Early Measurement of Effects of Hiring Differently in a Credit Union

A good-sized credit union is thoroughly committed to a learning culture, and development of superior leadership from within its own ranks. They were looking for a strategic hiring system with multiple goals; to reduce turnover and increase retention of quality employees, to improve the overall quality of employees hired, and to hire people who were likely to succeed and develop within their service and sales oriented culture.

To accomplish these goals the credit union adopted a “funnel” model of selection. At the wide end of the funnel, applicants are screened for suitability on the basis of standard application form document. Those chosen to enter the interview process first complete an honesty- integrity assessment (the Step One Survey). With a strong applicant pool, the credit union applies a relatively high criterion to the scores on that instrument. The criterion, combined with an initial interview (using the assessment’s interview guide) selects approximately 40% of the pool to become a good employee, but not a top performer.

Bottom-below average performance, may not be a long-term employee. The table below summarizes the very preliminary findings. Supervisors’ ratings weakly correlated on the Customer Service Perspective job match scores, more strongly with employee’s performance on the Company Service Perspective score (a measure of agreement with the company’s approach to customer service.) A positive correlation also appeared with the job match on the Profile Sales Assessment, and with the distortion scale (only) on the Step One Survey II. Of the 18 employees hired in the six months prior to the system, five failed to remain employed for four months beyond their hire; of the 17 hired under the new system, only one has failed, so far. These preliminary findings, and the turnover results support the general direction of the hiring system, and provide support for continuation of this effort. A more thorough data analysis will follow in the 4th quarter.

Relationships between Supervisors' Ratings and Selected Variables from Assessments: (Averages)