Popular Christian Radio Station Finds Truth In SPS Assessments
By Tracey McGraw

Leola (PA) - As general manager at WBYN and sales manager at WDAC, John White has done his share of hiring and realizes the troubles that can come with the process.  In the past, White says the stations used advertising and interviewing to obtain salespeople for the growing coverage area.  However, advertising can be expensive and interviewing is time-consuming, White admits, and neither can guarantee a successful hire.

 “We don’t want to hire someone who will fail (because) it is too hard on them and us,” White states.  He was looking for a more reliable method for hiring, he says. 

White met Ira Wolfe, founder of Success Performance Solutions and president of Poised for the Future, located in Leola, Pennsylvania, through a tip club, in which both men were members, called TEAM.  At the time, Wolfe was sponsoring the news on WDAC.  He and White spoke of the hiring problems the station was experiencing and Wolfe offered his services, says White.

What struck White about Wolfe was his, “quiet confidence.”  He says Wolfe seemed very sure of the quality of the assessments he offered.  White says he soon learned that confidence was well deserved.

Wolfe introduced White to a variety of pre-employment assessment tools. According to White, both WDAC and WBYN have two major criteria in hiring a salesperson.  One is that the person represents the stations’ Christian values, and two is that the person has an ability to sell. 

With these criteria in mind, Wolfe recommended a combination of  assessments that could reliably predict success in sales while insuring a good fit with WDAC’s culture. White says presently both stations use three different assessment systems – Managing for Success, Personal Interests, Attitudes and Values and TotalView Selection Report.  

According to Wolfe, “Pre-employment assessments can be broken down into two categories – tests that screen out high risk or undesirable candidates and ability/personality tests that select in candidates that fit the job, team and culture.”  The TotalView Selection Report, he says, is a 5^th-generation tool  that “measures and matches work-related characteristics of people to the requirements of a position.”  Managing for Success assesses the pace at which a person will work, along with how he or she will deal with problems, interact with people, and comply with rules and procedures, Wolfe states.

Doug Myer is a success story at WDAC. In 1998, he was the first person to interview for a sales position at WDAC using the assessment tools. He was hired and has since gone on to become sales manager and general manager for WDAC.  Wolfe was consulted by White prior to these promotions and agreed Myer was one of those few salespeople who could make the cross-over from selling to managing.

Myer says prior to this interview, he had done other assessments for employment. Although he was not surprised at the assessment being a prerequisite for employment at the station, he says he was concerned at the time with its ability to properly reflect his strengths and weaknesses.

Afterward, when Myer was able to review the results, he says he was pleased.  “I did not initially agree with everything it said, but in hindsight it really did describe me quite accurately. Sometimes you just don’t want to read about how others might really see you!”

Myer goes on to say that each assessment is simply a tool used in the hiring process.  “It is part of what we use, not a total deciding factor.” He says along with interviewing, assessments give a better picture of the whole person.  “Many times (an assessment) will confirm what you’ve already picked up about a person while at other times, it has guided our interview into areas we might have otherwise missed,” Myer says.

Myer states the stations now use pre-employment assessment tools for all key positions.  Another benefit of these assessments, he says, is that they can help determine other skills a person may have. Myer feels this is important for a smaller organization like WDAC.   For example, he says they may hire someone as a receptionist, but find he or she is skilled at writing copy. 

Any of the assessment tools cost money. Therefore, White says the tests are given to applicants who pass the first phase of interviews.  Both he and Myer say the testing can be done online and the results are generated quickly. 

The entire hiring process takes 5 to 6 weeks, says White. He states, “Since I have been hiring salespeople (1983), I have not seen as helpful a set of assessments.  I used to hire mostly by ‘instinct’, and now I have a way to test my guesswork against a valid base.” 

WDAC 94.5 FM first aired from Lancaster in 1959. Known as the “Voice of Christian Radio,” it was the first FM station in Lancaster to provide commercial programming. Today, the station is owned by Richard and Dan Crawford, sons of the founder Percy Crawford, and by Paul Hollinger, the station’s owner/manager.  WDAC also owns and operates WBYN 107.5 FM in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. With a coverage area including the counties of Berks, Schukyll, Montgomery, and Lancaster, along with parts of New Jersey, WDAC has been ranked #1 in Christian radio stations in the U.S. in recent years.