Before working with Thomas International, FCC had a relaxed approach to recruitment. Hiring managers had a process to follow but they sometimes selected candidates based on a gut feeling.

Recognizing this wasn’t the most effective strategy, Human Resources created a ‘Talent Supply Team’ which is a group of Talent Acquisition Consultants whose sole focus is to support the recruitment across the country. Hiring practices were developed to make sure the right candidates were being selected – not only for skills and experience but also for a fit with FCC’s culture.

Kelly Guilmette was recruited as one of the team members over ten years ago – as a Talent Acquisition Consultant. The next stage in improving the hiring process was to find a good psychometrics partner.

FCC knew it needed to put some science behind what they were doing and take out subjectivity from selection. They were eager to be able to identify behaviourally and cognitively what their star performers looked like in selected key roles so they could find more of them. They conducted a rigorous selection process to find the right psychometrics  partner, where proof of concept was a requirement.

Thomas International engaged the leads of the research team and the regional directors to gain their input, as part of the proof of concept process, the results of which resulted in Thomas International being selected as their psychometrics partner because of the validity of the assessments.

In the proof of concept, two front-line roles ‘Relationship Manager’ and ‘Relationship Manager Associate’ were chosen to start the process of finding out what great looked like. Together with Thomas International, a Human Capital Audit (HCA) was done on current performers which would suggest a blueprint for desired behaviours and cognition in future hires.

FCC already knew who the star performers in the role were – so it was easy to look at themes of behaviour and cognition. Everyone currently in the role completed the Personal Profile Analysis (PPA) which looks at a person’s preferred behaviours in the workplace based on Marston’s DISC theory. Those in the Relationship Manager Associate role also took the General Intelligence Assessment (GIA) to see where their cognitive abilities were and how quickly they responded to new and novel information.

The Star performers profiles were reviewed and key knowledge about successful behaviours for the culture and speed of thinking were uncovered. The job blueprints were created, and from this, future candidates would take the assessments and be compared to a star rating (like a hotel rating going from 5 stars being the best fit and 1 star being not the best fit).