Comparison · Attuned vs Predictive Index

The Predictive Index alternative for measuring workplace motivators

Predictive Index reads behavioural style and cognitive ability: how a person works and how fast they learn. Attuned reads what would make each person stay, and flags the moment the role stops delivering it. Both assess a person and hand a manager a profile. They answer different questions.

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attuned.ai · Motivator & Team Culture Dashboard

Attuned dashboard showing individual motivator profiles and team culture dynamics, a motivation-first alternative to Predictive Index

The 30-Second Answer

Predictive Index is an assessment platform built around hiring and team design. It reads a person's behavioural style across four factors and, separately, general cognitive ability, then turns that into a stable pattern you can select and build teams against. It is genuinely good at pre-hire selection, job fit, and giving a company a shared vocabulary for how people work.

Attuned is the better fit when the question shifts from how someone will work to what will keep them. It maps 11 intrinsic motivators per person, tracks whether the role still delivers them, and gives managers situation-specific coaching for the person already in the seat. Plenty of teams run both: Predictive Index for the hire, Attuned for the keep.

A Fair Explainer

What Predictive Index actually measures

Predictive Index is a well-built assessment platform. Before comparing anything, here is what it actually measures.

Behavioural

An untimed behavioural assessment

A free-choice assessment most people finish in a few minutes. It presents two adjective lists: how you feel others expect you to behave, and how you see yourself.

Four factors

Dominance, Extraversion, Patience, Formality

Each factor is read as a position on a spectrum. Together they form a behavioural pattern with factor scores. Predictive Index describes these factors as motivating needs, or drives.

The pattern

One pattern, many downstream uses

The pattern is summarised into one of 17 reference profiles and feeds reports, job targets, and interview guides across the hiring process.

Cognitive

A separate, timed cognitive test

Fifty questions in 12 minutes across verbal, numerical, and abstract reasoning. It indicates how quickly someone acquires new knowledge.

Five product modules span hiring, team design, engagement surveys, manager enablement, and a performance workflow. The design centre of gravity sits at the front of the employee lifecycle: selecting the right person and building the right team.

Illustrative. A pattern places each of the four factors somewhere on its spectrum.

The One-Picture Argument

Two people with the same behavioural pattern can need opposite things to stay.

Identical predicted work style. Opposite retention move.

A behavioural pattern predicts how these two will work: the same pace, the same way of handling pressure, the same read across an interview table. It says nothing about what will keep them. One leads with Autonomy and starts looking the day the role turns into following instructions. One leads with Security and starts looking the day the ground feels unstable. Identical predicted work style, opposite retention move. That gap is the part a stable pattern is not built to catch, and it is the part Attuned measures.

One person's full motivator profile across all 11 dimensions

Why It Matters

A behavioural profile on file describes how someone operates. Adam Mastroianni has written that "How are you?" is a ritual question that expects a ritual answer: both sides know what is being exchanged is a performance of connection, not connection itself. A profile locked in at hiring can settle into the same ritual. Everyone knows the shape of the person on paper, and the quiet reason they are drifting never comes up. Attuned keeps asking the question the profile stopped asking, and flags the answer while a manager can still act on it.

Adam Mastroianni, Experimental History

The Comparison

Attuned vs Predictive Index: An Honest Comparison

Both assess people and produce a profile a manager reads. They are built for different questions.

Attuned vs Predictive Index, side by side
Dimension	Attuned	Predictive Index
Core question	What does this person need to stay motivated	How will this person behave, and how fast will they learn
What it measures	11 intrinsic motivators per person	Four behavioural factors, plus general cognitive ability
Assessment format	One slider-based assessment, about 10 minutes	Untimed free-choice behavioural assessment, most people finish in a few minutes; separately, a timed cognitive test of 50 questions in 12 minutes
Output per person	Motivator profile across 11 dimensions, 7.5 quadrillion possible combinations	A behavioural pattern with factor scores, summarised into one of 17 reference profiles, feeding reports, job targets, and interview guides
Changes over time	Motivator satisfaction tracked continuously, flags role drift	Behavioural pattern is stable by design
Primary use	Retention and manager coaching for people already in seat	Stronger: pre-hire selection and job fit
Cognitive ability	Not measured	Stronger: validated cognitive assessment
Manager coaching	TalkCoach generates situation-specific language grounded in that person's 11-motivator profile	Meeting workflow with agendas, notes, and goals, enriched with behavioural style guidance
Rollout	Self-serve, live in about a week	Annual platform subscription, commonly paired with certification and partner-led workshops
Price posture	Mid-market friendly, no implementation project	Annual subscription tied to organisation size, quoted per plan. Third-party listings vary, so confirm directly

Capabilities summarised from public product documentation. Details evolve, so confirm current specifics with the vendor. The point of this table is fit: pick the tool whose core question matches the job you need done.

Where PI Wins

Where Predictive Index is the better tool

This is a comparison page, so here is the honest other side. If any of these is your main need, Predictive Index is likely the right buy.

Pre-hire selection at volume. A stable behavioural read is exactly what you want when you are screening a large candidate pool against a role.
Cognitive ability measurement. Predictive Index has a validated cognitive assessment.
A shared vocabulary. The 17 reference profiles give a whole company a common language for how people work, which is genuinely useful at scale.
ATS integrations. Predictive Index plugs into the hiring stack most talent teams already run.
A certified partner and workshop network. If you want a leadership team fluent in one shared framework, that ecosystem is a real strength.
Seventy years of data. The model sits on decades of accumulated behavioural research.

