The Client
Automotive Training Institute is a management consultancy to the automotive industry based in Savage, Maryland.
ATI’s mission is to increase the profitability of each of its customers through the provision of shop management consulting and training services.
It offers classes, workshops, training and consulting programs with the ultimate goal of improving client profit margins so they keep at least .62 cents for every service dollar they bill.
The Solution
Comprehensive Personality Profile® (CPP®): The CPP is an 88-question personality profiling system that describes a candidate’s character in terms of job-related strengths and weaknesses including emotional intensity, intuition, sensitivity, assertiveness, and recognition motivation.
The CPP test data allows recruiters to match candidates’ personalities against a custom profile of their highest performers, optimizing the person-to-job fit.
The assessment data is delivered to the hiring managers through summarized reports allowing them to quickly and decisively identify candidates who will achieve the greatest success in their culture.
CPP® Key to Improving Client Profitability
The business goal of Automotive Training Institute is simple: Help business owners make more money so they can take back control of their lives.
This independent management consulting business based in Savage, Maryland works with owners of repair shops, tire dealers and other automotive industry businesses, showing them how they can increase profits. Wonderlic plays an important role in that process, says Karen Dee, National Program Director for ATI. Along with offering clients training classes and one-on-one coaching sessions, ATI has the service managers at every client site complete the Wonderlic Comprehensive Personality Profile (CPP) as part of its thorough business evaluation process. The CPP is a personality assessment that describes a person’s character in terms of job-related strengths and weaknesses on such issues as emotional intensity, sensitivity, assertiveness and motivation.
Hiring Tool has a New Use
ATI used the CPP for years as a hiring tool when its core business was a wholesale dealership of large parts for the automotive industry. In 1998 ATI transitioned to consulting to help small automotive shops improve their business results. The CPP was a natural fit for its new services.
“Part of increasing profits is understanding the personality of the service manager,” Dee says. “When customers come in, the person they deal with is the service manager. He is the key to a successful business.”
The CPP gives business owners a complete profile of exactly what makes these critical employees tick. “It’s scary how well the CPP nails people,” she marvels, noting that the shop owners are always amazed by how accurate the CPP results are. In fact some owners are so impressed, they incorporate the CPP into their overall recruiting process for all employee hiring. “It’s a benefit for them and for us.”
The CPP scores are used in two ways to support the ATI service. ATI coaches use test results to understand what drives the service managers, enabling them to customize their guidance to suit the needs of each person. CPP scores are entered into a secure database where the coaches can review them at any time to familiarize themselves with the clients before they work together. “The CPP scores give them so much information, it’s like the coaches know them before they even meet,” Dee says.
The motivation scores on the CPP are of particular interest to coaches and owners because it helps them identify why service managers behave in certain ways and adjust their leadership approach and benefit systems accordingly. For example, a manager whose primary goal is to spend more time with family will respond to different reward structures than one who wants to make more money. Long after the ATI service is delivered, owners can use these scores to customize career paths for their personnel. In some cases, when CPP scores show a desire to own their own business, clients have groomed their service managers to take over when they retire.
“The CPP is very important to the success of our consulting process,” Dee says. “I don’t ever see us not working with Wonderlic.”
