Brad Swartz, vice president at J.J.Swartz Co., in Decatur, Ill., first used the Caliper Corp. personality profile because his father, Tom Swartz, had used the system for 20 years.
And, Brad says, “I truly believe it works. Going against the Caliper test has never proved beneficial in the history of our company.”
Swartz first sends a job description to a Caliper rep for the position to be filled. The remodeler then has strong candidates take the Caliper written test at his office, which takes two to three hours. He then faxes the test to Caliper and receives one of three responses: “match for the position,” “match with reservations,” or “not a match.”
The Caliper rep reviews the results with Swartz by phone, which the remodeler says is helpful — especially for “match with reservations” candidates. One such test revealed that the candidate has difficulty delegating. Swartz still made the hire, but says that knowing about this trait helps him work more effectively with the employee.
After they’re hired, employees are allowed to read their own profile. Swartz keeps the reports in his office so he can refer to them during reviews or if there are performance issues. He says the third-party viewpoint is a stronger tool than his own opinion about the employee.
The Caliper profiler can also evaluate existing staff to see if they are a good fit for a different position. Swartz says that the cost of the profile is “dimes and pennies” compared to making costly hiring mistakes.
