FMCG

Challenge:

A holding of food/warehousing companies wanted to standardize hiring procedures for Customer Service workers. Customer Service employees are responsible for selling and/or supporting products and services through interaction with prospects and clients using knowledge of the industry product. A review of alternative selection techniques suggested that including a personality assessment could significantly improve the selection of successful workers in the Customer Service job family.

Solution:

Hogan recommended using the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI), the industry standard for measuring personality and its impact on job performance, to identify outstanding Customer Service performers. Specifically, Hogan asked 72 incumbent Customer Service workers to complete the HPI and then their supervisors provided ratings on multiple job performance measures.

Results:

Hogan demonstrated that remaining calm under pressure, enjoying social interaction, following rules, showing social tact and being perceptive, and interested in building job-related knowledge is critical to successful Customer Service performance. Based on this research, Hogan customized selection guidelines using multiple HPI scales, including Adjustment, Sociability, Interpersonal Sensitivity, Prudence and Learning Approach.

To illustrate how these selection recommendations would work in practice, Hogan compared those passing the Customer Service job family profile to those not passing the profile. These comparisons showed that Customer Service workers passing the high fit profile were two times more likely to be a high performer compared to those not fitting the high fit profile. Taken together these results show not only how using the HPI can improve identification of successful workers, but also how this improved selection process can translate into measurable performance outcomes.