1977 – SHL was founded by Professor Peter Saville and Roger Holdsworth.
1978 – SHL published its first ability tests. These tests, constantly updated, are still in use today.
1984 – Following three years of extensive research, the Occupational Personality Questionnaire® (OPQ), SHL’s flagship product, was launched. The modern OPQ, after going through multiple revisions, is one of the world’s most widely used personality questionnaires.
1991 – SHL formally began to establish its international network. Today, SHL has offices in 40 countries, spanning Asia Pacific, the Americas, South Africa and Europe.
1997 – In October, SHL achieved PLC status becoming quoted on the London Stock Exchange.
2003 – Early in the year, SHL celebrated the completion of one million online candidate assessments worldwide since 2001.
2003 – In March, SHL partnered with TSI, a global provider of IT software services, to develop even further its online psychometric solutions and services at a dedicated offshore development centre in India.
2003 – In the autumn, a new brand for SHL was unveiled presenting a new logo and website.
2004 – In May, the SHL Universal Competency Framework™ (UCF) was launched, standardising the way to determine key behaviours across every organisation.
2004 – SHL crossed the three million mark for in-depth online assessments. These numbers continue growing and today online assessments actually outnumber the paper-and-pencil ones.
Founding members of SHL
Professor Peter Saville is a Chartered Psychologist and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He was Chief Psychologist at the Test Division of the National Foundation for Educational Research before leaving to co-found SHL in 1977. He was Visiting Professor of Occupational Psychology at Queen’s University Belfast and is currently Visiting Professor at Kingston University Business School. He was joint Managing Director of SHL until 1992 when he was appointed Chairman. Peter stepped down as Chairman to become a non-executive director in 1997 and retired from the board in December 2002.
Roger Holdsworth is a Chartered Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. He began his career with the Institute of Applied Psychology in Sweden before joining the National Institute of Industrial Psychology in London. In 1977 he co-founded SHL and was joint Managing Director until 1992 when he became Managing Director of SHL International BV and relocated to Amsterdam. He was appointed to Chief Executive in 1996. Roger stepped down as Chief Executive to become a non-executive director in 2000 and retired from the board in December 2002.