Swedish start-up Alva Labs is a platform for candidate assessment, made to help build an objective recruitment process. “Our slogan is hire people, not CVs. We think that CVs are kind of exclusionary for what you’ve done in the past”, Alva’s Tove Hernlund says in a video-interview.
Combining psychometrics, data science and TA
Stockholm-based Alva Labs has a unique set-up. Created by a team of psychometricians, data scientists, and talent acquisition experts, Alva’s psychometric tests aim to combine leading science in psychological measurements with advanced machine learning. “We work with psychometric assessments of personality and logic assessments to help make recruitment more fair and objective, but also more accurate when it comes to predicting future performance”, says Tove Hernlund, Customer Success Manager at Alva.
“We give candidates a chance to prove more of themselves, but then also allow recruiters and companies to hire those people that will actually fit the role the best.”
“The biggest thing we try to solve is to really make sure that all the candidates get a fair chance. Our slogan is hire people, not CVs. We think that CVs are kind of exclusionary for what you’ve done in the past. They’re not really everything a person is. So we give candidates a chance to prove more of themselves, but then also allow recruiters and companies to hire those people that will actually fit the role the best.”
More accurate hiring decisions
Alva is designed to create more accurate hiring decisions — but that’s not all the company excels at, according to Hernlund. “We also differ ourselves from other players in the market by being very candidate-centric. So candidates can re-use the results so they only have to do the assessments once. Even if they’re applying to several companies. And from the recruiter side, it’s a really simple and easy-to-use platform. You can just pick it up and use it from today if you want to compare to other tools.”
“A lot of our users are using us either in the platform, but most of them are actually using us as an integration with applicant tracking systems.”
“I would say that we’re equally focused on the science and the candidate experience. Whereas a lot of other tools are choosing between the two. We’ve managed to merge them into a platform that’s super powerful and equally appreciated from both the candidates and the recruiter side. So a lot of our users are using us either in the platform. But most of them are actually using us as an integration with applicant tracking systems.”
As far as who uses Alva, Hernlund says it’s a healthy mix between small start-ups to huge corporations with global offices. “Users that we have are really widespread. We have all types of industries, all types of sizes when it comes to companies. But what they all have in common is an urge to try to make really great hiring decisions, while really thinking about the candidates.”
‘It’s going to be an interesting journey’
In January 2022, Alva Labs raised approximately €11.7 million in its Series A round. With the investment, the company fueled its international expansion, with an emphasis on building a UK-based team. So what’s next for Alva? “There are a lot of things happening at and the roadmap is still to be decided”, Hernlund says.
“We want to help companies find those candidates that might not apply to them, but who would be really good fits.”
“We’re definitely focusing on how we can utilise and help the candidates use the results in a better way. And find positions that would be suitable for them. Then we want to help companies find those candidates that might not apply to them, but who would be really good fits. So we’re trying a few things out and we’ll see where we go, but it’s going to be an interesting journey.”
