advantage probably, quite bold and willing to take on new things. That led to us delivering a whole number of firsts.”
When Cherie joined the company, computer-based testing was just starting in the Australian sector. Revelian was active in the sphere, looking to expand it further by offering it as an online version. With technology moving so quickly, it’s easy to forget that the Internet landscape was very different back in 1999 and so an online testing system was a very bold move which came with technological challenges, as well as education to the market.
As Cherie explains, this decision was not only successful for them as providers, but it also helped improve processes to balance the recruitment environment.
“We’re now working within a market where it’s much more balanced in the relationship between the employer and the candidate. Both have equal priority throughout the recruitment process.”
“If you look at a selection or recruitment process, it’s actually the biggest marketing campaign a company will ever run,” she says. “It’s engaging with the market directly, and showcasing to thousands of people per year what this organisation is actually like to work with, how they operate, what their priorities and values are, and it’s an opportunity for them to ensure that that message to market is clear and aligned to their strategic direction.”
“Online psychometric testing is not only considered best practice but almost standard practice for decision-making now. All the major corporate and government agencies are using it as part of their recruitment process.”
The technological advancements in recruiting generally have brought the consumer and organisation closer together. As such, Cherie says that companies are recognising the opportunity for human resources to be an avenue for promotion of the brand.
It’s this ability to think outside the normal parameters and develop innovative strategies that has helped keep Revelian as a market leader. Cherie says proudly that Revelian has “a habit of setting the tone and direction in the marketplace” highlighting their internal research and development team as a rarity for an Australian provider. Recently, Revelian has launched another first with “game-based cognitive ability assessments” which has drawn interest from competitors, multinationals and large corporates both locally and globally.
Such innovation takes drive from those at the top, and Cherie says she has “ambitious plans” at both a personal and company level.
“I’m quite passionate about our industry and I’m passionate about our company. It’s about moving Revelian into the global stage from here. We’ve got a strong market share and great success within the Australia and New Zealand sector, and the appetite we’re currently experiencing with in terms of conversations globally has been unprecedented.”
While this global presence is considered a core priority, Cherie is also quick to note that it will only occur with continued development of internal culture.
“I really feel that a successful organisation is completely dependent on the people within it. Having a culture of individuals that feel empowered and motivated and get meaning from their time at work is really critical for me.”
These elements come together under the three company values, which Cherie says reflect the history and direction of Revelian.
“The first one is to be bold and brave; to always take a step forward and to be comfortable pursuing the unknown or something that’s a bit vague,” she explains.
“The second is that ethics are everything. It’s really critical that the way that we conduct ourselves is to the highest standard. I am governed by the Australian Psychological Society Code of Conduct as an individual, but we also deploy those principles across our entire organisation and the way that we engage with our clients, which is critical.
“We also then have our third value, which is to collaborate and deliver. I think it’s really important that we work together. There’s no individual in this organisation that can deliver without involving others. When we work together, we can solve any problem.” BFM
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