Impact Today™

Low employee productivity hampered the progress of a financial services organization located in the Southeast. An examination of the issue focused on the relationship between employee performance and “Job Match” to the ProfileXT™. Using study information, the company developed a “Job Match Pattern” to select more productive employees.

Participants
The study went forward with 36 mortgage bankers. The evaluation of each participant’s performance included a sales goal ratio and a supervisor’s performance rating on a three-point scale, where 1 equaled a top performer, 2 an average performer and 3 a marginal performer. The company rated 11 participants’ top performers, nine participants as average performers and 16 as marginal performers. The average top performer met 97.2% of their sales goals, while the average marginal performer met 32.7% of their sales goals.

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Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

The human resources manager for two Texas drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities offers her employees a different perspective on Profiles’ Step One Survey II™ assessment. She has seen it from the other side of the desk, as a candidate being interviewed for her current position.

“I was grateful that I got to take it,” said Tabbitha Anderson, the HR manager for Burning Tree Programs, which has facilities in Kaufman and Elgin, Texas. Because she can talk about the assessment as a job applicant who completed it before she was hired, her support gives it more weight when she talks to managers about what the assessment will help them accomplish.

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Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Hiring

The City of Madison Heights, Michigan, has been connected to the global economy thanks to a program from Max Impact’s MBC Global division.

MBC Global had been contacted by Linda Williams of the Downtown Development Association (DDA) and the city’s Department of Economic Development to address their merchants about the city’s rapidly changing demographics. The task was to ignite the imagination of the business community to opportunities available to do business with new local cultures and to open the door to selling their products and services in a global environment.

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Labels: Case_Study, Strategy

St. Louis, Mo., native Tony Hartl, CEO and founder of Texas-based Planet Tan, describes his 120 employees as "talent." Strategic thinking keeps this forward-moving executive at the top of his game. Planet Tan's awards include Profiles International's 2007 Client of the Year, The Dallas Business Journal's Best Places to Work in Dallas-Fort Worth for 2006 and 2007, and INC Magazine's designation of an INC 500 Company for 2007.

Q. Besides that hard work, what makes Planet Tan successful?
A. There are two points of difference between Planet Tan and our competitors. We established our brand as fun, energetic and relevant. We sponsor three sports teams. We are the official tanning center of The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, The Dallas Mavericks Dancers and the NHL Dallas Stars Ice Girls. We are one of the few businesses to sponsor all three major sports franchises in Dallas and this makes people think we are larger than we are. The second thing is our size. Our average stores have 50 tanning beds, where others might have 10 or 12. We have the largest tanning facilities in the world and we are open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week. We have so many beds that we gain market share very rapidly.

Q. Did you know the business would be successful from the outset?
A. Yes. I never thought I would do something that would not be successful. There is a certain level of optimism, enthusiasm and energy that entrepreneurs bring to the table. There is a real bias for action. It's like a 16-foot speedboat. You think at lightning speed. It's in the DNA – you've got it or you don't. It's not learnable or teachable

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Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Matt Riley, Director of Human Resources, believes in setting the example in using assessments. He reviews his own use of Step One Survey II™ and Profile XT™.

Q. Why did Bruegger’s Bagels begin using Profiles assessments?
A. We wanted to be different from our competition and reverse turnover. Many in our industry believe high turnover in the Quick Casual restaurant market is a part of doing business. But the financial burden of turning over our general and assistant managers inhibited both our financial and team-building goals. Area managers and market directors found they were spending a large amount of time recruiting for vacant positions as well as supporting each of the bakery locations they managed by filling in for missing managers. Turnover also affected teams in every bakery and gave us fewer opportunities to build consistency and teamwork. The turnover at management levels contributed to higher rates of turnover in hourly positions. Higher turnover means less confidence in teamwork and consistency. This inconsistency affects every aspect of our operation, from sandwich makers to regional trainers to our vice president of operations.

Q. How did the company try to solve the problem before turning to Profiles?
A. We tried to hire candidates that were better suited to our concept. We also developed materials that we still utilize today to assist hiring managers in the basic steps of recruiting and hiring. These materials work adequately for sharing hiring skills and work very well when managers have the context of a specific candidate’s behaviors and match to a position. We decided to look for assistance from external tools that could give us information about the candidates and what our business and its culture demanded in the face of growth and organizational improvement. Bruegger’s had worked briefly with Profiles in 2002. At the time, we did not have the capacity to integrate it into our business well, so we set it aside until we could implement it with success.

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Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

The focus of this case study is a gaming operation owned and operated by a Native American Tribe. The operation includes a large casino with restaurant and entertainment venues, a substantial hotel and an adjacent RV park and has expectations of future growth. Located on a major Interstate Highway, the development is in a rural environment with a very limited employment pool. For years, the area’s economy rested on the timber, mill, and mining industries; the collapse of those industries resulted in outmigration and further shrinking of the population of available workers. The challenge for the HR team includes recruiting an adequate supply of workers and finding workers with the qualities required to succeed in the 24-hour, seven day week environment of gaming. In addition, integrity of workers is essential in a cash-rich environment.

