WorkKeys and Job Profiling Take the Guesswork Out of the Hiring Process

What do mechanics, cooks, can makers, forklift operators, material handlers, ingredient attendants, labeler operators, and noodle sheet formers have in common?

They are among the key positions at the Campbell Soup Company plant in Maxton, North Carolina. They are jobs that Les Harrison knows well. An ACT-authorized job profiler, Harrison has completed 55 profiles for Campbell Soup—the most he’s ever done for a single company.

Harrison advocates for WorkKeys every chance he gets. “WorkKeys is one of the best programs I’ve seen in years. It really helps us identify a person’s skills and make good job placements. Campbell Soup officials tell me that their new hires now hit the ground running and don’t require as much hand-holding as they did in the past,” he said.

He operates his own company, Skills Foundation, Inc., based in Cary, North Carolina. After generating excellent results from job profiling, WorkKeys, and KeyTrain with his previous employer, Harrison decided to strike out on his own in 2002. He continues to represent KeyTrain, which offers training to improve WorkKeys skills.

Harrison spends several days developing the average job profile. The process includes four main steps.

Step One: Creating an Initial Task List

• The profiler obtains background information from the company contact and tours the job site.
• Using ACT’s proprietary software, SkillPro^®, the profiler develops an initial list of the tasks most relevant to the job.

Step Two: Task Analysis

• The profiler meets with subject matter experts (SMEs)—generally incumbent workers of the job being studied—to review the list of tasks. Together, they add, delete, consolidate, or change the wording of each task to ensure the list accurately represents the job as it is performed in their company.
• The SMEs rate each task according to importance and relative time spent. This data is used to produce a criticality rating for each task.
• They then review the revised list to ensure it establishes which tasks are most critical to performing the job.

Step Three: Skill Analysis

• The profiler presents detailed descriptions of each of the WorkKeys skills to the SMEs. The descriptions include examples of problems or situations employees must deal with at each level.
• As a group, the SMEs decide which WorkKeys skills are relevant to the job and which skill levels are necessary for job entry and effective performance.

Step Four: Documentation

• The profiler documents the results in a customized Job Profile Report containing a list of the tasks most critical to performance of the job and information on the WorkKeys skills and skill levels required for entry and effective performance.
• This report establishes the link between the job tasks and the WorkKeys skills.

The WorkKeys job profiling component offers a concrete way for organizations to analyze the skills needed for specific jobs and to describe those needs to educators, students, and job applicants. Job profiling identifies the WorkKeys skills and the skill levels an individual must have to perform a job. The skill areas that may be covered in the profile include Reading for Information, Applied Mathematics, Listening, Writing, Locating Information, Applied Technology, Observation, Business Writing, and Teamwork.

Helen Palmer, director of industrial/organizational psychology, leads the department at ACT that trains job profilers. The seven-week WorkKeys Job Profiling Training Program is offered on a regular basis, depending on demand.

It consists of six weeks of distance learning and a three-and-a-half-day on-site workshop during the seventh week. Those who complete the training successfully are considered authorized ACT profilers and can conduct job profiling for businesses in their areas.

Thousands of people have completed training since the program was introduced in 1993. Today, 405 active profilers work at business and industry centers through community colleges or technical schools, or for companies. A few, like Harrison, are independent consultants.

Palmer is a strong proponent of job profiling, primarily because she’s seen it work. “If companies are going to put resources into testing current or future employees, they should seriously consider making an additional investment to ensure the assessments and test scores are relevant to the jobs they have available,” she said. Campbell Soup’s Maxton plant will assess all incumbent workers using WorkKeys. Those who do not meet the WorkKeys profile scores required for their jobs will use KeyTrain to help improve their skills and scores. Campbell Soup will grandfather-in those employees who still don’t meet the WorkKeys profile scores for their job after going through KeyTrain. The company will not terminate any employees as a result of the assessments, said Cathy Poole, human resources generalist for the Maxton plant.

This policy is a factor in the company’s low turnover rate. Good salaries and benefits keep people with Campbell Soup for years. The company loses most of its employees to attrition reasons such as retirement or people leaving to start their own businesses. “We have a reputation in the area of being one of the best companies to work for,” said Poole.

Like Campbell Soup, more and more companies are relying on WorkKeys to hire, train, and promote the right people. Job profiles completed by ACT-authorized job profilers are being used for employee selection and promotion and for training and instructional program development.

Palmer noted that ACT collects information from all of the job profiles that are created nationally. To date, profilers have completed profiles for more than 14,000 unique job titles, ranging from accountant to automotive technician and from welder to webmaster. Staff sort the profiles by occupations in O*NET (from the U.S. Department of Labor) and compute a median for all profiles done for a specific O*NET job title. The result is an occupational profile, which can be used to educate people about the typical workplace skills they are likely to need in a specific occupation. By comparing a profile with the assessment results for a current employee or job candidate, employers can quickly identify skills gaps.

“WorkKeys and its job profiling component help streamline the hiring process for employers, helping them get the right employees in the right positions,” said Palmer. “It really takes the guesswork out of the whole process, making it more efficient and accurate.”

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