PXT™ Helps Find Top Fire/Rescue Performers

A fire and rescue department in a large city made an important and potentially life-changing discovery when it determined that using ProfileXTTM, from Profiles International , in its initial selection of employees would have helped it identify more potential top performers.

The story began when the department examined its own processes for selecting and placing firefighters. A sophisticated and effective model was already in place prior to PXT. This model consisted of a written exam, a physical abilities test and a psychological test conducted by an industrial psychologist. The department selected about 10 percent of overall applicants using this process.

But managers wanted to explore using PXT's Job Match system to further refine the department's hiring processes, and to identify candidates and employees with the potential to become top performers.

Participants The department chose 24 firefighters to participate in the study. Using its previously established performance evaluation process, managers identified 14 of the 24 as top performers. They considered the remaining ten good employees, but did not place them in the top-performing group.

Job Match The Job Match Pattern was developed using the Concurrent Study method. The study determined the assessment results for the top group of 14, and then matched the entire group of 24 to the resulting pattern. From this, managers determined an overall percent match of 80 percent for each firefighter. This meant that a score of 80 percent or higher would identify a top performer.

By the Numbers Eleven of the original 14 top performers, or 79 percent, matched the 80 percent or higher job match rate. Two of the ten not identified as top performers scored 80 percent or higher. Thus eight of ten, or 80 percent, of the lower performers were NOT selected by the Job Match Pattern process as top performers.

Summary If the fire and rescue department had used the ProfileXTTM in its initial selection of these employees, managers would have selected 79 percent of the original top performers and 20 percent of those not deemed top performers. This means the department would not have overlooked as many potential top performers if it had properly used the PXT matching process in a balanced selection method.

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