Aon acquires psychometric and advisory firm cut-e
Global professional services conglomerate Aon has acquired psychometric and advisory firm cut-e for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is targeted at reinvigorating the firm’s global Talent, Rewards & Performance solution group, elevating their collective presence to more than 400 professionals, while aiming to serve an increasingly tightly-bound labour market.
Psychometric testing company cut-e was founded in 2002, and is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company has, under the leadership of Andreas Lohff and Achim Preuss grown to employ more than 250 people globally, and provides over 12 million examinations per year. Psychometric testing is a method designed to find job-relevant information regarding prospective employees which a face-to-face interview would fail to pick up. Typically this involves a combination of aptitude and personality questionnaires measuring job-relevant cognitive abilities and personality traits. With cut-e specialising in both the development and the implementation of online tests, questionnaires and gamified assessments for attraction, recruitment, selection and development, they became an attractive prospect to Aon, as the firm sought to boost its capacity for such operations.
Aon, who earlier in 2017 completed the $4.8 billion sale of its employee benefits outsourcing wing Aon-Hewitt, will use the acquisition of cut-e to grow their presence in the space to upwards of 400 professionals in its global Talent, Rewards & Performance solution group. Through the acquisition the global professional services firm hopes to meet assessment demands for over 30 million candidates per year, as companies seek less arbitrary methods of sorting the wheat from the chaff in an increasingly tight labour market; with both Aon and cut-e believing the combined entity to be better positioned to offer both talent assessment tools and advisory services to a wider market, for screening, selection and development decisions.
The former co-founders of cut-e will meanwhile be rewarded with new leadership positions within Aon’s Talent, Rewards & Performance solution division.
Andreas Lohff, Managing Director and now former co-owner of cut-e remarked of the deal, “In this tight labor market, organizations are keenly aware of the need to quickly fill their talent pipeline with qualified candidates who are the right fit for their organization and link talent measurement to an economically measurable business impact. Combining with Aon’s advanced assessment tools and customized talent solutions will strengthen the value we bring to clients in the assessment and selection marketplace.”
Remarking on the transaction, and the rationale behind the acquisition, Michael Burke, CEO Talent, Rewards & Performance at Aon said, “At a time when the global workforce is shrinking, workforce engagement is on the decline and turnover among younger workers is accelerating, big data is changing the way organizations identify, select, deploy, engage and measure the effectiveness of their talent. Acquiring cut-e enables us to expand our assessment and selection capabilities into even more situations and geographies, providing even stronger insights and driving improved business performance and reduced volatility for our clients.”