The baseline group for this case study consisted of the last 100 employees hired prior to the beginning of the assessment program. In this group, failure rates were compiled for 30, 60, and 90-day cumulative failure rates, as well as total failures over the study period. Failure was defined as leaving employment with the operation for any reason.

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Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Unless you can clone your top salespeople

A recreational vehicle dealer with a long history of steady growth and success had positioned itself to take advantage of the explosive growth of the RV market over the past three years. The dealer’s primary challenge: identifying salespeople likely to excel in their three stores. The company’s high visibility and reputation for excellence makes it an employer of choice in its markets. The company has a good applicant flow and it can afford to be selective.

An analysis of the company’s sales data, however, shows it suffers from the pervasive 80-20 rule of sales: their top producers are outselling their bottom producers by over 500 percent!

At the same time, turnover is unacceptably high in the sales force, with many new salespeople failing within six months of hire. In an industry where a dealer may spend over $1,000.00 just to provide the opportunity for a salesperson to spend time with a qualified buyer, the lost opportunity cost at this failure rate is enormous.

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Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Sales

Retention increased from 27% to 58% with use of the strategic hiring system.


A major hotel management firm operates a reservations call center with a primary mission of customer service, and a secondary sales function. The call center experiences wide seasonal workload fluctuations, and has traditionally begun a major round of hiring each winter. Both performance and turnover have presented challenges in this environment. In 2003, reservations agents hired in the winter campaign had only a 27 percent chance of remaining on the job beyond June 30. This required additional and continued hiring efforts through the spring and summer seasons—times of year that present additional hiring challenges in their employment market.

In midwinter, by contrast, the company had an abundance of applicants for their open positions.

The challenge
The challenge was to design and implement a strategic hiring system, with the goal of increasing retention and reducing the necessity of additional hiring through the spring and summer.

The solution
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Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Hiring

Leaders of a financial services organization in the Southeast wanted to enhance the overall performance of their workers. With the help of Profile XT™, they conducted a study to examine the relationship between employee performance and the PXT’s job match. This portion of the Profile XT™ helps analyze a person’s job-related attributes and compares them to the qualities that person needs to perform well in a particular job.

The result of this study: A customized job match pattern to help the financial services organization in the selection process.

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Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Even a team already using a sophisticated and effective method for choosing employees, such as a high-performing fire and rescue unit, can benefit from Profile XT®.

Look at the example of just such a unit operating in a large city. The department operated from a foundation of hiring strength by selecting applicants who had already passed a written exam, a test of physical abilities, and an evaluation that an industrial psychologist performed.

But leaders decided to see if they could refine their selection process even more. They chose the PXT™ Job Match to help identify those with the potential to become top performers.

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Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

This is the story of the Chief Financial Officer of a farming co-op. From a spreadsheet point of view she was outstanding.

She understood future forecasting, money at present and future value, and fiduciary responsibilities.

For the most part she was excellent at her job. Yet there was one little thing that aggravated her boss -- she gave away a lot of money.

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Labels: Assessments, Case_Study

Squandering leads is detrimental for any sales organization. But how embarrassing could it be to a staffing agency to have lack-luster salespeople. After all, if they cannot hire great people for their own company, how could they find the best people for others?

One staffing agency found a way to duplicate their best salespeople. Click here to read the case study.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Sales

Coaching employees is a challenge for any leader. Gene Nichols at 3M Medical in St. Paul wanted to find a way to initiate a successful coaching program using existing tools.

A case study is now available (click here) to show how Gene successfully did it.

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Coaching

Being the top salesperson does not necessarily equate to being a great Vice President of Sales. Leading a large sales organization is a completely different skill set and being able to close sales.

This was a painful lesson when a leading salesperson at a home-building company accepted an offer to become vice president of sales.

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Labels: Case_Study, Sales

Business up 87% by reaching new market

Labels: Case_Study, Culture

Ad agency achieves 22 Return on Investment

Labels: Case_Study, Sales

Cutting the rejected parts rate by 52%

Profit margins in the manufacturing sector continue to narrow as costs increase and buyers become more insistent on maintaining or lowering current prices. This leaves manufacturers with little room for error.

This is particularly challenging in the automotive industry where any unnoticed quality flaw can result in the carmaker charging the manufacture to disassemble all or part of a vehicle to replace an under-par part.

These facts troubled a parts company where quality was running below expectations.

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Labels: Case_Study, Teamwork

Company achieves a 22 Return on Investment

Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Teamwork

Turnover reduced from 69% to 16%

Administrators at a mental health facility found they were devoting a great deal of time to a weekly hiring board established to determine the effectiveness of mental health workers and decide which workers to retain.

During these weekly meetings, the attendees concluded that the facility let a large number of workers go on a consistent basis. The hospital was facing an overwhelming 68.7 percent turnover rate, and administrators realized they had to take steps to control this issue.

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Labels: Assessments, Case_Study, Employee_Retention