This blog was originally published on March 3, 2025, marking Omnia’s 40th anniversary. It is dedicated in loving memory of our founder, John Caswell, whose legacy continues to inspire us. We also dedicate this to our co-founder, Heather Caswell, whose visionary leadership and unwavering dedication continue to guide us every day.
Behavioral assessments are everywhere in today’s workplace. But not all of them were built to last. When Omnia’s founders sat down to build something in 1985, they weren’t following a trend. They were building something they believed in: a behavioral assessment designed to reveal how someone is naturally wired to think and work, grounded in science and built to help organizations put the right people in the right seats.
More than 40 years later, that founding conviction is still at the center of everything Omnia does.
Validation
Validation is the scientific process of confirming that an assessment actually measures what it claims to measure, consistently and without bias. For a behavioral assessment, that means independent researchers test the tool against real-world outcomes to verify its accuracy and fairness. The Omnia Behavioral Assessment has been independently validated three times since 1985, most recently in 2022–2023, confirming it remains scientifically sound, free of bias, and EEOC-compliant decades after it was first introduced.
The Omnia Assessment is proprietary, scientifically validated, and EEOC-compliant. It measures four core behavioral dimensions:
- Assertiveness — the need to make things happen, take charge, and drive results
- Sociability — the preferred way of connecting and sharing ideas with others
- Pace — the speed and rhythm at which a person naturally operates
- Structure — the degree to which a person relies on processes, rules, and direction
Together, these dimensions generate the Omnia Behavioral Profile, giving you a clear picture of how someone works and where they’re likely to thrive — insight you can apply from hiring through every stage that follows.
How Behavioral Assessments Evolved: From the Battlefield to the Boardroom
The idea of using assessments to evaluate people predates modern business by centuries. In the United States, formal tools emerged during World War I, when psychologist Robert S. Woodworth developed a structured questionnaire to screen military recruits for psychological risk. His Woodworth Personal Data Sheet is widely considered the predecessor of modern behavioral inventories.
The field shifted significantly in 1928, when Harvard-educated psychologist William Moulton Marston published Emotions of Normal People. Rather than focusing on pathology, Marston introduced a behavioral model centered on how people naturally think and act, theorizing that each person carries a unique combination of behavioral tendencies that shapes how they make decisions and interact with others.
Organizational psychologist William V. Clarke brought that theory into the workplace. Noticing that employees with similar backgrounds performed very differently on the job, Clarke developed a psychometric model to measure behavioral styles against the specific demands of a role. His 1948 Activity Vector Analysis was the first commercialized application of Marston’s theories and a direct ancestor of the assessments used in talent decisions today.
When Omnia was founded in 1985, the behavioral assessment industry was still young. Validation was a priority from day one, and the assessment passed its first independent validation that same year. It has been revalidated twice since, most recently in 2022–2023.
Building a Company on Science and People
How Omnia Came to Be
It all started around a dining room table in 1985, with three people, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a deep dive into four other assessments. What came of it was the decision to strike out on their own and create a unique behavioral assessment profile that was different from everyone else.
The assessment industry was young and only a few companies were offering behavioral insights for selection and development. Assessment validity was, and still is, a top priority for Omnia. During that first year, Heather, John and Eastham Hockmeyer had the instrument validated. The validation of Omnia’s assessment was successful right from the start, which became a significant factor in their decision to proceed independently.
As part of the validation process, Heather, John and Eastham would ask clients to evaluate the results of their employees, sending the critiques directly to the independent organization running the validation — through snail mail! Remember, it was 1985. We’ve since revalidated the assessment in 2000 and again in 2022–2023. Thankfully, technology has made the process much more efficient. But it always boils down to people.
While refining their assessment algorithms and creating their business plan, Heather and John flew to Tampa, Florida. Early in the region’s growth, they wanted to verify if this future megatrend city could be the ideal home for their startup. Turns out it was perfect. Even though they had discussed on the flight down how they would not make any rash decisions, such as buying a house, wouldn’t you know they were signing a contract on the return flight back to Hartford! A Macintosh 128 was purchased, along with a stack of floppy discs, which many readers may not have heard of, but it was the height of Apple technology at the time and capable of giving them the horizontal graphs they needed.
Building a Winning Team
Of course, any great organization has great people, and they were building their team from the ground up. Toward the end of 1985, they hired their first three employees, all salespeople. It was time to spread the word. One salesperson was with them for many years and found their first reseller partner. Today, our thriving partner network consists of global resellers, referral relationships, and member associations across various industries. Another great hire became one of their first analysts and a client favorite. She provided verbal consults followed by a written report. With this one great hire, they were on the road to building the exceptional analysis and service process we have today.
There were many milestones. When they began, the Omnia Profile was printed and, yes, mailed in batches to each client, completed by the candidate or employee in the client’s office using pen or pencil, and then posted back to Omnia. The trip to the post office was an important part of each day. One of their very first clients encouraged them to embrace the fax, which revolutionized their time frames. They went from a bank of fax machines to being fully online once the internet became a tool that was revolutionizing business. As part of this evolution, the Omnia software has been revised several times.
