After seeing a 15% increase in her company's turnover rate during the first quarter of 2000, Ann Garman was beginning to wonder if the ideal person to fill a second shift position really existed. Garman, administrative officer for Super Dog Pet Food Company located in Leola, Pennsylvania, says the company knew there was a problem. "We had a concept in our minds of what we were looking for (to fill this position)," she says, but were unsuccessful in the search.

Now in 2002, with the assistance of Ira Wolfe, president of Poised for the Future Company and founder of Success Performance Solutions, also in Leola, Garman has found that perhaps ideals do exist. The turnover rate in the first quarter of this year saw a decrease of 86% from the first quarter of 2001, which showed a 7% decrease from 2000.
Wolfe has created what he calls a blueprint for matching the right people to the right jobs. His creation, called CriteriaOne, is a system of tests that assist organizations in evaluating the necessary skills, attitudes, general abilities, personalities and motivations for optimum performance in any given job.

In the last two years, Garman says, Super Dog Pet Food Company has been looking into what is necessary for performance success in many of its positions, from entry level up to management, to eliminate high turnover.

Garman had seen Wolfe speak at seminars before and had always admired his sense of diversity. At one particular seminar, she says, his talk really made her think about what Super Dog Pet Food Company needed. Although Garman says the company was not seeking a pre-employment testing system to solve the high turnover problem, she states, "The program basically fell into our lap."

Wolfe helped Garman to see that turnover was costing the company upwards of $6,000 per person each year. "If you don't make the right choice in hiring, you end up spending a lot in advertising, time - yours and the receptionist's - interviewing, orientation, and training," Garman says.

Super Dog Pet Food Company, with Wolfe's help, was able to revamp its interviewing process by designing questions for specific positions, Garman says.

Garman says Super Dog Pet Food Company chose the pre-employment assessment tool called SELECT, which is available in two versions - computerized or paper and pencil. "SELECT is unique," she states because the program breaks a candidate's answers into different categories. She says SELECT allows her to see the integrity of each candidate along with his/her expected job performance.

Garman states that Super Dog Pet Food Company uses this pre-employment test as a guide. She cautions that sometimes candidates try to give what they see as the "correct" answer or write in answers rather than using a given choice. She goes on to say that SELECT has the capability of determining the validity of a candidate's answer.
Candidates for employment fill out the 20-minute SELECT test when they fill out an application, Garman says. Results from those tests are then generated through a Web site. To conserve costs, Garman states she does not generate a report each time unless the company is seriously considering the candidate or is calling the candidate in for a second interview.

Garman says she has been pleased with the results Super Dog Pet Food Company has seen since utilizing the SELECT method of pre-employment testing to reduce turnover. "(The results generated by a candidate's response) show that person's job commitment and give suggested questions for the interviewing process."

About Super Dog Pet Food Company
Super Dog Pet Food Company is one of the East Coast's largest wholesale distributors of pet food and supplies serving customers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, DC. In business since 1975, this locally owned, family-operated company began in the Schober family garage. Since that time, Super Dog Pet Food Company has grown into a $56 million company operating out of a 98,000 square foot facility with a staff of 85. Its founder, Robert H. Schober, currently serves as president. The web address is www.superdogpetfood.com