Case studies

Family owned US real estate business uses Thomas assessments to reduce staff turnover and recruit people that fit perfectly into key areas of the business

For over sixty years, HistoryMaker Homes has been committed to building the best new homes in Dallas, Fort Worth, and the surrounding areas.

HistoryMaker Homes partnered with Thomas International to reduce turnover at the Executive level, make informed hiring decisions and to develop people already in the business.

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The Challenge

There were two key challenges for this family run business:

The home builder market was very hot in their area – they were seeing a lot of turnover at the Executive level
Frequent changes at the Executive level caused ripples of uncertainty to run through the organization. The business recognized it needed to make better and more informed hiring decisions, and to develop the people already in the business as well as new people when they came onboard.

The Solution

Cynthia Culpepper has been with HistoryMaker Homes since 1991, in a variety of roles. Now as Manager of Human Resources, she knew the value of using psychometric assessments to help understand people on a deeper level. The business was working with one provider for a behavioural assessment, yet

Cindy knew there was more to learn about a person that just behavior. She partnered with Thomas International when she learned the power of understanding cognition and emotional intelligence. Thomas’s General Intelligence Assessment (GIA) measures how fast a person’s brain takes in new and novel information. The GIA measures a person’s response to 5 different areas of cognition. They used this assessment in key roles where cognitive agility was key – in Finance for example.

The Trait Emotional Intelligence (TEIQue) assessment measures a person’s perceived capacity with 15 different areas of emotionality. This assessment was chosen because of the importance of Emotional Intelligence to Leaders. In the past, the Leadership team all took the assessment and a Thomas facilitator took them through a half day session to understand their own emotionality. They also discovered how they could manage their emotional reactions and responses to be better leaders.

The Results

Using the GIA assessment, they’ve found people who fit perfectly into key areas of the business – those with high cognition in numbers excel in Finance roles for example.

The TEIQue assessment and workshop helped set a foundation of self-awareness for the leadership team and since the workshop there’s been a discernible difference in how key members of the team show up for work everyday. Other people have commented on the positive changes, that it’s made working at HistoryMaker Homes even better.

Using both assessments, HistoryMaker homes has curtailed the levels of turnover – by choosing the right candidates to begin with, and developing them once onboard. Cynthia says Thomas is an extremely professional organization; her consultant is knowledgeable, helpful and wants to work closely with the business. She likes that the assessments give her more information for discussion at the interview and help her get to know the candidates.

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