Testing, training improves your odds
for operational excellence
BY RICH SCHMITT
Management specialist
Last month I described a wholesaler’s unhappy, unannounced visit to one of his branches. In spite of his long-standing verbal instructions, the location was just not being operated in the way that the founder wanted it to be operated. He thought that he had conveyed specific-enough guidance to experienced people while, in fact, the directions and the people were inadequate for the situation.
Many companies’ profitable operations are predicated upon the owner personally training and guiding every facet of the business. Thus they never profitably grow beyond the size where the owner can personally control and oversee all aspects of the company’s day-to-day operation. I emphasize “profitably” since companies routinely grow beyond the owner’s ability to control them -- leading to a sacrifice in profitability.
I further discussed the need for detailed written standards that describe the way the company is to be operated. Those standards, which begin in the form of detailed checklists, form the operational skeleton for the consistent operation and growth of the company. Checklists can be duplicated easily and provided to people at all levels of the company. Of course, each individual may interpret the standards differently, but with active coaching, they provide the best opportunity for consistently efficient operations.
There are three additional ingredients that are critical to this process:
- Evolving and fleshing-out the checklists
- Hiring good people
- Providing training that is suitable for the individual and the task to be performed.
As I mentioned, the checklist forms the skeleton for consistent, efficient operation of the company. In many cases, a simple checklist entry will provide sufficient guidance to ensure that the task is performed properly throughout the company.
That said, I am no longer surprised by the lack of judgment exhibited by people. The labor pool comes from a widely varied education and experience base, which means that employers must bring their team into alignment -- or risk a “Three Stooges” approach to business. I remember a situation where a foreman noticed that an older truck was in serious need of being repainted. He asked his maintenance crew to give it a quick and dirty paint job. He naively assumed that they would wash and mask the truck before painting it. He also assumed that they would use the new paint sprayer they had purchased -- not the rollers they used to paint buildings. Both assumptions were wrong. While the foreman thought it would be impossible to make the truck look worse, the crew proved him wrong. In a later project that involved having the same crew lay some sod, the foreman provided written instructions specifying that it was to be laid with the green side facing up.
My recommendation is to develop, over time, the details for each task so there is a common understanding regarding how a task is to be performed. Since you will need to evolve this document over time, I think you should prioritize which tasks are most critical and, based on your observations, which tasks are performed improperly using the simple checklist. This type of documentation is the foundation for efficient operation of your current business and provides the structure needed to hire and instruct the people you will need to grow your business. A checklist does not eliminate the need for good, experienced people -- it gives the good, experienced people the guidance they need to perform tasks your way.
This brings us to good people. As we have said for years, you need to start with good people. Good people can accept more generalized direction than mediocre people. Typically, good people would wash and mask the truck or ask for more specific direction when it is needed. (And just as a reminder, you shouldn’t have any bad people because there is no training program or coaching methodology that can cure bad people. They won’t learn or follow your guidance, and will aggravate and demoralize the good people.)
Finding good people is improved by using pre-employment testing. The Wonderlic Company has a test called Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT) that we have used and recommended for years. It helps you determine if a person has the intellectual horsepower necessary to be successful at the type of job that you need done. Testing helps you avoid the classic situation of having a warehouse guy who cannot pick product accurately, no matter how much coaching and training you provide. Sometimes the reason is simply this: When a guy cannot read, he cannot pick reliably. Period. Barcoding and expensive computer systems cannot compensate for a person who cannot read.
Without testing, you cannot reliably bring top-quality promotable raw material into your company. Of course, you can ignore this simple concept of testing just like you can invest in stocks based upon their clever ticker symbol. Both focus on surface-level characteristics that are not related to job performance, so neither approach produces the optimal approach for investing.
As a reminder, the WPT only helps identify people who can do a specific job; it doesn’t tell you whether they will do the job -- or will come to work sober or will work well with customers. So after you know that a individual can do the job, you must spend significant time determining if the person will do the job. The best method includes interviews, extensive reference checks and, in critical positions, additional testing. (Wonderlic has other tests and provides consulting to help you develop a process for hiring the right people into your organization. Other companies have tests to help screen prospective employees but we have been successfully using the WPT for over 30 years.)
