AWARD WINNING HPI ASSESSMENT -PROFILING ASSEMBLY WORKERS AT HAEMONETICS

The company

Haemonetics is a global company engaged in the design, manufacture and worldwide marketing of automated blood processing systems. Employing 1600 people worldwide, Haemonetics ’systems address the important medical markets of surgical blood salvage, blood component collections and plasma collections.

The problem

Performance and retention issues with assembly staff in their Bothwell plant.

Relating personality and skills to performance and retention

Haemonetics, Evergreen Personnel Limited and PCL collaborated on a research project designed to address the problem. The project aimed to use the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI)to capture the personality attributes of its most successful and long- standing staff. The project also looked at skill assessment for assembly staff based on job analysis designed to extract the skills that were critical for successful job performance.

Researching the"ideal" personality profile

Performance and personality data was obtained from a sample of 61 existing Haemonetics assemblers employed at its Bothwell plant in Scotland. The link between personality, as measured by the Hogan Personality Inventory, staff performance and length of service was evaluated. Analysis of HPI scores and all available performance data (dependability, quality, attitude, teamwork, volume, job knowledge and skill, sickness and absence), revealed two underlying factors, referred to as ‘occupational commitment ’ and ‘performance ’. This analysis then allowed PCL to create two customised HPI scales for Haemonetics, effectively a new version of HPI tailored to the company ’s requirements. The OC scale and the P scale captured critical features of the most effective employees for use in future recruitment. PCL then constructed a Suitability Report within the HPI software at Haemonetics to provide a template for future recruitment. This template was comprised of the new P and OC scales and four other primary HPI scales; Intellectance, Prudence, Ambition and Sociability , all of which were given different weightings based on research findings from the project. This is a good example of the way in which the HPI software can be modified to focus on specific issues, to capture and concentrate the most predictive personality characteristics and to effectively "speak the language of an organisation". The further ability of the software to absorb data from online administration of the HPI via the internet adds to the control clients wield over both ends of their recruitment process.

Skills assessment

In the other part of this project, job analysis of the assembler role was carried out using the Common Metric Questionnaire. This involved the extraction of close to 3000 pieces of information about work activities and the work environment. This was used to highlight the critical areas of performance and ability necessary to perform the job effectively. Working closely with Haemon- etics, Christine Bishop from Evergreen Personnel Limited used the information from the CMQ to re-write the Assembler job description to more accurately reflect the realities of the role. Christine Bishop then worked with key personnel at Haemonetics to re-design the practical ability test that closely reflected what was actually needed for successful job performance. This practical test is now being used alongside the HPI and interviews in the selection of new assemblers.

Award of merit

Against international competition, Christine Bishop from Evergreen Personnel Limited and the internal Haemonetics project team were awarded the Haemonetics Team Excellence Award of Merit for delivery of this recruitment review project. This award recognises operational excellence.

Conclusion By using the HPI suitability template for recruitment, Haemonetics will be better able to select from prospective employees those who are more dependable, have better attitudes and teamwork skills, produce a better quality product in greater volume, have more job knowledge, and who are less frequently absent from work. The new skills test will ensure that new recruits have the potential to perform the required tasks efficiently. Initially using conservative cut off points, these methods for capturing excellence provide a solid starting point, but it is essential to continue the validation process as data from new appointments accumulates, in order to further learn from experience and to ‘fine tune ’ the process.

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