Transcript A Two-Stage Assessment Center that Brought ALL Employees

A Two-Stage Assessment Center
that Brought ALL Employees to a
Higher Level of Performance
Roy G. Perham, Ph.D.
John Jay College
[email protected]
The 30th Annual Assessment Centre Study Group
Conference, Stellenbosch, South Africa, March 18, 2010
Objectives
1. How an assessment center can be used to
improve hiring, promoting, training and
coaching—and reduce training costs.
2. How developing an assessment center can be
used to create a rigorous culture of exacting
standards.
3. Strategies to keep employee evaluation anxiety
from creating resistance to assessment or
reducing performance.
©2008 National Energy Marketers Association. Used by permission.
The Brave New World of Public
Utility Deregulation
© 2008 NJ Board of
Public Utilities.
Used with permission
The Retail Competition Tsunami
Customer Service Reps Jobs
Under Deregulation
• From
– Mechanical
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Changing names on accounts
Sending duplicate bills
Setting up new service
Meter installation
Service outages
Where to mail payment
Date of next meter reading
Most demanding: Can’t pay bill
– Fast
• # waiting “zipper board”
• Temporary fixes (only current bill, referring call)
– No Board of Public Utilities complaints
Customer Service Reps Jobs
Under Deregulation
• To
– Warm relationships
– “Wow” customers
• Key to keeping customers and to making more from
those who stay
• Assume responsibility for problem, check back
• Customer service guarantees
– Didn’t want simple errors
– Selling products and services
• CO detectors
• Service contracts
• Outdoor lighting
Negotiations
• Management: Wanted to reassign
or fire reps who didn’t meet new
higher standards
• Union: Okay, if fair test
– Supervisor bias
– Call difficulty
AC #1
3 m onths
training &
coaching
AC #2
10 Dimensions
1. Fact Finding*
2. Judgment*
3. Decisiveness
*Sales
4. Initiative*
5. Oral Communication
Dimensions
6. Sensitivity/Empathy
7. Service Orientation
8. Negotiation/Persuasiveness*
9. Self-Management & Organization
10. Resistance to Stress/Patience
Wasula Water Company
Pressure for a Better Montana
• Telephone & Walk-in Roleplays
– Sales Situations
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In-basket
Checklists
Scoring guidelines set by senior managers
Assessors were managers and supervisors of
reps in each others’ call centers
Feedback, Training & Coaching
• Behavior Modeling Training
– Video role plays
– In-person practice
– Relapse prevention
• Coaching by Call Center Supervisors
– Dimensional coaching forms
– Immediate feedback or recorded calls
Second AC
• 7 who didn’t pass were reassigned
Some Key Points
• Involvement of executives, managers and
supervisors may have been more important
than the assessments themselves
– Versus trend to prepackaged ACs
– Key when dimensions become part of
vocabulary for reps, supervisors and managers
• More than acquiring new skills, reps may
have already had then in their repertoires
• Assessment Center as realistic job preview
Reducing Employee Evaluation
Anxiety
• First AC was practice
• Received as much training and coaching as
wanted
• Testing was union’s idea to increase fairness
• Moderate consequences for failing second
AC
• Externalizing stressors