Inc Magazine, August, 2002 --

BLOT-COM

PSYCHO TESTER: PeopleAnswers
founder Gabriel Goncalves says his software can spot shirkers -- before they're hired.

      For all those managers out there who are sick of picking through resumes, well,
Gabriel Goncalves feels your pain. As onetime owner of a Texas IT company, he suffered non-stop headaches finding and hanging on to good employees.

      Now he's come up with a way to ease some of the stress: PeopleAnswers, new do-it-yourself psychological-testing software that lets employers screen job applicants on-line.

      Goncalves got sold on psychological screening while he was running Erapmus, a Dallas-based networking-services company he founded. "It made a huge impact," Goncalves says. "It reduced turnover, but more important, we were able to bring the type of folks into the organization that made a huge difference in terms of taking it to the next level."

      But the conventional screening tests — which required hiring industrial psychologists to administer them — were time-consuming and expensive. And understanding the results practically required a Ph.D. in psychology. Goncalves figured that a Web-based testing system could solve those problems. So after selling Erapmus in 2000, he began talking to industrial psychologists about developing his own psychological-screening software. In early 2001, he launched Dallas-based PeopleAnswers.

      The company's do-it-yourself approach leaves the actual administering of the test to customers. To snare superstar employees (and weed out slackers), the on-line assessment draws on three personality tests that PeopleAnswers has licensed, including the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey.

      Goncalves's test features both SAT-style math and verbal problems as well as behavioral questions in which the test taker must agree or disagree with statements like "I enjoy getting acquainted with people" or "I always wanted to own a sports car."

      The results include ratings in such areas as intellect, drive, motivation, and interpersonal style. Plus, companies can develop an ideal profile for each job by testing their highest performers and using those scores as a benchmark for all potential hires. "If I am your typical Fortune 500 company, with people all over the world, how do I create a set of [screening] standards and quickly disseminate it throughout the enterprise?" Goncalves asks.    

      For now, anyway, the recession isn't scaring Goncalves. In March and April, PeopleAnswers signed up approximately 20 customers, including Dallas-based Interstate Batteries. He claims that rising unemployment has actually helped his pitch. "We're working with a major Fortune 500 company with basically 300 applicants for every open position," he says. "They need a way to get to the qualified candidates. That's exactly what our software does."