The Client
Corrugated Services LP is an independent producer of recycled containerboard in the United States, with $100 million in revenues and 238 employees.
The business is divided into several divisions, all of which revolve around its core business, which is the manufacture of linerboard, medium and coated papers used to make corrugated boxes.
The business currently produces about 800 tons per day of linerboard and medium, which is sold primarily to independent box manufacturers. The company started in 1974 and has a long-track record of success and sustained growth throughout its history.
The Solution
Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT): Corrugated Services uses the WPT as the initial test in its interview process for all job applicants.
The 50-question WPT, which has been used by thousands of organizations since 1937, is a 12-minute, timed test that measures a candidate’s ability to learn a specific job, solve problems, understand instructions and apply knowledge to new situations.
This test provides Corrugated Services with objective information about candidates and, based on minimum test scores, eliminates a substantial portion of the applicant pool, enabling recruiters to focus their time on those candidates most likely to succeed in the manufacturing environment.
Promotion Process Relies on Employment Testing
You can’t get a job at Corrugated Services without taking the Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT). When someone comes in to fill out an application, they immediately are asked to complete the 12-minute, 50-question WPT, along with a mechanical aptitude assessment. The two tests are scored on the spot and those who don’t earn the minimum scores are not considered for employment, says Richard Warner, Director of Human Resources at the Forney, Texas, recycled paper mill. “Between the two tests we get about a 10 percent pass rate.”
It may sound like they set high expectations for entry level factory positions, but the company has a system of promoting from within that relies on employees having the skills to work with computers as well as doing heavy labor. That means they need the basic math, language and common sense skills that the Wonderlic test measures. “We know the people who pass the tests have the cognitive ability to succeed,” Warner says. “That’s been proven over the years by the results.”
Warner estimates that over the course of a year he hires about 50 new people. Almost all of them start at the bottom on a 10-person crew making $12 an hour; but within a year or so they may be promoted to positions that require working with the automated computer system, he says.
When there’s a vacancy on a crew, everyone below that person is promoted to the next higher position and Corrugated hires a new entry-level person. Eventually with attrition, everyone has the opportunity to advance through the ranks to the number one crew position, Machine Operator, where they earn $22 an hour.
It’s a system Corrugated relies on to limit recruiting to entry-level people, Warner says. “If they don’t have the skills to handle the promotion schedule, that creates a problem.” When someone on the crew can’t handle the next higher position, it creates potential problems. Because the jobs become increasingly more technical, bypassing a person requires a lot more training. For example, by the time a crewmember reaches the fourth promotion he/she will have received more than 100 hours of training along with months of hands-on experience, which is difficult and costly to duplicate.Without the Wonderlic test Corrugated could not depend on the internal system of promotions. “We’d end up with people who would do well for a year or two, then we’d have to freeze them in the position and promote around them; or, terminate their employment,” he says. As a result, training costs would go up and they’d have a bottleneck of lower level employees with gaps in the higher positions. “That’s not fair to the company or to the crews.”
Corrugated learned the hard way what happens when it doesn’t adhere to the Wonderlic test results. Eight years ago Corrugated Services doubled in size and had to hire more than 100 people in six months—this was a significant challenge in the rural Texas town. “Because the hiring pool was so small, we ended up accepting people who didn’t meet the standard and who later could not be promoted. It also increased turnover because many of those who did not meet the standards left for jobs at other employers,” he says. He still has three or four employees from that time who are retained in the lower crew positions and forces supervisors to promote around them. It’s a situation he hopes to not face again. “The Wonderlic test screens out people who are generally not promotable,” he says. “It doesn’t guarantee success, but if you can’t pass the test, it pretty much assures failure.”
