Customer story
Aptean
Building a consistent and fair hiring process across regions.
Aptean is a global software provider specialising in ERP and SaaS cloud solutions. Headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, Aptean operates with a strong international footprint, supporting customers and teams across North America, Europe, and India.
Chris Stewart leads Talent Acquisition for Europe, overseeing hiring across more than ten EMEA countries. Aptean’s recruitment teams manage the full spectrum of hiring needs, from permanent and contract roles to replacement hires, across key functions including R&D, engineering, finance, sales, marketing, and HR.
The starting point: Reintroducing psychometric assessments
Before partnering with Clevry, Aptean already had experience using psychometric assessments. During a previous ownership phase, assessments were part of the hiring toolkit, but following a change in ownership, there was a period where they were no longer used.
Internally, there was a strong appetite to bring assessments back, which led the team to start discussions with Clevry.
Business objectives: consistency, simplicity, and fairness at scale
When reviewing its hiring and assessment process, Aptean wanted to continue using psychometric testing that measured a broad range of abilities, such as verbal, numerical, and abstract reasoning, alongside personality profiling. Both were seen as valuable in building a more complete picture of candidates across different types of roles.
More recently, Aptean has taken this a step further by working with Clevry’s development team to create a bespoke blended assessment that combines multiple elements into a single test designed specifically for Aptean.
“A bespoke test gives us a more tailored view of how candidates are likely to perform and fit within our roles and working environment.”
Supporting better interviews
At Aptean, assessments are introduced early in the hiring process. The first step for every candidate is a pre-screen conversation with a recruiter focused on high-level fit and motivation. The most promising candidates are then invited to complete personality and ability tests. Hiring managers receive the assessment results ahead of the interview, which gives them a broader, more objective view of the candidate and supports more focused discussions around role fit and team dynamics.
Chris also highlights the value of how assessment results are translated into practical interview support:
"What I particularly like about the Clevry platform is that it recommends questions the hiring manager may want to ask. It helps us explore whether there are any differences between what we think we want and what the candidate is showing."
Understanding fit and potential beyond traditional methods
Beyond supporting better interviews, assessments play a key role in helping Aptean understand how well someone is likely to fit and perform in different parts of the business. Chris explains that combining application information with personality insights gives a much clearer picture of the type of people who are likely to thrive at Aptean.
"We’re a company that’s very much about pace. These tests help us establish who’s going to thrive in the type of environment we have."
Personality assessments are not about labelling candidates as right or wrong. Instead, they help highlight working preferences and behavioural tendencies that may be better suited to certain teams or environments. What works well in finance may differ from what is needed in sales, marketing, or HR, and personality profiling helps hiring teams understand where candidates are most likely to feel comfortable and perform well.
"With personality, there is no right or wrong; it’s all about preferences, and we have different skill sets required across different roles."
Alongside personality, cognitive ability tests add another important layer, particularly in technical and product-driven roles. With large R&D teams, developers, and technical specialists across the organisation, Aptean needs confidence that candidates can handle complex problem-solving and learning demands.
"While these tests are not the only indicator of intelligence, they certainly go a long way in helping us establish whether the technical fit is right for us as well."
Together, the combination of personality and ability insights supports more balanced decisions by looking at both how candidates are likely to work and how they are likely to perform in Aptean’s specific environment.
Integrated with ATS for a smooth hiring workflow
The Clevry assessment platform is fully integrated with Aptean’s ATS, iCIMS, making it easy for recruiters to include assessments as part of the normal recruitment workflow. Once a candidate moves to the appropriate stage, assessments can be sent directly from the ATS with minimal manual work.
This integration helps ensure assessments do not slow down the process or add unnecessary administrative burden. For candidates, it also means the experience feels well signposted and professional, rather than fragmented across different systems.
Candidate and hiring manager experience in the spotlight
For Aptean, the most important hiring outcomes are not purely operational metrics. Chris explains that both candidate experience and hiring manager experience are key measures of success.
"We want candidates to feel that they have had the best possible process and the most positive experience they could have had throughout the process."
Whether a candidate receives a job offer or not, the goal is that they leave the process feeling it was well run, clearly communicated, and respectful of their time. This includes strong engagement with recruiters, meaningful conversations with hiring managers, and timely feedback throughout the process.
Chris also highlights that introducing assessments has not come at the expense of efficiency:
"While assessments could be seen as an additional step, they have not slowed our hiring down. Instead, they have helped improve hiring quality and ensure candidates feel they have been evaluated fairly, and Clevry has helped us achieve that."
A trusted partnership, with plans to expand
Chris describes the collaboration with Clevry as straightforward and easy from the very beginning, with the team taking the time to understand Aptean’s needs and support them throughout both rollout and day-to-day use.
"The support has been excellent. Everybody we spoke to, whether it was a technical person or a relationship person, took the time to get to know us, understand us, figure out what our goals and aspirations were, and made sure we were supported throughout."
That collaboration is matched by a platform that delivers in practice.
"The product spoke for itself, which is why we picked it. Not only is the platform delivering what we need and in the way we need it to, but the collaboration and the partnership have been great as well."
Today, Clevry is used across North America and in most European regions. Aptean expects to expand usage into additional European countries during 2026, further supporting a consistent and trusted, science-backed approach to hiring across the organisation.
