As Omnia celebrates its 40th anniversary this March, it’s a perfect time to reflect on the journey and the incredible team that has brought the company to this milestone.
This week’s blog 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.
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 Hochmire 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 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 Caswell 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’d 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.
Omnia Assessments – Powerful Insights backed by Behavioral Science that Withstood the Test of Time and a Few Challenges
Today, our product offering is streamlined and straightforward. We offer 3 types of assessments – The Omnia Behavioral Assessment, The Omnia Cognitive Assessment and The Omnia Grammar Assessment. Each of these produce a powerful collection of insights that our clients use to make critical hiring decisions. Long after the selection decision, our reports provide useful information to help develop and engage staff over the long term.
At the core of Omnia is our Omnia Assessment measuring four core personality aspects:
- The need to make things happen
- The preferred way of sharing ideas
- The speed at which a person operates
- The degree of dependence on processes
The Omnia Assessment remains strong today — a scientifically validated, bias-free behavioral assessment. It generates the Omnia Behavioral Profile, identifying personality traits, core motivations, preferred work style, and optimal environments for peak performance.
This comprehensive approach allows you to gain deep insights into your employees’ behavioral traits, helping you predict job compatibility, improve team dynamics, and guide individual success within your organization.
What sets the Omnia Assessment apart? It’s quick — taking 10 minutes or less for a participant to complete — easy and accurate, providing valuable insights about potential and existing employees. Plus, it’s been independently validated three times, most recently in 2022/2023, ensuring you can rely on the data to complement your HR strategies.
The Omnia Cognitive Assessment reveals whether a candidate will likely thrive or struggle in a specific role. Our clients use this instrument to measure a candidate’s ability to think abstractly and comprehend new concepts. It also can get to the bottom of how well a candidate learns, adapts to new environments and situations, and solves problems — all of these being such critical traits for employees in this dynamic business world we find ourselves in today.
The Omnia Grammar Assessment is a simple pre-employment assessment that gives you a clear idea of a candidate’s mastery of grammar and punctuation. It is straight and to the point. Again, it is so critical to be sure your candidates can communicate clearly, accurately and effectively. And on their own without the help of AI!
While our assessments are at the core of our business, there’s a host of other analytics, reporting, and services we provide our clients that drive the results behind the instruments.
Heather said it best when reflecting on our company’s journey.
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.
Thank you, John and Heather, for building a thriving business that has made an impact on each of our professional lives and throughout businesses across the world.
Would you like to learn more? Contact our team today, and discover how the Omnia Assessment can unlock your organization’s full potential. We look forward to helping you transform your workforce and drive your business forward.
