A Case Study - Results of a Sales Assessment used by an Electronic Payment Organization

Background

An organization responsible for the processing of electronic payment transactions sought to increase employee productivity. A study was conducted to examine the relationship between employee productivity and the Profiles Sales Assessment.

Participants

The study included 37 of the organization’s employees. Each employee who participated in the study was administered the Profiles Sales Assessment and had their job performance evaluated by a supervisor within the organization. These organizational evaluations revealed four top performing employees, seven bottom performing employees, and 26 middle performing employees.

Job Match Pattern

Using a Concurrent Study format, a Job Match Pattern was developed for the Check and Direct position using the Profiles Sales Assessment. A sample of current top performing employees served as the basis to formulate the Job Match Pattern. This pattern now serves as a benchmark to which other employees can be matched.

Performance Grouping

Based on the information gathered from the employer, a pattern was built that described the qualities of the existing top performers. All 37 of the employees were matched to the pattern. After a review of the results, an overall Job Match Percent of 82% or greater best identified top performing employees. This was selected as the breakpoint representing a good match to the Job Match Pattern.

This study demonstrated the pattern efficiently identifies top performers:

• Top performers correctly identified by the pattern: 4 of 4
• Bottom performers incorrectly identified as top performers by the pattern: 3 of 7 Of the 37 participants, 19 obtained a Job Match Percent of 82% or greater. The Job Match Pattern selected four of the four top performing Check and Direct employees, or 100%. Forty‐three percent, or three of the seven bottom performers, achieved the same mark.

Details

1. The year to date sales dollars generated by the top performers in this sample averaged $19,737. Conversely, over the same sales period, the sales dollars generated by all employees in this position averaged $5,156.

2. Based upon performance, four of the seven bottom performers in the sample had been terminated and the remaining three averaged zero YTD sales dollars generated.

Summary

Using the Profiles Sales Assessment to benchmark employees the organization has successfully screened candidates. Of the 19 individuals who either met or exceeded the Job Match Pattern benchmark, only 15.8% (3 of 19) of these employees were bottom performers. Additionally, 100% of the top performers (4 of 4) were included in this group.

Clearly, selection practices were improved by using Job Match Patterns created by the using the Sales Assessment.