How Attuned Works

Assess, see the individual and the team, coach the manager

A short sequence takes a team from a one-time profile to a live read on what keeps each person and how the team fits together, without a multi-month rollout. The assessment itself is covered on the intrinsic motivation assessment page.

Step 1 · Assess

Everyone completes a 10-minute assessment. That is the whole setup.

The assessment is the entire rollout: each person answers a set of slider-based questions, and Attuned calculates their profile across 11 intrinsic motivators. Most teams are up and running within a week of signing up.

Slider-based questions, about 10 min

Attuned motivator assessment screen with slider-based questions

10 minper person

11motivators mapped

7.5quadrillion possible profiles

Week 1ready to go

Track It Over Time

See whether the role still delivers what each person values

A motivator profile is the start. Attuned then tracks whether the role is still delivering what each person values, and surfaces the gap the moment it opens. That gap between what someone wants and what the seat currently gives is the retention signal a stable behavioural pattern cannot show.

Per-motivator satisfaction Role-drift flags

Motivator satisfaction tracked over time

Motivator satisfaction trend dashboard showing how Attuned tracks whether a person's role is drifting from what they value

See the Team

Zoom out to the team

Individual motivators roll up into a team view, so a leader can see where a manager and a team member pull in opposite directions, and where friction is likely before it shows up in the work.

Team culture view Where people diverge

How a whole team's motivators fit together

Coach the Manager

Hand the manager the words for this specific person

TalkCoach turns one person's 11-motivator profile into situation-specific language: what to raise in a 1-on-1, how to frame it for this individual, and what to steer around. It works one layer in from a meeting agenda, on the words themselves. A first-time manager gets instincts a seasoned coach would give.

AI coaching per person Grounded in the 11 motivators

AI TalkCoach prepping a manager for a 1-on-1

Attuned AI TalkCoach preparing a manager for a 1-on-1, showing where they and a team member have opposite motivators

Proof

Two teams that hire well, and keep the people they hire

Both stories begin at the hire and hold through the part a behavioural profile on file does not reach: the person already in the seat.

Azon Recruitment Group

Before Attuned, Azon read engagement off body language and facial expressions, and learned the truth at the exit interview.
A dramatic increase in the number of hires they felt they got right and that fit the business.

"Since beginning to use the software, we have really seen that benefit translating to earnings for our business." Kevin Halligan, Associate Director, Azon

Read the Azon story →

Barnett Plumbing and Water Heaters case study cover

Barnett Plumbing & Water Heaters

New hires take the Attuned assessment within their first two days of employment.
It builds a shared language between a new employee and their manager, so a connection develops faster than months of surface-level conversations.
Used to hold motivation steady through a multi-year business transition and the change fatigue it caused. Barnett's top motivators were Financial Needs, Feedback, and Altruism.

Read the Barnett story →

FAQ

Predictive Index Alternative: Common Questions

What is the best Predictive Index alternative?

It depends on the job you are hiring the tool to do. If you need pre-hire selection, job fit, and a shared read on how people work, Predictive Index is a strong choice and belongs on the shortlist. If the job is understanding what keeps each person and giving managers something to act on this week, look at Attuned. It maps 11 intrinsic motivators per person, tracks whether the role still delivers them, and coaches managers with language grounded in each individual's motivator profile, live in about a week.

What does the PI Behavioral Assessment actually measure?

The PI Behavioral Assessment is an untimed, free-choice assessment, and most people finish it in a few minutes. It presents two adjective lists, how you feel others expect you to behave and how you see yourself, and reads four behavioural factors: Dominance, Extraversion, Patience, and Formality. Together they form a behavioural pattern, summarised into one of 17 reference profiles that feed reports, job targets, and interview guides. Predictive Index also offers a separate, timed cognitive assessment of 50 questions in 12 minutes.

How is Attuned different from the Predictive Index?

Predictive Index reads how a person works and how quickly they learn, and its centre of gravity is hiring and team design. Attuned reads what a person wants from the work and whether they are currently getting it, for the person already in the seat. Attuned maps 11 intrinsic motivators, tracks motivator satisfaction over time so role drift shows up early, and gives managers TalkCoach, which turns each profile into situation-specific language for a 1-on-1. Many teams run both.

Can Attuned replace the Predictive Index?

Not for hiring. Predictive Index is built for pre-hire selection and job fit, and Attuned is not a like-for-like replacement there. For the motivation and retention job, understanding why people stay and coaching managers to act on it, Attuned does that work and often gets used more, because the output lands on a specific person rather than a file. Plenty of teams keep both.

Is there a cheaper Predictive Index alternative?

The honest answer is to compare a quote against how you will actually use it. Attuned has a lighter footprint, with no mandatory certification or implementation phase, so the total cost of getting to value is usually smaller. Rather than chase a headline price, look at what you plan to use day to day and ask each vendor to quote against that.

Can you use Predictive Index and Attuned together?

Yes, and it is a common setup. Use Predictive Index for the hire, the behavioural read and cognitive signal that help you select well and build balanced teams. Use Attuned for the keep, the motivator profile, the role-drift signal, and the manager coaching that hold on to the people you just hired. Predictive Index for the hire, Attuned for the keep.

People Science for Managers

A good hire is the start.
Knowing what keeps them is the edge.

We have spent years studying what drives people at work, and helping the managers who lead them act on it person by person. It fits into your week rather than adding a program to run.

Our expertise is people science: what each person wants from the work, how a role quietly drifts from what someone values, and what a manager needs to know to keep the people they want to keep. We would like to show you honestly where Attuned fits next to Predictive Index.

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