CEO International

The Client

CEO International is a thriving international management consulting firm that specializes in manufacturing plant start-ups, business development, strategic planning, leadership development, change management, executive coaching and project management.

Kari Viglasky, President of CEO International, is a member of the Canadian Association of Women Executives and Entrepreneurs, the Institute of Professional Management and the International Alliance. The company is based in Merlin, Ontario.

The Solution

Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT): When the team at CEO International recruits employees for clients, they use the WPT to measure the cognitive skills of applicants and weed out the least desirable. This test provides objective information about candidates and can eliminate a significant portion of the applicant pool through minimum test scores.

Personality Characteristics Inventory® (PCI): The PCI forecasts job-related behavior enabling CEO recruiters to identify and match emotional skills to specific positions based on their clients’ needs.

Using this information, CEO can identify the best candidates for any position in any company.

Employee Reliability Inventory (ERI): The ERI is a risk management tool that helps CEO recruiters determine which individuals are most likely to become valued employees rather than organizational liabilities. The ERI also provides follow-up questions that recruiters use during interviews and reference checks to help clarify an individual’s assessment results.

Wonderlic 360° Review System: This assessment tool helps individuals gain a broader perspective on their job performance by allowing direct reports, peers, supervisors, customers and others to participate in the performance feedback process via surveys.

Comprehensive Personality Profile® (CPP®): The CPP measures key traits as they relate to job performance helping recruiters match candidates’ personalities against a custom profile of their highest performers, optimizing the person-to-job fit.

Entrepreneurial Quotient (EQ®): The EQ identifies candidates and employees with entrepreneurial qualities and creative problem-solving ability. EQ results can be used to build stronger leadership teams, combining creative thinkers with the operational managers who will implement new programs.

CEO International Insists: No Success Without Tests

Kari Viglasky has been a fan of Wonderlic since she was 15-years-old. She encountered her first test as a high school student when she landed a job at a local bank after scoring higher on a Wonderlic test than many of the college students she competed with. She stayed with that bank for years, and as a human resources employee began administering the test to new recruits. “I’ve seen the Wonderlic tests work for twenty years, which is why I believe in them,” she says.

Years later, when she started her own international management consulting firm, called CEO International (Creating Exceptional Organizations), Vigalsky took the Wonderlic tests with her.The company helps international organizations open new divisions and offices. CEO teams organize everything from recruiting and screening new employees to writing company policies, Viglasky says. She insists that Wonderlic be a part of that process. “I won’t work with a client if they won’t use the tests because we rely on them so much.”

Depending on the client, she will use: the Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT), which measures cognitive ability; the Personal Characteristics Inventory (PCI), which measures key personality dimensions that are linked to job success; the Employee Reliability Inventory (ERI), which assesses workplace behavior; the 360 degree which assesses job performance; the Comprehensive Personality Profile (CPP), which measures key personality traits as they relate to job performance; or the Entrepreneurial Quotient (EQ), which identifies candidates with entrepreneurial qualities and creative problem-solving abilities.

When Vigalsky begins recruiting for a new client, Wonderlic helps her tailor certain tests to the specific needs of that organization.

For example, a Japanese manufacturer needed non-union, reliable team players with high social interpersonal skills. Wonderlic crafted a Personal Characteristics profile that included the ideal scores for candidates who fit their needs, and provided detailed descriptions of what those scores would mean, enabling recruiters to quickly identify the best people in a huge applicant pool. “Wonderlic helps us find the cream of the crop.”

The tests also help her quickly screen out undesirable candidates, which is critical because she regularly deals with thousands of applicants at a time. For example, she recently helped an automotive company open a division that needed 500 new employees. She got 11,000 applications. Her team screened 50 people at a time at a recruiting center where applicants saw a company video and took the WPT and PCI. “If they couldn’t get a passing score on those two tests they were out,” she says.

The tests knocked out 50 percent of the applicants, who Viglasky says would otherwise have gotten hired. “Anyone can behave properly for an hour in an interview, but you can’t fool the tests.”And Viglasky is not about to make a foolish decision for her clients. “Hiring someone is a huge investment. If you don’t test people, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s too late.”