Challenge
A large US marine transportation company with a workforce of over one thousand can’t keep employees. Their new-hire turnover rate is above 100%.
Despite competitive wages, generous benefits packages, and rigorous talent acquisition processes, the company was struggling with high turnover rates with direct costs of over three million dollars a year. Indirect costs added to the financial burden, totaling what experts estimate as one-and-a-half to two times the annual compensation for any position.
From a single assessment, Birkman provided enough insight about employee workstyles, work environment preferences, natural strengths, and performance motivators to give the company ample insight into the strengths and blind spots of their current workforce. Birkman provided such powerful behavioral insights that the company was able to develop a methodology to successfully reduce employee turnover.
First, they solidified the set of characteristics that accounted for success in the particular job and work environment. This was determined by developing a snapshot of success, a profile of the employee likely to stay on the job and perform at a high level.
Solution
The company realized that their main issue with high turnover lay in the fact that they were hiring and training the people who simply were not going to stay with the company, no matter their salary or potential growth at the company. With background checks, medical screens, multiple interviews, and job-related skills and knowledge testing, the company’s hiring practices were solid but incomplete.
By harnessing Birkman and having all new applicants complete the assessment, the company learned that they needed to identify applicants who possessed the character traits that would most help them succeed at their respective roles within the company, specifically identifying applicants who are characteristically suited for the work and working environment.
The top performers and least successful employees of the current workforce were identified. By comparing the characteristics between these two groups, the company was able to create the profile of the employee most likely to succeed in their role and stay at the company.
Recruiters harnessed this profile to sort out the applicant pool, carefully selecting employees that matched this profile. Within six months, the company witnessed a significant reduction in its new-hire turnover rate.
Result
The company administered Birkman to all new applicants without changing anything else in the process, reducing the amount of disruption to the flow of existing HR activities. Therefore, implementing Birkman did not add significantly to the responsibilities of those involved in recruiting and hiring.
After refining the ideal employee profile over years of using the assessment instrument, the company was able to reduce their turnover rate by 67%, translating into higher productivity, improved workforce morale, and over $2 million a year straight to the bottom line after added costs.
