In her human resource position with Rettew Associates, Inc. Lisa Horst wondered how her company could ensure that it hired the right people for the right jobs? As Catalyst for Growth and Development, Horst says she often asks herself this question and says it is has been difficult to make good hiring decisions based solely on interviews.  

In the fall of 2001, Rettew Associates, Inc., an engineering and environmental consulting firm headquartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was looking to fill some project manager positions. Thirty to forty people were already employed by Rettew in this key position, says Horst. One more time she faced the dilemma of finding the right person for the position.     

While attending a seminar featuring Ira Wolfe, founder of Success Performance Solutions and president of Poised for the Future Company in Leola, Pennsylvania, Horst was introduced to the TotalView Assessment system. She was intrigued by Wolfe’s claim that TotalView offered a means of assisting companies in making good hiring decisions - exactly what Horst was looking for.  Horst says Rettew had tried pre-employment testing in the past without much success. Could this really work for Rettew? Horst contacted Wolfe and together they developed a pilot program at Rettew Associates based on the TotalView Assessment system.

In October of 2001, the program began. Horst says she and Wolfe first determined the end goal of establishing the job profile of what makes a successful project manager at Rettew.  With that in mind, they were able to design the project to achieve the desired results.

“The process was eye-opening,” says Horst.  She says the results generated by TotalView not only gives an evaluation of key personality traits that affect job performance but assesses how quickly a person learns and applies new information especially the more complex the job. According to Wolfe, TotalView measures cognitive abilities, motivation and interests, and personality factors.

The first phase of the program involved an analysis of the project manager position by a team of people who had a lot of experience with the job or knew a lot about it.

In December of 2001, Horst says, all of the current project managers completed the one-hour TotalView Assessment.  This was the second phase of the Rettew pilot program. 

Phase three occurred in January of 2002, when a leadership team (consisting of directors along with heads of marketing, finance and human resource) completed a job description survey to determine the skills and abilities necessary for success in the project manager position.

The final phase of the pilot program happened in March of this year.  Horst says the TotalView software was able to tabulate the answers given by the project managers.  These results along with leadership team’s view of the position and profiles of some of the top performing project managers helped to generate a benchmark of the project manager position that graphically represents the desired characteristics for the job, says Horst.

“It’s important to know that one cannot pass or fail the TotalView Assessment,” Horst stresses. She states the tests were taken to create the benchmark and give valuable developmental information. 

Horst says feedback within Rettew has been very positive on the TotalView Assessment system.  She says one project manager ran to her office after reading his results and said, “This nailed me and I know my wife is going to think so too.”  Another director emailed her and stated, “I have got to say that I have a high level of confidence in the accuracy of these results. There is not one area in any of the results I question for my project managers,” Horst says.

Horst admits the entire process was time-consuming, but feels the results have given the company a much better idea of what is necessary for success in the project manager position. She states TotalView also generates individual reports for current employees and prospective employees, coaching reports for managers, and selection reports with suggested interview questions. Rettew Associates, Inc. has used TotalView twice already to help make better hiring decisions for project manager positions, Horst says. 

She says Rettew Associates plans to use the benchmarking process for other positions in the future, but that it should now take only a few weeks to complete.