Putting job candidates to the test

Workforce, April, 2003 by Sarah Fister Gale

Now they recognize the value of the top performers and, thanks to better hiring decisions, revenues and gross collections across the company are up. For example, after reducing the number of reps at the call center in San Antonio, Texas, from 100 to the 60 top people, collections went up for the following two months. "We are screening the riffraff out at the door, which allows us to support and focus on our best performers."

Employee Theft Drops, Loyalty Soars

Name: Spectrum Stores, Inc.

Location: West Point, Georgia

Type of organization: Convenience store chain owner

Number of employees: 1,000

Spectrum's managers believe that if they hire the best people and take care of them, the business will be successful. Customers are very loyal to the people who work in the stores, says Bob Holcomb, vice president of human resources. "We know we're not the only people who sell Snickers and Budweiser. The thing that makes us different is our people."

To make sure they get and keep the right people, Spectrum offers employees benefits not typical in most convenience stores, including access to health benefits for full- and part-time workers, opportunities for bonuses, and salaries above the minimum wage. But Spectrum also has a rigorous hiring process that includes criminal-background checks, drug screening, and an assessment instrument from Humetrics. The assessment evaluates candidates for honesty and for their communication and customer-service skills.

Prospective employees complete the assessment when they fill out a job application. Before conducting any interviews, managers call a Humetrics hotline with their responses and get immediate results to determine whether applicants meet the defined criteria, Holcomb says. They receive one of four ratings: highly recommended, recommended, recommended with caution, and not recommended. Managers need permission from corporate to hire someone "recommended with caution" and are not allowed to hire people who are "not recommended," Holcomb says. The bottom two ratings eliminate 35 to 40 percent of applicants.

Holcomb gets four or five requests a year to hire people who are recommended with caution because they wowed managers in person, but he is reluctant to agree. "A lot of people are great in interviews. They tell you what you want to hear instead of being truthful," he says, which is why the assessment tool is so important. "It lets us make better decisions and it streamlines the process."

Since the assessment was implemented, turnover rates have come down considerably--they are at 85 percent this year, whereas the industry average is close to 200 percent. But reduction in turnover is not the only reason Holcomb uses the tool. "It helps us hire better people who will be honest and reliable' he says. It also reduces many of the personnel problems that affect operating costs and quality of service. For example, absenteeism and tardiness rates across the company are low, and--internal shrinkage--theft by employees--is less than 1 percent. That's less than half of the industry standard of 2.23 percent, according to the 2001 National Retail Security Survey, conducted by the University of Florida For a company that does $300 million in annual sales, that amounts to a savings of more than a million dollars.