Arctic Shores

Arctic Shores is a Manchester-based HR technology company that develops behaviour-based psychometric assessments for recruitment. Rather than asking candidates self-report questions or screening CVs, its assessment presents interactive tasks and records how candidates respond, curating more than 12,000 data points per candidate to produce measures of personality and of "Workplace Intelligence", the company's alternative to cognitive ability testing. The methodology combines neuroscience, psychology and game design, and the underlying science was developed with support from an Innovate UK grant and led by Chief Scientist Lara Montefiori, an academic at University College London.

The product is delivered through an assessment and campaign management platform in which employers configure assessments with drag-and-drop tools, select off-the-shelf assessments built by the company's business psychologists, or have the Arctic Shores team design them. The platform integrates with applicant tracking systems, ranks candidates, supplies interview guides, and sends candidates automated personalised feedback. Business psychologists and programme managers support customers through implementation, success-criteria definition, interview design and campaign data analysis. An earlier self-service platform was branded UNA, and the company has released what it describes as the first task-based assessment for Learning Agility.

The company positions its interactive format as resistant to generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, which it argues have undermined CVs and text-based question assessments, and as reducing adverse impact on protected groups relative to traditional question-based tests.

Founding story

Co-founder Robert Newry was prompted to act after hearing that a friend's daughter had been rejected from five graduate jobs despite strong academic qualifications, having underperformed on a numerical reasoning test used in similar form by all the employers. With Safe Hammad, with whom he had previously built a business, he set out to challenge the status quo in a sector with greater social impact, bringing together UK strengths in neuroscience, psychology and game design to identify talent.

Business model

B2B software and services sold to employers' talent acquisition functions, combining an assessment platform with consulting support from in-house business psychologists and programme managers; assessments can be self-configured, taken off the shelf, or built by the Arctic Shores team.

Traction

By 2020 more than 1.5 million candidates had been assessed, the platform had been translated into 22 languages and used in 60 countries, and the client base exceeded 100 companies. By January 2023 the company reported more than three million candidates assessed worldwide and clients in over 40 countries, with growth in Germany including contracts with Airbus, Siemens and Schneider Electric. The website states it has worked with more than 350 organisations. Company data cited claims diversity improvements of up to 60%, quality-of-hire improvements of up to 40%, turnover reduction of 40% within six months, 85% candidate enjoyment and a 91% completion rate.

Latest developments

In January 2023 the company announced a Series B round of about £5.75 million (€6.4 million) led by Praetura Ventures with Calculus Capital and existing investor Beringea, earmarked for a self-configure platform, an updated workplace intelligence assessment and European expansion. In October 2024 it published a research report on candidates' use of AI in recruitment processes. The website advertises a task-based assessment for Learning Agility as a new product release, and lists Estelle McCartney as Chief Executive Officer with co-founder Robert Newry as Chief Explorer.