Four years ago, SaskTel, a major Canadian telecommunications service provider, desperately sought to streamline its hiring process. Support from call center service representatives in the company's Customer Relationship Center (CRC) was vital for the success of an important new product. With the launch of this product quickly approaching, it was necessary to not only hire right, but hire efficiently. Since recruiters were spending the majority of their time with candidates who proved to be unqualified for the job, SaskTel turned to Brainbench's online assessments to prescreen their candidates.

The results from implementing pre-employment tests in their hiring process were impressive. Not only did the quality of hires in the CRC improve, but SaskTel also observed:

• Cost-per-hire reduced from $420 to $80 (80%).
• Candidate interview-to-hire ratio rises from 37% to 80%
• Significant drop in post-hire attrition

As SaskTel's business and technology requirements change, so must the focus of their service representatives in the CRC. Since their representatives are constantly learning about new SaskTel products and services, it's important they enter their job position with a sound idea of how to identify the needs of a customer and sell to that need. Thus, the needs for pre-employment tests, which allow SaskTel to assess a candidate as the first step in the selection process, continue to this day.

Since SaskTel implemented the new selection process in the CRC, they have continued to see cost-per-hire reductions, an increase in interview-to-hire ratios, and improvements in recruiting production. In addition, they have maintained less than 8% attrition. "The online assessment is an objective way for SaskTel to measure the sales skills necessary for these roles," stated Selection and Staffing Manager, Samantha Mitschke Hanna. "The managers in SaskTel's Customer Relationship Center are proponents of the Brainbench solution as they see the positive impact to their business. They have promoted their success throughout SaskTel to other managers."

Due to continued hiring success in the CRC, SaskTel began to administer pre-employment assessments in other departments. For the company's Internet Protocol Support Center (IPSC), SaskTel implemented a customized Brainbench testing solution.

The IPSC utilized several Brainbench tests to create a specialized assessment geared toward the specific skill sets required in the center. "For this department, a customized solution was critical since the test library had many important components of knowledge required, but there wasn't a single test to meet all of SaskTel's needs," Mitschke Hanna explained. "By selecting relevant subtopics from several tests, Brainbench and SaskTel in partnership were able to create a tool designed to specifically assess the knowledge required for our service technician roles."

Before introducing testing, SaskTel's IPSC had a very manual selection process. Recruiters would commonly interview up to 24 people resulting in only 8 hires. Since the implementation of the custom Brainbench tool, candidate interview-to-hire ratios rose from 33% to 80%. As a result, cost-per-hire reduced from $235 to $114, a 50% difference. Finally, the IPSC at SaskTel has been enjoying the added benefit of less than 10% attrition.

"The knowledge of internet technology found in this department is now desired throughout the company as SaskTel evolves from a traditional telephone company to a telecommunication company," Mitschke Hanna remarked."

SaskTel had observed such a positive impact from the utilization of Brainbench tests, that online testing became more common in other recruitment processes.

In the Information Technology Management department, SaskTel hires programmer analysts on a regular basis. They have converted from using a paper-based aptitude test to an online Brainbench assessment. This change eliminated a systemic barrier. Instead of the candidate having to be in the physical location of SaskTel to take the test, they could now take the assessment anywhere, at anytime. Thus, SaskTel experienced substantial savings in time. Time spent by recruiters to administer a test dropped from 90 minutes to 6 minutes, a 93% change. As a direct result, SaskTel saw cost savings of 51%. The cost of administering their paper-based tests decreased from $118 per candidate (90 minutes @ $78.28/hr loaded labor rate) to $58 per candidate ($50.00 for test and 6 minutes @ $78.28/hr loaded labor rate).

SaskTel also utilizes Brainbench to assess specific technical skill sets for their technical analyst positions. "We use a variety of technical tests from Brainbench's test library, enabling us to ensure we have the necessary knowledge to make smart hires for these positions that are so critical to the operation success of SaskTel," says Mitschke Hanna. "Once again, SaskTel has realized significant benefits in terms of time, cost and accuracy."

"SaskTel continuously looks for other ways to incorporate Brainbench into their hiring practices," she remarked. "The testing is reliable, timely and objective and has contributed to increasing the transparency of our selection process."

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