Wonderlic’s brochure describing the WPT has a very interesting section that relates, statistically speaking, test scores with the kinds of jobs that people can do, the kinds of tasks that an individual can perform reliably and the kind of training required for those people. As background, the WPT is a 50-question test that individuals are given 12 minutes to complete. Generally, we have found that a score of 28 or above can perform just about any job within a wholesaler’s business.
The following is excerpted from one of their brochures with permission. As always, check with your labor attorney regarding your use of testing in your hiring process. Thus far, we have not found a situation where a labor attorney has recommended against the use of testing, but many have had suggestions regarding the proper administration and use of testing in the hiring process.
There is considerable wisdom in this simple table. Several observations:
- Individuals with a score of 12 or less generally do not succeed in wholesaling. When we work with clients who are having problems, we often find that a significant number of their warehouse and delivery crew are in the 12 and under range. People in this range cannot, statistically speaking, perform warehousing and delivery duties reliably and efficiently. They struggle with delivery instructions and maps. They have difficulty reading the “Special Instructions” on the order, so orders are not handled properly.
- Job satisfaction and retention are related to getting individuals slotted into jobs that match their scores. People are typically happier in jobs where they can perform well and succeed. They are also happier when the job is not beneath their abilities (boring).
- People who score less than 17 may have difficulty when “curve balls” are thrown in their direction. As long as the task doesn’t change much they will be able to do the job reliably. So this level of individual might work well in your warehouse unless your procedures change often (curve balls), which can result in poor performance in the form of accuracy problems or reduced productivity. Some people become highly stressed when the job changes become overwhelming to them; this can lead to attendance problems or their temper flaring with customers, supervisors or other employees.
- People will resist changes when they become overwhelmed. In some cases, procedure or technology changes fail because the target group doesn’t have the horsepower to take their job to the next level. The results can be devastating when system accuracy and customer service are compromised in the transition. You cannot convert a plow horse into a race horse. You will fail and annoy the plow horse in the process.
- Finally, your training approach must be adapted to the level of individual that you are training. For example, if you are hiring people with scores of less than 17, it is unlikely that you can hand them a checklist or an employee manual and expect them to learn the company procedures and rules. It is statistically unlikely that printed industry training materials will be effective without demonstrations or apprenticing. This level of individual must have the job demonstrated to them, possibly several times, in order to really learn the job.
One of my gripes about some of our industry’s training material is that it is written at a level that exceeds the capacity of the individual to be trained. I once had a very smart dog who learned a variety of tricks in his life, but I had to read the dog training manual and use the techniques with him. Had I simply given him the book, the process would have been less successful. When my children were growing up, we used different techniques and training material based upon their skill level. Most of us readily understand the need to change the training material as kids grow.
Most of us also assume that age is the variable related to the change in training material. So we assume that most people have achieved a certain level of proficiency by the time they reach 21. These are flawed assumptions. I don’t intend to compare the people in our industry to animals and children, but I wanted to illustrate that training needs are related to each individual’s capacity. In animals and children we readily accept this reality, but we consistently fail to adapt training to the kinds of people we hire and retain in our businesses.
Obviously, there are exceptions to all statistics, but when it comes to hiring, slotting people into jobs and training, I say know your odds and then bet with the odds. In the long run, you will evolve to a better, happier and more motivated team. When you attempt otherwise, you are betting on a longshot. Doing that is consistently a sucker’s bet.
Order our "High Performance Wholesaling Video Seminar" for only $99 plus $9 S&H. Contact Schmitt Consulting Group Inc., 2141 Schuetz Rd., Suite 201, St. Louis, MO 63146, tel 314/872-9199, fax 314/872-9399, e-mail SCG@go-spi.com or visit www.Go-SCG.com.