Shaker Consulting Culls Weak Job Seekers With Online Games
Shaker Consulting Group
Shaker Consulting Group president Brian M. Stern (left) and vice president Joseph P. Murphy at their headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. Photograph: Shaker Consulting Group, Inc. via Bloomberg
Shaker Consulting Group president Brian M. Stern (left) and vice president Joseph P. Murphy at their headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. Photograph: Shaker Consulting Group, Inc. via Bloomberg
(Corrects third paragraph and last paragraph to remove three companies mistakenly identified as clients by Shaker Consulting Group. Corrects title in last paragraph. Story originally appeared on Sept. 26.)
In late 2008, insurer Answer Financial’s new hires were only selling about half as many policies as the 270-employee company’s more seasoned agents, despite its six- week training program. “We came to the conclusion that more often than not, we were not hiring the right people,” says Peter Foley, senior vice president of sales.
To improve Answer’s talent pool, Foley hired Shaker Consulting Group to replace its traditional job interview process with an online simulator that tests applicants’ sales chops. Candidates take an hour-long test that resembles a video game; results point to the best candidates to interview. “It doesn’t tell us who to hire. It tells us who not to hire,” says Foley, noting new agents’ six-month sales averages have improved by roughly 50 percent.
Shaker’s ability to cull underperformers before they’re hired is attracting corporate America, including CVS (CVS), Sherwin- Williams (SHW), Starbucks (SBUX), SunTrust Banks (STI) and Ritz- Carlton. Organizations that hire well get a quarter more revenue per employee and lower turnover by 40 percent, according to industry researcher Bersin & Associates in San Francisco, which estimates the pre-employment testing market worldwide is $1.5 billion to $2 billion.
Few Peers
More than 2,500 companies and consultancies in the U.S. sell services to help companies wade through growing piles of applications in an economy with more than 9 percent unemployment. Shaker, based in Cleveland, is one of only a handful of companies that creates sophisticated job simulation tools, melding audio, video and graphics within an interactive environment that measures users’ ability to perform specific tasks clients consider crucial. “On those characteristics, I would suggest that you’d find Shaker Consulting Group among the very few,” says Gerry Crispin, co-founder of staffing consultancy CareerXRoads in Kendall Park, N.J.
To build Answer Financial’s job simulator, Shaker interviewed sales managers and agents, from the worst to the best in terms of sales, then built a profile comprising the skills and personality traits likely to make a salesperson successful at Answer. Because the job entails selling auto, home, life and health insurance over the phone, crucial skills include the ability to hold a friendly conversation with potential customers and answer questions while typing. Applicants’ performance on each test component, including the ability to sell products and stay cool, is rated from one to 10. The overall performance of a candidate has to be four or higher for that candidate to be considered. People with the highest scores are called in for an interview.
Shaker’s customization isn’t cheap. The cost of development runs $75,000 to $100,000, according to Joseph Murphy, company co- founder and vice president of business development. The company also charges an annual maintenance fee that starts at $36,000. Generic testing from other companies can cost as little as a tenth of Shaker’s price for development. Shaker competes for call centers, retail chains, banks and other employers that hire continuously to fill mostly high-turnover positions, such as sale agents and tellers.
Launched in 2002
The partners started the 15-employee company in 2002 after eight years at SHL, one of the largest employee assessment companies in the world, with “kind of a bar-napkin business plan,” says Murphy, 56. Shaker launched its first online job simulation two years later, signing medical testing company Quest Diagnostics (DGX) as its first customer. Revenue was $4.2 million in 2010, says Brian Stern, 54, co-founder and president, and he projects $4.8 million this year and more than $5 million next year.
New contracts from Lowe’s Companies (LOW), KPMG Canada, and Target Brands (TGT) mean convincing employers to invest in its services isn’t Shaker’s biggest challenge, says Murphy. Rather, it’s big competitors muscling onto its turf like SHL, which is building more advanced tools to try to catch up. “We’re working on it and everybody I know who’s involved in online testing is looking at how to present things that are more engaging and more interactive,” says Elaine Pulakos, president of PDRI, an SHL subsidiary that does custom development work.
To contact the reporter on this story: Antone Gonsalves at antonegonsalves@gmail.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nick Leiber at nleiber@bloomberg.net
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