The Client
Colorado’s oldest and largest water utility, Denver Water was established in 1918 to provide drinking water to Denver citizens.
Today, Denver Water is responsible for the collection, storage, quality control and distribution of drinking water to nearly one fourth of all Coloradans, serving a total of 1,081,000 people in the Denver Metro area.
The Solution
Wonderlic Basic Skills Test (WBST): This forty-minute, timed test measures basic math and verbal skills of Denver Water applicants, helps the organization hire promotable workers, and helps increase the skills and abilities of existing workers.
All new entry-level hires must pass the WBST, ensuring that the quality and success rate of applicants is at consistently high level.
Wonderlic Basic Skills Test content and results are directly tied to the Department of Labor’s Occupational Information Network (O*NET) and Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). The DOT contains minimum required skill levels for more than 12,000 positions.
The WBST has also been approved by the U.S. Department of Education to determine student eligibility for the Ability to Benefit program (under Title IV funding for financial aid).
WBST Does Double Duty at Denver Water
When the Denver Water Department decided to begin using the Wonderlic Basic Skills Test to screen job applicants, nobody at the company anticipated that the test would work overtime as a tool for internal advancement as well.
Denver Water realized it had a problem with its entry-level employees’ English and math skills more than eight years ago when it kept running into the same brick wall, over and over again. “We were promoting entry-level laborers-good workers-into supervisory positions and then finding out they didn’t have the necessary critical math and language skills,” explains Denver Water Human Resources Specialist Kathy Balu. “Or, we’d find they were unpromotable because they lacked those things.”
It was frustrating for Denver Water, which spent time and energy training employees that would ultimately not be qualified for promotion. It was also frustrating for the employees themselves, who, despite being good workers, didn’t have the necessary skills to advance to a better job.
That lose-lose situation was turned around when Denver Water began using the Wonderlic Basic Skills Test (WBST) to screen job applicants. The WBST measures candidates’ verbal and math skills based on job requirements.
“Using the WBST helps us to know that our potential new hires can understand and comprehend English at a certain level and have basic math skills,” she says. “It’s a screening tool to help us choose the right people for the job.”
Now, Balu explains, Denver Water administers the test to nearly all of its potential new hires in entry-level jobs, approximately 300 people per year. It’s a critical tool in hiring decisions for Balu because, in the 24-hour environment typical of many city utility departments, Denver Water laborers work in many areas.
Some workers do basic cleaning and maintenance in treatment plants; some do grounds and facility maintenance at reservoirs; and some do street work: digging and helping around traffic areas repairing and maintaining pipelines and valves.
Ensuring that these employees have adequate English and math skills is necessary for the safety of employees and the people they serve. “Knowing English language skills helps the employees better understand safety instructions at the safety meetings where they learn to keep themselves and coworkers safe by lifting properly, using protective equipment, and traffic safety,” Balu says.“The WBST has been a great tool for us,” she continues. “It has also been great for the people applying for these entry-level jobs in terms of increasing their English and math skills.” Balu had one young man who really wanted to work for the company, but he didn’t pass the test. “He took it again and again and finally after about a year of trying, he upped his English and math skills enough to pass the test,” she says. “He was thrilled, and so were we.”
Ensuring that all new hires have adequate English and math skills isn’t the only important function the WBST performs for Denver Water. The test was so successful in increasing the functionality of new hires that it also developed into a benchmark for internal employees who desire advancement.
Many current Denver Water employees were hired before the department began using the Wonderlic test. They were good workers, oftentimes good enough for promotion. Balu didn’t want to see them left behind as the new hires-who had the benefit of passing the Wonderlic test-shot up the internal ladder of success. So, she made the test available to current employees who desired advancement.
“The Wonderlic test has helped us to see the need to increase the skill level of not just new hires, but of good people we already employ,” says Balu. “Some of these people, who we hired before we began using the Wonderlic test, were almost illiterate. For some, Spanish is their first language. But now everyone knows that if they want to progress up the ladder here, they have to pass the Wonderlic test.” To help their employees pass the WBST, Denver Water has created a class with the nearby Emily Griffin School designed to help their employees increase their basic English and math skills to such a degree that they can earn a passing grade. “Potential new hires don’t get the benefit of going to the class,” she explains. “That’s only for our existing employees, people we want to see succeed.” Balu reports that the Wonderlic test has increased the skill level of both new hires and existing employees. “It has turned that lose-lose situation into a win-win.”
