Refinu is a leadership development and behavioral science tool that was founded by academics from UC Berkeley, UCLA, Northwestern and London Business School. These professors were looking to build a more effective assessment device that was topical in that it utilized the most recent academic studies and applicable, in that it could be effectively leveraged by people in industry. Refinu offers bespoke development tools, personality audits and corporate consulting at scale.

We recommend services based on your company needs and incorporate any additional features based on your specific requests. Refinu can run assessments company-wide, by department, or any specific cohort of your choosing. 

After an individual assessment is completed, we provide each participant with both a granular personality report and/or a company aggregate report to help users and managers understand their strengths. We can offer personal road maps that provide strategies for individuals looking to improve specific aspects of their personality that might be hindering occupational growth. Refinu also offers personalized supplemental reports that help users work more effectively within teams, become more effective leaders, manage change in volatile work environments, negotiate better, communicate more effectively, and make more efficient decisions. 

Aside from personalized reporting and an interactive online app, we offer training and business consulting from academics and experts in the field.

Personality Item Pool, IPIP assessments are based on the most scientifically robust model of personality, the Big Five, and are utilized internationally and available in 40 languages. More than 600 academic papers have been published in peer-reviewed journals using IPIP assessments. 

The scores presented in the report are derived from t-scores which are standardized scores for each facet and factor. A t-score examines your individual score in relation to the average score of a pool of individuals who have taken this same personality assessment as well as how much that group varies from one another (t-score = 50 + 10; your score-mean score of pool/standard deviation of pool). A score of 50 represents the mean, indicating that your score is average on a particular factor or facet, relative to the population. T-scores can range between 0 to 100 but most scores will fall between 20 and 80. You can think of the spread of scores like a bell-shaped curve; most scores tend to be in the middle with higher and lower scores trailing out on either side. 

For readability ease, we have transformed these t-scores into a 1 to 10 scale and classified them into 5 main categories (Very High, High, Midrange, Low, and Very Low) to help you better understand how you compare to others. For more information, contact us.

Campaigns are priced per person with discounts applied for larger scale campaigns. Standard pricing includes the Refinu assessment, personality report and interactive online app. Feature add-ons such as the Action Plan/Personal Roadmap offerings are extra as well as any other report supplements. Depending on campaign size, provider support will also be included, free of charge. We offer educational discounts and reduced pricing for NGO’s and startups. Clients requiring bespoke campaigns with new features are quoted specific to the requirements.

Yes. Beyond the standard offering of the Refinu assessment, personality report and interactive online app, we offer a range of supplementary products to choose from depending on organizational needs (leadership, negotiations, teams, managing change, communication). These products are personalized to each participant and help them to better understand how their personality affects them in these different contexts. After we determine a client’s focus, we help them to decide on which of the above supplements makes the most sense. We also offer an 'Action Plan' leadership development tool: a ten-week program aimed at helping managers develop their leadership skills through nudging psychology. Due to our agile nature, if there is something specific you're interested in, we are usually able to accommodate special requirements and can build bespoke products based on client needs.

We do provide user support for all campaigns free of charge and when required, we also offer our white glove service, clients simply provide the names and emails and we will do the rest.

We can launch a campaign very quickly. As for campaign duration, there is flexibility but we usually recommend about two to three weeks. If you’re using Refinu with a coaching or educational program, ideally we'd know three weeks before the program commences as that gives us two weeks to run the survey, a few days to nudge anyone who hasn't responded and then have a buffer to electronically deliver the personalized reports to a campaign manager. If users are to receive their reports directly, the time will be shortened. If necessary, we can run a campaign in two weeks (or even a week if we have a motivated set of participants!).

Yes, Refinu can be integrated into existing recruitment systems, Learning & Development courses, Staff On-boarding and other broader HR initiatives aimed at assessing personality and its related leadership competencies. Please get in touch with our team to further discuss your needs and how our solutions might be implemented.

Reports are typically distributed to each user simultaneously once every participant has completed their survey (when paired with consultation or a class, usually the day prior to the program commencing, or whenever the director/faculty prefers). Refinu can accommodate a same day turnaround for those who complete, although we have found that in the past it is easier for the administrator/coach/professor to have them delivered on a set date so that they are prepared to discuss the content with the participants.

Participants receive an email with a link to a Refinu survey. They simply click on the link, create a password to a secure user portal and complete the 10-15 minute survey. They can then log back in once the report is ready to obtain either a PDF of their report or experience the interactive report online. If a client prefers, Refinu can also email a PDF of the report directly to each participant (or an administrator of your choosing). 

Yes we do. In addition to personalized reporting and an interactive online app for each participant, we offer one-on-one evaluations via Zoom, and in-person departmental training and business consulting from academics and experts in the field. We have consultants based in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and London, England but we can travel to your company when arranged in advance. We also offer a bespoke Action Plan app that, through nudging psychology, provides customized strategies for individuals looking to improve specific aspects of their personality. And of course we’re also happy to just recommend articles or books to help individuals better understand the research behind the Big Five personality framework. Whatever your needs are, we’re here to ensure you get the most out of your Refinu personal profile. Please contact us to let us know how we can help! 

In short, we take your privacy very seriously. We do not share your information, except in specific circumstances where YOU give us permission. For a deep dive into our legalese, you can read about our policy here.

Your profile and scores are private and personal to you. Unless you give us prior permission, we will not share your information with third parties. Even when Refinu assessments are licensed through your employer, they will not have access to your profile unless you give them prior permission. In some cases employers may receive aggregated data of an entire cohort but no personal responses or identifying individual data will be provided. We do collect anonymized survey data to help us create better composite scoring and demographic information to improve functionality. However, no distinguishing information will ever be attached to this data.

If Refinu is licensed through a career counselor, professor, human resources administrator, career coach or consultant they will receive access to your reports if it is being incorporated with a program to help you with career development. This only occurs when you give permission to them before signing up. 

If you wish to hide your profile from one of the third parties mentioned above but still take the assessment and receive Refinu services, please contact us so that we can accommodate your needs.  You can see more information about our privacy policy here.

Yes. We take privacy, and your unique individual data, very seriously. That is why all of our assessments and data are encrypted.  At any time or for any reason you would like your profile and all data associated with it destroyed, please let us know and we will take care of it. You can also read more information about our Terms of Service and Privacy here.

Your personal report is for individual use, as it has information specific to you, but if you would like to share it with others you may do so, at your discretion, assuming it is for educational, not commercial, use. We would like to promote discussion and education and hope that your Refinu assessment will facilitate this. If you would like to acquire additional supplemental information or run assessments for your entire class or organization please contact us to place an order.

Setting up a client-specific assessment is no problem. Simply contact us so that we can discuss the scope, company goals, timing and other requirements. Once we have an idea of what products will be most suitable to your goals we can usually set up a campaign within a day. 

Personalized reports are typically made available on a specific deadline corresponding with a coach/consultant/campaign director’s presentation.  If you happened to complete your assessment after the deadline, it’s possible that your report did not get released by your campaign director. If this is the case, let us know and we will deliver it to you personally. If the deadline has not yet occurred, nobody in your cohort will have received their report yet.