The Power of People
What began around a dining room table has led to a winning team of people on a mission to help other organizations build their own winning teams. That’s the power of people! None of this could have happened without the team they built over time, from salespeople and analysts to a customer success team, an IT department, and strong leaders. We have 3 employees who will be celebrating more than 30 years with Omnia in 2025, and our average tenure is 13 years. And we celebrate our 40th year along with several clients who have been with us from the beginning and still rely on Omnia behavioral profiles for their selection and employee development.
This 40-year milestone is a testament to our commitment to behavioral science, innovation, and client success. Having delivered more than 3 million assessments and navigated four recessions and a global pandemic, we stand stronger than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of our team’s resilience and dedication to our sustained growth and impact.
Why Behavioral Assessment Bias Matters — and How Omnia Addresses It
Behavioral assessments have not always had a clean record when it comes to fairness. Early tools were sometimes designed to screen out candidates based on demographic characteristics, raising legitimate concerns about discrimination in hiring.
Omnia takes this seriously. The Omnia Assessment uses an adjective checklist rather than a forced-response format, giving participants the freedom to select the words they feel best describe them. Three independent validations have confirmed that the Omnia Behavioral Assessment is free of cultural, racial, age, and gender bias. It is both bias-free and EEOC-compliant, with no adverse impact identified.
Omnia also advises clients to use the assessment as one input among many. Assessment results should account for no more than 25% of any hiring decision. Interviews, work history, education, skills, and reference checks carry the rest.
How Behavioral Assessments Drive Better Talent Decisions Today
More than 40 years ago, behavioral assessments were primarily a selection tool. Today, they support talent decisions across the entire employee lifecycle, and that broader application is where the real value shows up.
Hiring
Even before the interview, the Omnia Assessment gives you a clear picture of how a candidate approaches assertiveness, sociability, pace, and structure, and how their Omnia Behavioral Profile compares to your top performers in the role. You’re not guessing. You’re deciding with data.
Onboarding
A new hire’s behavioral profile helps managers understand how that person receives feedback, processes information, and builds relationships. That insight shapes a stronger onboarding experience from day one.
Development
Behavioral data helps you coach to individual strengths rather than generic frameworks. You understand what motivates someone, where they thrive, and where they may need more support.
Team Dynamics
When a team isn’t working well together, behavioral profiles often reveal why. Work-style differences that go unaddressed become friction. Named and understood, they become a starting point for better collaboration.
Retention
Disengagement rarely happens overnight. Behavioral insight helps you spot early signs that someone’s role, environment, or relationships are no longer a good fit, before they start looking elsewhere.
The Omnia Behavioral Assessment takes under 10 minutes to complete and requires no certification to interpret. Profiles are written in plain language so any manager can act on them immediately.
Explore how behavioral assessments support decisions across the employee lifecycle → Behavioral Assessments for Better Talent DecisionsÂ
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
How is a behavioral assessment different from a personality test?
A personality test is typically designed for self-awareness or clinical contexts. A behavioral assessment like the Omnia Assessment is purpose-built for the workplace. It reveals how someone approaches work, collaboration, and decision-making, giving leaders objective data to inform hiring, development, and team decisions. There are no right or wrong answers, and results are written for managers, not psychologists.
Why does it matter how long a behavioral assessment company has been in business?
Experience builds precision. A company with more than 40 years in behavioral science has tested its tools across industries, economic cycles, and an enormous range of roles and organizations. That kind of track record means the assessment has been refined, revalidated, and proven in real-world conditions, not just controlled studies. Omnia also brings over 200 industry and role-specific job benchmarks built from decades of client data, so your hiring decisions start with a proven behavioral model, not a job description. When you use Omnia, you’re not an early adopter. You’re benefiting from decades of data, client feedback, and continuous improvement.
How do I know a behavioral assessment won’t introduce bias into my hiring process?
It’s a fair concern. Some early assessment tools were designed in ways that disadvantaged certain demographic groups, and the consequences for hiring decisions were real. The Omnia Behavioral Assessment was built with fairness as a foundational requirement, not an afterthought. It uses an adjective checklist format that gives participants freedom in how they describe themselves, rather than forcing choices that can skew results. Three independent validation studies have confirmed it is free of cultural, racial, age, and gender bias and fully EEOC-compliant. Omnia also advises clients to weigh assessment results at no more than 25% of any hiring decision, keeping the full picture in view.
Ready to Put 40 Years of Behavioral Science to Work?
The Omnia Assessment takes less than 10 minutes to complete. In that time, you’ll get a firsthand look at what behavioral data reveals and how that insight translates into stronger talent decisions for your organization.
Take a complimentary assessment today and see the science behind 40 years of smarter hiring, development, and retention.
