Brain breaks, deep-dives & blog articles

The Invisible Helmet: How Cognitive Insights Keep Cyclists Safer With World Health Day having passed earlier this month, let’s keep the focus on staying healthy, especially for athletes when it comes to #InjuryPrevention. We’re seeing this clearly in pro cycling right now. News reports, like those citing the Royal Dutch Cycling Union (KNWU), mention more and often serious crashes happening in races lately. On top of that, the races themselves are becoming faster and faster, with records constantly being broken. When you see crashes in such a fast, demanding sport, it’s a reminder that preventing injuries isn’t just about physical strength or skill. There’s more to it. How do riders think clearly when things get hectic? How do they make the right split-second call under pressure? Most injury prevention training focuses on the physical aspect – strength, balance, drills. That’s all vital, of course, but it might not be enough.

Job-related burnout has become more than just a buzzword—it’s a growing issue that deeply affects mental health, productivity, and job satisfaction. And while it spans industries and job roles, one group stands out as particularly vulnerable: young professionals, especially women. As burnout numbers continue to rise, so does the need for smarter, more sustainable solutions. In this blog, we dive into the causes of job-related burnout—and explore a promising prevention strategy: aligning cognitive abilities with job roles.

The concept of skills-based selection has become a pivotal aspect of modern HR practices. It emphasizes the objective evaluation of candidates’ competencies, both in their existing skills and their potential to acquire new ones. This approach ensures that hiring decisions are grounded in data-driven insights, leading to better matches between skills and the requirements of specific roles. In this blog, we will delve deeper into the critical process of skills-based selection and its impact on talent acquisition.

Almost 6 out of 10 vacancies are not filled or are only filled with difficulty. That is what the UWV concludes from a survey among more than 4,500 employers. Never before has the labor market been so stuck. The old solutions? Extend the vacancy, play with the terms of employment or launch a fun recruitment site. A patchwork that does not extend beyond the surface. Can we do better? Yes. BrainsFirst successfully introduced a new talent measurement tool that looks under the hood to find deep skills. The ability to find atypical talent increased significantly. And that’s only the beginning. “We’re going for Zero Talent Waste.”

There is no doubt that structured interviews are more reliable than the non-structured variants. By structuring interviews you reduce bias, such as the effect of the first impression. As soon as you, as a recruiter, see an applicant, you have (unconsciously) already made an initial judgment about someone, and there is a fair chance that this judgment will influence the nature of the questions and ultimately the final conclusion. For example, candidates with a migration background are more likely to be asked questions about the level of their integration and therefore fewer questions regarding the job. Research shows that these candidates receive a less positive review than native candidates. However, this difference is significantly less or even absent if a structured interview has taken place.

Have you ever walked from one room to another to realize that you have forgotten what you were up to? Yet when you retrace your steps, your previous intention magically pops up in mind again? Or have you ever forgotten your keys, your car, or even your kids on a busy day? All of this relates to working memory and, more specifically, to what we can and cannot do with it. BrainsFirst game based assessments give insights into working memory and more!

The Polish club, currently leading the national league, and the Amsterdam-based Sports tech company BrainsFirst started their collaboration this month with a focus on the identification and selection of the most promising football talents. The common goal is to make the process of talent identification & evaluation more fact-based, data-driven, and scalable. Better player selection leads to more home-grown players in the first team and a more positive transfer balance for the Polish club.

Welcome to the first episode of #neuroscienceinsights, where we explore the science that guides our choices. In the limitless labyrinth of the human mind, decision-making is a fundamental process that shapes our daily performance at work. Varying from the simple job-related choices we make daily to the decisive decisions defining our own or other people’s career paths. In this blog post, we dig into the fascinating world of neuroscience to gain insights into HR decision-making, drawing from the groundbreaking work of Daniel Kahneman, as presented in his bestseller book “Thinking, Fast and Slow.”

It’s not a problem that human beings are biased. The real problem is that the majority of people are not aware of this fact. The lack of diversity in companies is a widely discussed issue, with more than half of HR professionals acknowledging that their current policies fail to improve the situation. The selection approach, both for external and internal candidates, is key to achieving more diversity and an area where many companies fall short. Most talent acquisition processes are (unintentionally) detrimental to achieving diversity goals. This is primarily due to the unconscious bias of professionals involved in the selection of new employees. In this blog, we set a clear definition of unconscious bias in recruitment and how you can reach DEI goals in your organization.

Over the last years, organizations have started to redefine their approach to talent acquisition. The concept of skills-based hiring is gaining momentum as companies recognize its potential to redesign not only their workforce but also their entire culture. In this blog post, we will delve into the transformative impact of skills-based hiring. It allows organizations to tap into a wider talent pool, foster diversity and inclusion, and bring fresh talent perspectives to the table. But how to enable this approach?

Today, BrainsFirst announced the launch of the Global Women’s Football Brain Index-project, ahead of FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. The project is aimed at evaluating the cognitive abilities of female elite football players across the world and providing insights into the role of the brain in identifying and nurturing female football brains. “We expect to see a lot of similarities compared to our existing Football Brain Index. However, in elite sports it’s frequently the small differences that matter,” reports BrainsFirst founder Eric Castien.

“This summer will be my summer” is what you told yourself after the December feeding frenzies. Now it’s the New Year and you are making the resolution to get in shape and achieve the perfect summer body. One that is suitable for long parades on the beach and breathtaking for all your admirers. But after a few weeks of hard work in the gym and watching your diet, you can literally hear that red velvet cake in the bakery shop window screaming your name. Which leaves us with the following question “are you really in control of your own actions?”. Find out by measuring cognitive control. In this blog, you read everything about cognitive control and how it relates to our daily lives and work performance.

We are all time travelers. Each day, we make thousands of short trips into the future. Not physically as with the DeLorean from back to the future, but within our minds in a time machine called anticipation. But how does this anticipation time-traveling machine really help us in our daily life activities?

Everyone wants the best candidate for every open position. Especially when your company is growing rapidly, the right employee will accelerate your success. Therefore, there is a lot to gain in terms of growth and finances, but also a lot to lose if you don’t make the right assessment when filling the relevant vacancy. Now, imagine you are searching for new recruits in the trading business, you might think: what are the essential skills for a successful elite trader, and how do I recognize them? With this blog, we will address these questions.

SoccerLAB and BrainsFirst join forces to offer a unique combination of platforms to the sports world. Unprecedented possibilities in identifying and developing talents become available for both platforms’ customers.

Kyodo News Digital & BrainsFirst Join Forces The Japanese firm, well-connected in Japanese sports, and the Amsterdam-based Sports-tech company BrainsFirst start their collaboration this month with a focus on offering talent identification services to Japanese professional football organizations. “We decided to partner with the Amsterdam-based HR tech company to support the mission of helping clubs make better talent decisions, namely by offering them objective performance data.ral?

Since the beginning of 2017, after years of scientific research, the alternative to the IQ test has been launched. The motto? You can see better, by looking better. “If you know what you’re looking for in a new colleague, but can’t recognize it from the outside, you’re still not going to find it easily,” says co-founder Dr. Ilja Sligte. BrainsFirst gives you a look under the hood.