Case Studies

A Large, Midwest Staffing Agency:

One of the largest franchise owners of a nationwide temporary staffing agency was deeply concerned about the rapidly rising cost of workman’s compensation claims. As the business grew (the organization generated 9-12,000 W-2’s per year) the cost of those claims and the negative impact of sending out temp employees who did not show up, were troublesome, acted violently, could not control their emotions in the workplace or stole from the client company meant something needed to be done.

The solution they chose were the eight negative indicator panels developed by Dr. William Selkirk, now Vice President of Research and Development for Management Technology Consultants (MTC), an Indianapolis area consulting firm. Initially, a validated study was conducted using 1,865 applicants who were actually hired.

The instrument was administered to each person hired, but the hiring authorities were not told the results of the assessment. The actual work record of each of the 1,865 individuals was tracked and the psychometrics designed to meet EEOC and ADA requirements. Upon completion of the validation study, the instrument became a standard part of the hiring process.

The results were dramatic:

· 66% of the Workers’ Compensation claims were eliminated
· 21% reduction in the dollar amount of Workers’ Compensation claims
· 21% fewer customer complaints
· 100% fewer acts of emotional/violent acts in the workplace
· 100% fewer direct theft related behaviors
· Fewer disruptive diversity issues among different races
· A reduction in absenteeism behavior/no call/no shows · No adverse impact on protected minority applicants

Quoting from the Risk & Insurance Magazine, August, 1996 “Stress Relief” (© 1996 Risk & Insurance Magazine):

… In his book, Hire the Best -- & Avoid the Rest, industrial psychologist Michael W. Mercer, Ph.D., a pre-employment testing expert at the Mercer Group Inc. in Barrington, Ill, recommends using such tests to identify applicants that offer the best fit for the job.

“If you hire people who are less likely to have problems on the job, your company should greatly reduce stress claims, have less absenteeism, lower turnover and higher productivity,” says Mercer. “Hiring productive, dependable, honest employees provides the easiest, cheapest, fastest way to build a [less stressed] work force.”

William R. Selkirk, vice president of risk management at Interim Personnel in Oak Brook, ILL, a temporary services firm with 400,000 employees nationwide, agrees wholeheartedly. “Our employees are going to someone else’s building everyday. We don’t have any control over those employers’ safety culture. If we’re not doing a good job of hiring employees who fit the jobs we’re sending them to, then we’re in the same boat as the employers using our services when it comes to losses.”

To identify workers with ‘the right stuff’, Interim developed a Behavioral Attitude Survey [an earlier name for the MTC product] that provides a comprehensive profile of job applicants’ attitudes toward workplace safety. “We’re looking for individuals with a high ‘locus of control’ – people with a higher level of awareness who are more in-tune with their environment and are less likely to be injured on the job,” explained Selkirk.

“Ten percent of all injuries are based on what’s going on in the company. The remainder occurs because of what’s going on inside a person’s head. By measuring job applicants’ attitudes, beliefs and behaviors, we have a better chance of engineering safety into the workplace,” he says.

After implementing the Behavioral Attitude Survey in its Chicago and Green Bay, Wis. divisions, Interim monitored job-relevant behavior from those applicants that were hired, including some who had “failed” the survey. According to Selkirk, the company reported a 66 percent reduction in workers’ comp claims, a 21 percent reduction in workers’ comp costs, a significant reduction in absenteeism, and a 21 percent reduction in customer complaints.

A Large, Nationwide Service Company

“… In a word, the company is diverse. And so are its safety and health concerns. Selkirk says his employer began to recognize that it was spending millions (actually about $14 million annually) on major injuries - chiefly in the areas of back problems, slips/trips/falls, and stress…

… Based on work he had done while employed by ServiceMaster as a loss control specialist at an Ohio hospital, Selkirk developed the Five Star Program, a program that has demonstrated extremely impressive results in a relatively short time period….

… STAR NUMBER ONE

Stop Hiring the Wrong People

The program’s first star, or program component, is a comprehensive pre-employment screen. The company describes it this way: “ServiceMaster provides major psychological screens that help select the best employee. Good safety performance is strongly connected to productivity and quality which contributes significantly to reducing facility accident rates. The results will have dramatic impact on reducing injuries in a facility.”

… The screen looks for specific qualities including literacy, honesty, nonviolence, emotional stability, work values, and respect for authority, and can also detect a propensity for injuries. These tests meet “all relevant standards,” including those imposed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Asked specifically about the relationship of some of these attributes to safe working behavior, Selkirk explains: “An applicant who scores low on loyalty, for example, probably lacks loyalty to policies and procedures,” including those dealing with safe work. Similarly, a person with little respect for authority is unlikely to follow safety protocols regarding the use of respirators, safety goggles, or locking out energized equipment. Such a person is very likely to disregard instructions when a supervisor’s back is turned.

Drug Test That’s Hard to Beat

Also as part of the first star, ServiceMaster uses a psychological style test to detect drug usage… Citing National Safety Council statistics that over 40 percent of all workplace injuries are related to drugs or alcohol …

… Tests used by ServiceMaster seek to isolate people who, as a response to stress, reach for a pill or a drink.

The easy-to-beat question: “Do you take drugs or drink excessively” is not on the test. Rather a job applicant is asked how he or she feels about friends using drugs, for example…

… ServiceMaster suggests that companies can cut the cost of their drug testing program in two by replacing specimen tests with psychological screening….

… STAR NUMBER TWO

Hazard Evaluation

Selkirk says research by ServiceMaster and other companies suggests that only 10 percent of occupational injuries, and subsequent claims, come from physical hazards. But employers spend up to 90 percent of their resources on identifying and removing “traditional” hazards like oily shop rags, improperly guarded tools, damaged equipment and the like.

The ServiceMaster equation suggests that 90 percent of the causes for slips, trips, falls and other workplace injuries are human, or behavioral factors, not the fact that a mop and pail are left in the middle of the shop floor. “That’s why we have a saying around here that goes, ‘Don’t just look at frayed cords, look at frayed lives,’” Selkirk says. On a practical basis, that means focusing attention on engineering hazards, as well as human factor hazards…

… Developing a Safety Culture

… “The true culture [of a workplace] is what workers believe, not what they have to follow,” says Selkirk…

… The stress hazard is serious, and increasingly costly to both employers and their workers. Back strain, one of ServiceMaster’s biggest safety problems, is two-and-a-half times more severe and more prevalent in 'stressed out' workers…”

… Results Tell the Story

The ServiceMaster safety program is working. Bill Selkirk points to the experience of ServiceMaster personnel in place at Northrup Industries in California. There, the program helped reduce the total number of annual claims from 101, at a cost of $650,000, to 8 claims a year later, carrying a price tag of $32,000.

Corporate-wide, Selkirk estimates that in 25 targeted accounts where the program has been introduced, injuries have been reduced by more than 50 percent in seven months. (The targeted accounts were those ServiceMaster units with the highest level of occupational injuries.) …As for the bottom line, Selkirk says the company has seen a $3.6 million reduction in its injury and claims reserve (the pool of money reserved when a worker is injured to cover that injury). The result is fewer claims, plus the emphasis on prompt return to work by those who were injured...”

Pre-Employment Assessments > PREDICTOR 16 > Case Studies